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Lost City. Forgotten Plans for an Alternative Auckland. Chris Harris North Shore City Council February 2007. Auckland In 1950. Ebenezer Howard’s ‘Social City’, 1899-1902 Land acquired at rural value to pay for rail, etc. Not just a physical plan Also a socio- economic vision
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Lost City Forgotten Plans for an Alternative Auckland Chris Harris North Shore City Council February 2007
Auckland In 1950
Ebenezer Howard’s ‘Social City’, 1899-1902 Land acquired at rural value to pay for rail, etc. Not just a physical plan Also a socio- economic vision Hugely influential on European thinking, especially Scandinavia.
E.g. ‘Finger Plan’ for future suburban development, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1947
Railway-based satellite towns developed in Wellington region from 1920s Hutt Valley Lands Settlement Act 1925: All capital gains to Crown to pay for railway (etc) NZ also:
‘Social City’ plans advanced under State Housing Programme. Key texts: Ernst Plishke [Plischke],Design and Living (Dept of Internal Affairs,1947), D&L for short. Cedric Firth & Gordon Wilson, State Housing in New Zealand (MOW,1949), SHNZ for short.
“Housing is more than designing and building houses. In these days, physically speaking, the house is a kind of knot in a network of pipes, wires, roads, and footpaths, with larger and more complicated knots for shopping centres and other community facilities…” “The fundamental premise , then, about housing had undergone a change. Housing was to become a Public Utility…” ----SHNZ
“The exciting novelty of the motor car has worn off, and we are becoming aware of its problems.” ---- D&L
Pedestrianised ‘social’ town centre, Hutt Valley (1962 photo, built by NZ Gov’t in 1940s)
From The Shape of Things to Come (Ministry Of Works, 1946) Regional plans for every region in New Zealand “Special legislation” passed so land for “great new settle- ments being built by the state” around Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch could be got without risk of “inflated price.” Precedent: Wellington since the 1920s.
‘Wellington style’ Auckland plan Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1946
Tamaki Town Centre, from SHNZ
Promotion of Pumice Construction. Fascinating technological ‘What If?’ ‘Konka’ insulating wallboard (widely used) ‘Fabricona’ structural insulating concrete. Decision taken to abandon pumice technology development in 1950s, in favour of plantation pine technology development. Initially treated --- later untreated (1990s). What would have been better for flat roofed construction in Auckland? What would have been better for NZers’ winter health?
Passive Solar Design, from SHNZ (intended to go with Pumice-concrete walls) (All state housing solar-designed to some degree)
Cartoon in Building Progress, March 1944 Note ‘Wellington Express’ in Background
Early Cold War Electioneering Pamphlet, 1948 Planning no longer quite so fashionable? Railways, Greenways, Satellite towns, State housing, all decline during 1950s, Shift to roads, including ‘user pays’ application of petrol tax to National Roads Fund from 1953
Ironically, the NZ state kept a large presence in housing until the 1980s! But more visionary forms of planning fell off the agenda, in favour of a narrower infrastructure focus
Return to a visionary corridor plan ‘Robbie’s Rapid Rail’, 1969 Similar to Perth,1970
Auckland Rapid Transit Logo, 1974
ARA ‘Green City’ Plan, 1980 By Roger Johnson, Designer of Canberra suburbs and similar to D&L, SHNZ
ARA ‘Green City’ Plan, 1980 Rail loop recurs too…