Architecture and Planning research

• UN-HABITAT: Professor Dory Reeves, Dr. Yvonne Underhill-Sem and Claire Speedy (International Development Manager for NICAI) were awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Development Fund in 2009 to promote international collaborative research and teaching in urban and social sustainability through the UN-HABITAT Partnership.
  
  UN-HABITAT is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities throughout the world. The Fund enabled a multi-disciplinary delegation from The University of Auckland to participate in the UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum in Brazil in 2010, as well as a fellowship for a UN-HABITAT person to spend time at the University in 2011. The Fund also supported research on gender policy and urban sustainability in Papua New Guinea earlier this year.
  Read a working paper on the World Urban Forum
  Read more about the PNG project
  World Habitat Day 2011, themed "Cities and Climate Change", will be held in Mexico in October this year. The booklet below outlines the activities planned for this event and also recaps last year's activities. The University of Auckland's contributions are on page 35.
  Find out more about UN-HABITAT
  Download World Habitat Day 2011 booklet
• Timber Building Studies Group: This group has been formed to contribute to the general discussion about multi-level timber commercial buildings. The group is made up of staff from the School of Architecture and Planning and includes: John Chapman, Senior Lecturer; Dr George Dodd, Head of Acoustic Testing Service; Assoc Prof Uwe Rieger; and Prof Andrew Barrie.
  Read more about the Timber Building Studies Group
• Australasian Housing Researchers' Conference 2010: Hosted by the School of Architecture and Planning in November 2010, this conference provided a forum in which housing researchers, practitioners and professionals explored and debated the issues concerning housing in the current highly challenging context.
  Read AHRC 2010 proceedings
• You are Here: Mapping Auckland: Kathy Waghorn and Dory Reeves participated in this collaborative project with the Auckland Museum. A major interactive exhibition of maps dating from the 1800s to today explores 200 years of Auckland's planning and evolution.
  Read more about You are Here: Mapping Auckland
  Hear Radio NZ National feature "Auckland Stories"
• Māori Architecture: (Penguin Group NZ), an award-winning book by art and architectural historian and senior lecturer Dr Deidre Brown, charts the little-known history of Māori architecture in this country. The book is a landmark achievement in Aotearoa New Zealand, exploring for the first time the genesis and form of indigenous buildings.
  Read more about Dr Deidre Brown's book.
• Group Architects: Towards a New Zealand Architecture is a new book and exhibition by Dr Julia Gatley on “the Group” – New Zealand’s most mythologised firm of mid-twentieth century architects. They are known for their provocative calls for a specifically New Zealand architecture and for their modern houses, often characterised by exposed timbers, open-plan interiors and new attention to indoor-outdoor living. Both the book and exhibition feature drawings, photographs, models, furniture, paintings and sculpture by members of the Group.
  Read more about Dr Julia Gatley's book and exhibition
  
• What does it take to make an effective urban planner? Employers expect graduates to be able to operate as effective practitioners upon the completion of a professional programme of education. With the increasing demands on early career professionals, a greater understanding of the role professional education and training should play alongside of students’ lives is needed. Professor Dory Reeves is conducting an international  research project that will provide baseline data to identify what makes an early career urban planner effective: and to recognise to what extent programmes of study have been responsible, versus development attributed to other aspects of their lives.
  
• Planning, design and managing change in urban waterfront redevelopment: A morphological approach: The urban waterfront areas adjacent to the Central Business Districts in port cities virtually worldwide are under great pressure for change.  The redevelopment processes in the CBD waterfront in Auckland and Sydney in the past two to three decades have resulted in divergent patterns of built environment and different socio-economic consequences.  By applying the concept of urban fringe belts, Dr Kai Gu's research will not only help us to understand the dynamics of morphological processes, but also provide a basis for strengthening waterfront planning and design.
• Travel behaviour of students of The University of Auckland: Via questionnaires and interviews Dr Asif Khan hopes to gain an understanding of the travel behaviour of students commuting to the University in the mornings. While investigations have been carried out into journeys to work, students’ travel patterns have not been thoroughly examined. The findings of this research will be useful for The University of Auckland Travel Plan, and for potential changes to existing transportation policies for Auckland.
• Collaborative projects: some major research initiatives are underway, including –
  -Transforming Auckland – a University of Auckland-wide thematic research initiative (TRI), hosted by NICAI
  Read more about Transforming Auckland
  -The PHaZE project (the design, construction and monitoring of New Zealand’s first 'zero energy' building, based on Passive House principles)
  -Quality Intensive Housing, an interdisciplinary project designed to improve the quality of housing in intensified urban areas
  -Success for All: Improving Māori and Pasifika Student Success in Degree-Level Studies (a partnership between Dr Deidre Brown and Dr Te Oti Rakena (NICAI) and researchers from the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences).
  Read more about Success for All

Staff are also involved in externally funded research programmes. These projects reflect interests in sustainable policy, design and implementation and include two multi-disciplinary FRST-funded programmes on urban sustainability (Low Impact Design and Development and Learning Sustainability).

• Professor Dory Reeves has been involved in two externally funded projects for UN-HABITAT; the first on the role of planning in achieving safe cities and the second involving a study of the evolution of the role of gender in urban planning. These studies will be published later in 2011.
• Interests in Pacific and Māori Art and Architecture are being investigated in two Marsden Grants “Art in Oceania: A history” and “Kararehe: The Animal in Culture in Aotearoa”.