Why the Surveyor Matters: Planning For The Places We Want To Live From The Start

By Natalie Allen, Meredith Dale and Greer O’Donnell

Surveying and spatial disciplines are powerful and influential. Each boundary line and spatial element of a development has a tangible impact on the daily lives of people in that space. At the city scale, this impacts how people choose to live and move around, to places of work, study or recreation. Survey work creates opportunities or constraints around how people interact with their environment and each other in daily life. At the human scale, surveying and spatial design influences the happiness, health and overall wellbeing of people. These impacts are part of the professional legacy of surveying in urban environments, a legacy that will last decades into the future. In this article we will discuss the integral role of surveying and spatial design professions in rethinking our future neighbourhoods, and the emerging challenges and opportunities for building a lasting, positive legacy through spatial practice.

New Zealand is undergoing a period of unprecedented social and environmental change. Our urban centres are pressured by increasing population growth, demand for intensification and higher density urban development. Also, our society is increasingly multicultural, with diverging and diversifying household norms. On one hand, some population groups have a much younger age structure and prefer larger multigenerational households. On the other, the population is ageing, and the numbers of smaller households are increasing. In the context of land development and housing, we also need to be conscious of issues of housing affordability, rental security of tenure, home health and quality, and personal wellbeing. Some serious health issues affecting urban New Zealanders, such as obesity, loneliness and poor mental health, are linked to spatial and environmental design. A history of car-oriented subdivision and suburban development has created places of isolation, separated from urban vitality and places of work or recreation. Infill subdivision patterns, with long right-of-ways and double-garaged houses stacked one behind the other, limit opportunities for neighbours to bump into one another and form social connections. The changing nature of our communities and our evolving lifestyle preferences is necessitating new and innovative approaches to land development in New Zealand, including spatial and surveying practice. 

We need more resilient and liveable neighbourhoods, and spatial design that supports low impact, sustainable lifestyles. To understand how to respond to these present challenges, first, let us consider how past spatial design and development patterns provided for different lifestyles and communities. Roads are one of the most enduring elements of urban form. Looking at road and lot layouts we can discern lifestyle differences between neighbourhoods; for example, compare a gridded block structure with tramline arterials and wooden villas, versus car-oriented street networks from motorways to cul-de-sacs and quarter-acre sections with brick and tile homes. The latter development form describes most greenfield developments after the 1950s. These were designed to provide for suburban living, a low density development form suited to nuclear family households and European lifestyle preferences.

Today, new housing development is largely developer-led, either as infill development in existing neighbourhoods, or greenfield subdivision for new neighbourhoods at the urban fringe. With both approaches we must consider: is this business-as-usual approach appropriate and responsible spatial practice? Will it provide for the needs, wellbeing and lifestyle preferences of New Zealanders into the future? For example, the current development ecosystem incentivises the development of larger 3-4 bedroom dwellings (for maximum profit), while there is an increasing demand for smaller dwelling typologies. European models of nuclear-family housing are no longer fit-for-purpose for New Zealanders. As society changes, land development practices too must change to serve and support the future community.  

Spatial professionals are well-equipped and experienced in providing for tangible physical outcomes such as network infrastructure, different modes of subdivision (cross lease, unit title etc) or easements and esplanade reserves. But intangible outcomes, such as social wellbeing, neighbourly connectedness and good personal health, must also be provided for. Surveying and spatial design schemes of today are setting the stage for our future patterns of living. Hence, in the context of new development, they must develop spaces and places where people and communities will thrive. 

Spatial interventions that support community wellbeing could include:

• Mixed housing typologies and tenures, to encourage a varied demographics
• Planning and integration of mobility networks, not just roads
• Block structures used as a tool for connectivity
• Central community spaces, integrated with amenities
• Alternative governance structures to provide a mandate for community building
• Clustering complimentary amenities to deliver convenience in neighbourhoods

Other future trends in neighbourhood development that are emerging are outlined in Figure 1.

There is a need for a more strategic and integrated approach to urban development in order to create better places where people can live and lead healthy and meaningful lives. The development of an overarching urban strategy is required early on in the development lifecycle, not only to achieve an integrated approach to these complex urban problems, but to deliver better economic, environmental and social outcomes. Urban strategy is a new discipline grounded in systems thinking, collaborative practice and a purpose-driven design philosophy. Urban strategists facilitate collaboration between urban professions and agencies, create accessible and actionable responses to urban problems and work alongside project teams through all phases of development to achieve this. They operate at the intersection of policy, planning, design and delivery, working across scales and sectors to find new opportunities for achieving impactful, integrated neighbourhood development. Urban strategy questions the existing system of land development to help urban professions deliver more integrated projects that meet the needs, demands and lifestyle preferences of future residents. The emergence of urban strategy as a defined discipline is particularly relevant in the current New Zealand context. The new government agenda, including the Wellbeing Budget, has made it clear that the wellbeing of citizens is a priority. However, our current urban development models and approaches are not adequately supporting the wellbeing of our people, or equipped to support a changing New Zealand. 

The urban strategy approach can be explained better by through the Integrated Neighbourhood Framework; this has been developed by The Urban Advisory to assist built environment professionals to create more connected, sustainable and equitable communities in New Zealand. This Framework guides the development process away from the ‘building houses’ mindset, to a ‘thriving communities’ mindset. It aims to create places where people can undertake all their daily activities, including living, working, socialising and finding spaces that suit their needs. The Framework, outlined in Figure 2, summarises this eight-step process to deliver stronger and healthier communities, with integrated amenities and housing for all people.

Surveyors and spatial designers are critical to this integrated development approach. They are often the first specialists onboard in a new development scheme. Spatial expertise in these early stages (steps one to four), such as gathering and processing contextual data, sets the stage for developing a place strategy. While co-creation (step three) is not a common step under current development models, it is critically important. Co-creation validates whether or not a proposal meets the needs and desires of current and future residents. This might take more time and money up-front, but the potential returns (financial and social) outweigh the initial cost.

In recent decades, we have seen surveying and spatial professionals adopting new technology and innovative approaches to advance accuracy, capability and performance. There is further demand for spatial professionals to adopt and advance innovative design thinking to ensure placemaking is integral to the staging and delivery of projects as well (step 4). The foundation of integrated neighbourhoods is the delivery of appropriate urban amenities alongside housing  (step  five). Urban amenities include the corner dairy, playgrounds, parks, public transport, schools, other local shops and services. As we plan and set out developments, it is important to integrate amenities alongside housing. Can residents walk to access services and recreation, or are they dependent on a car? Perhaps a mid-block pedestrian connection or a new cluster of amenities (e.g. dairy, hairdresser, bus stop) would provide more integration for the neighbourhood? 

When integrated neighbourhoods are delivered successfully, intentional neighbouring processes and opportunities are multiplied. The next layer of our Framework integrates and reinforces intentional neighbouring in the built environment, through innovative ownership, delivery, management and operational models (step 6). The Urban Advisory defines intentional neighbouring as the process of regular and purposeful encounters which build meaningful connection between neighbours. This can begin at the visioning and co-design stage, through construction, and into everyday life. Neighbours who live near one other will naturally come into contact around shared amenities, public spaces, overlapping lifestyle preferences, values or routines to find a sense of community belonging grounded in spatial proximity. Innovative ownership, delivery, management and operational models are best demonstrated by the numerous cohousing and cooperative development projects emerging in New Zealand. Cohousing developments, such as Earthsong in Ranui, are underpinned by ongoing democratic participation in community life by residents or housing owners - long after the build is complete. The community was purpose-built with an eco-friendly design imperative and a cooperative design process. Residents share amenities such as an orchard, laundry, common house, guest house, parking area and open green spaces. The Earthsong community worked closely with consultants to develop a site layout that kept cars and parking separate from the living spaces, so that children could freely play along the path and open spaces. An example of alternative development unique to Aotearoa / New Zealand is papakāinga, an traditional Māori practice of collective living among extended whānau on iwi land.

Of course, every neighbourhood and community is different, with nuanced social, cultural and economic values, lifestyle preferences or aspirations. Thus, step seven and eight are critical elements of the Integrated Neighbourhood Framework. These measure and report on outcomes, then check, refine and validate the success of the neighbourhood strategy for its context. Ideally, we should already be bringing this type of thinking to the development process. We need to ensure that development outcomes are positive for communities and that we take opportunities to learn when they arise. By following this Framework, and engaging with the iterative learning process within and across projects, development professionals will undoubtedly find fresh innovations and improvements on existing models to create contextually relevant design and development for New Zealand communities from all walks of life.

We hope this brief introduction to urban strategy and our Integrated Neighbourhood Framework will inspire you to consider how spatial disciplines can contribute to delivering more inclusive, connected and equitable communities in Aotearoa / New Zealand.