Design a thing by considering it in its next larger context — a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in a community, a community in a city… Eliel Saarinen
Executive Summary
Canterbury has a neglected transport system that isn’t fit for purpose, whether it be meeting New…
Part Seven: New Zealand’s Rack-Rent Housing Crisis
The planet is on fire. Humanity is responding — hopefully fast enough
Europe’s coal and steel union evolved into the European Union. Which is now evolving into an environmental union that intends to tax imported carbon. …
The point of incremental change is to grease the machine to make a more efficient model.
In contrast radical change requires governments to move past current practice to create an entirely new system better suited to the obstacles presented.
As my family and friends know, I am more than a…
“Urbanism works when it creates a journey as desirable as the destination.” Paul Goldberger
Auckland Light Rail so far has been an unhappy initiative — it has been delayed by three years and the project is now on its second Minister.
“We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us” Winston Churchill
Renting in New Zealand is bad — is how I have written about housing in the last few months. Nobody disputes the narrative. New Zealand’s housing market has become so farcical it is an object of satire. …
“While Adam delved (dug) and Eve span, who then was the gentleman?” — John Ball priest — hung, drawn and quartered, 1381.
There was no privileged landed gentry in Adam and Eve’s time so why are they favoured in later times?
New Zealand is bad at housing its people —…
(H/T Sophie McInnes for suggesting the title — it is a big improvement)
Post-quake development in East Christchurch remains a difficult question. Greater Christchurch is at the stage where it needs mass transit to shape its spatial growth pattern. There have been several suggestions for this, such as the below…
New Zealand’s Rack-Rent Housing Crisis: Part Four
People might vote with their feet
The first three parts of The New Zealand Rack-Rent Housing Crisis series focused on housing inequality, an issue that feeds into and underpins numerous societal ills. Bold political action is needed to make housing affordable and prevent the entrenchment of New Zealand society into…
New Zealand’s Rack-Rent Housing Crisis, Part Three: Political Precommitment
The end of the John Key government was marked by a desperate scramble to reverse housing policy settings. Media reports showing homeless families living in cars shocked the nation. As a stop-gap measure, the homeless were housed in motels. …
