Article by David Compton-Moen, senior landscape architect, MWH New Zealand

Sometimes the term ‘urban design’ makes me feel uneasy, as it seems to be thrown around by an ever expanding range of people in reference to an increasingly broad range of projects.

As a practitioner straddling urban design, planning and infrastructure it seems to me that the key to achieving truly great outcomes is to ensure an integrated approach to project delivery, bringing together planners, urban designers, landscape architects and engineers from the outset of a project. 

Without this approach, urban design becomes simply a token gesture to fulfil a checklist in a project brief – and the gap between planning ‘policy’ and engineering ‘implementation’ widens.   

An example of how this works in practice is MWH’s recent development of the ‘Footpath Renewal Design Guide’ for the Auckland Road Maintenance Alliance – West.

This guide included input from planners, urban designers and engineers. Its objective was to identify opportunities to maintain or enhance the quality of walking experiences and public space, while planning for routine pavement upgrades of footpaths in Auckland’s inner-west. 

Because of this objective, it was critical that engineers were involved throughout the process as they were the ones who would implement it in the field. Urban designers know that minor changes to the physical environment can have major changes on human behaviour and the perceived walkability of a neighbourhood. 

And so, the Guide highlights specific design elements in a simple format including images and checklists. This means field inspectors can easily assess footpath upgrade requirements and modify designs in minor ways to achieve outcomes that deliver both quality pavements and pedestrian experiences.

An added benefit of the guide is that it has already proved to be a useful communications tool to highlight advantages of integrated design in road maintenance delivery.

Another example of the win-win that is created when projects are approached in this integrated manner is the work MWH has done to evaluate a proposed fifteen kilometre coastal pathway from Greymouth to Taramakau, an aim of the West Coast Pathways Society Incorporated.

In this project, environmental and ecological issues including coastal erosion and penguin habitat needed to be considered, but equally important were the engineering and funding options for the project.

In short, there was no point designing something visionary without the relevant substance. The resulting report enabled the Society to meaningfully engage with key stakeholders and demonstrate the project was both economically viable and environmentally sensitive.

A cost estimate based on unit rates and an economic evaluation was undertaken as part of the project, to demonstrate that the proposed pathway was economically viable and was likely to attract funding.

I know other councils are watching with interest the work we are currently undertaking with Hastings District Council, in the development of an Infrastructure Design Guide, as part of a wider project to review the council’s engineering code of practice. 

The Guide is intended to bridge the gap between the engineering code and good urban design practice by illustrating effective solutions that contribute to quality of place.  A workshop, in partnership with Viv Heslop of Vivacity, was held at the beginning of this project to determine the key sustainable objectives the council wished to have as the basis for the future look of the city.

Low impact urban design and development principles, along with engineering design standards and examples of best practice informed the project. The aim was to assist professions to ‘speak the same language’ and facilitate integrated approaches to design and development.

These three examples show the ways in which urban design specialists and engineers can meaningfully engage in the pursuit of excellent outcomes. The key is that all specialists are involved in the design from the beginning and not simply to fulfil an isolated component of the brief.

(This article was written in consultation with MWH’s senior policy and strategic planner, Nick Regnault and senior scientist, Jane Puddephatt. Further information: David Compton-Moen, tel 03 3457736;  david.compton-moen@mwhglobal.com).