What do New Zealand's futurologists think of our cities?
Home » Blog » Guests » What do New Zealand's futurologists think of our cities?Two former Glaswegians represented New Zealand at the the 2nd International Urban Design Conference, held in Australia at the start of this month.
James Lunday
What do New Zealand's futurologists think of our cities? Bob Frame, leading futurist of Landcare Research, and James Lunday, urban designer of Auckland-based Common Ground Studio, stepped up at the recent International Urban Design Conference to speak for New Zealand.
Frame's keynote speech, “New Zealand, New Futures, New Thinking?”, reported the valuable futurist work that has been happening in New Zealand … but that has now failed to receive ongoing funding support from the NZ Government. For more information on this important work see www.ourfuture.net.nz and futuremakers.ning.com.
“I’m excited by the latent and emerging opportunities for groundbreaking urban design—and not just in our part of the world," said urban designer James Lunday in his opening comments to the audience of 275 leading ‘thinkers and doers’. He offered the following observation and challenge:
"More than ever I believe this is a time, indeed the time, when the world needs what we urban designers have to offer—as is so apparent from this Conference. And more than ever I believe the onus is on us to practice what we preach. We can’t just talk the talk, we need to talk the walk, and walk the talk.”
His presentation recalled utopian thinking of the kind formulated by Ebenezer Howard, founder of the Garden City Movement, more than a century ago. His research also reminded him that as early as 1493 Leonardo da Vinci had set out plans for Milan that involved creating ten new towns to enhance and extend the life of the city and its region, in a manner not unlike the approach now happening in 21st century Shanghai.
“Eleven years ago we were already doing our best to promote ideas like eco-urbanism and clustering, and the reclaiming of streets for people, and to spell out the harmfully wasteful nature of the traditional suburban pattern in New Zealand,” said Lunday.
“Smart urban design thinking is based on building communities. Our ethos, supported by evidence, is that land use, economy and culture should drive infrastructure investment—not the other way around.
"Thinking in reverse (and not thinking primarily in terms of tarmac and roading) results in creating not only great urban areas but thriving communities and economies, unlocking and unblocking latent mixed-use development potential.”
In his paper to the conference Lunday included this evocative quote from Thomas Shapcott’s ode to 'The City of Home' (from the Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse, 1996):
The City of Home is reached only in dreams
it has a town centre, a river with curved bridgesThere are no walls, no toll gates, no ribbon developments 
full of hoardings, carpet Emporia or used car allotments. 

The City of Home has retained only stone monuments and spires
and the shady maze of the Municipal GardensLike all great cities, the City of Home reaches back
into all the generations, all the inheritances
