Translating ‘sustainability’ into sustainable development.
New Zealand was one of the first countries to adopt ‘sustainability’ as the basis for its planning system. All development projects at every scale need to demonstrate their effects on the environment.
In 2006 the New Zealand Government decided to showcase sustainable community development best practices. It established HLC ( Hobsonville Land Company) to deliver this demonstration project. Located on the 165 Ha historic Hobsonville Airbase in Auckland, this was to be one of Australasia’s largest and most innovative communities.
Doug Leighton of Boffa Miskell assembled a multi-disciplinary team and won the commission to create a Sustainable Development Framework and Interim Urban Design Masterplan. These documents were to together form the basis of consultation, inter-agency and governmental agreements, financial modelling, the final masterplan, planning applications and environmental approvals.
At that time there were many ‘green building’ standards - but none at a community scale. The team was charged with studying international best practices and exemplars, including East False Creek in Vancouver. The result was a ground-breaking Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) which set environmental, economic, social and cultural targets and benchmarks for the development.
The SDF approach was so successful that it was adopted and applied to the redevelopment of Auckland’s waterfront at Wynyard Quarter. Both Hobsonville Point and the Wynyard Quarter continue to refine their respective SDF’s and generate annual sustainability reports.
The SDF was then used to generate concept plans and design options for the site though a series of design workshops. The Interim Master Plan, which included a full range of housing, street and open space typologies was highly successful and became the basis for the final masterplan and community. Hobsonville has won numerous awards and inspired similar initiatives across New Zealand.
Recent awards include:
Winner, Auckland Architecture Awards 2019
NZ Property Council Ryder Hunt Award of Merit 2019
NZILA Silver Award – Hobsonville Design Code / Guidelines 2019
Gold – BEST Design Awards (Designers Institute of NZ)
