Auckland 2038: A new take on the traditional Auckland backyard

Thursday, 10 January 2019

Big, brash and bold, Auckland is a city in the fast lane.  But how will it look in 20 years' time? Stuff asked the experts to gaze into their crystal balls to predict the super city of 2038. In the fourth of our five-part series, we look at how social infrastructure will change.

For the past 150 years, Auckland has been about sprawling suburbs with big parks and reserves, and streets dominated by cars. 

However, in 20 years' time, the city will see a change in the typical Kiwi backyard, while erosion, sea-level rises and big weather events will impact Auckland beaches. 

The fate of the city's stadiums – currently up in the air – could also be set, moving cricket to a new spot or even having a new stadium for cultural events.

**READ MORE:

* Auckland 2038: A rising region

* Auckland 2038: The Superdiverse City

* Auckland 2038: Jobs, but not as we know them

* Auckland 2038: A city on the move but not at the wheel**

In 2038, Auckland's hospitals and schools will become a mix of old and new as the city learns to cater to the needs of a population that is multicultural, growing and ageing.

THE NEW BACKYARD

Parks and reserves will replace the typical Kiwi backyard to become shared living rooms, according to Emma McInnes, co-founder of Women in Urbanism Aotearoa (WIU).

University of Auckland senior lecturer Bill McKay echoes a similar sentiment, suggesting that inner-city green spaces – known as micro parks – will be as small as 100sqm. 

While the city's large parks and reserves would likely stay the same in outer suburbs, streets would become a new form of park with sandpits on the side and climbing frames, McKay said. 

'Rather than suburbs having the kind of streets at the moment, which are all about the car, you'll get much smaller streets that are like the shared spaces in town currently – kids and people will actually use the street to kick a ball around and cars have to go really slow,' McKay said. 

Currently, if Aucklanders want to go to a reserve, the main way to get there is by car. 

By 2038, that will have changed.

Denser housing will be built on the edges of reserves, allowing people to 'pop out' to these spots, McKay said. 

Erosion, rising sea-levels, big weather events and sewage flowing into beaches and harbours are at the heart of Auckland's beach problems. 

Both McKay and councillor Chris Darby, who is chair of Auckland Council's planning committee, agree the city's beaches need to drastically improve in the next 20 years. 

There would be more of an environmental focus on beaches and that began with actions such as riparian planting, McKay said. 

'Beaches are not just for people, they are for flora and fauna, and wildlife as well.' 

Open beaches such as Piha would be spots where Aucklanders saw the biggest consequences of erosion. 

'We'll get more storms, we'll get bigger waves, so it's where you've got an exposed beach, they'll be under attack a bit more,' McKay said. 

Watercare aimed to reduce overflow by 80 per cent and in 20 years' time, Aucklanders would see a 'massive reduction' of overflow in harbours and beaches, according to its chief infrastructure officer Steve Webster.

Watercare had several projects in the pipeline to upgrade and increase the capacity of its wastewater plants and water storage reservoirs.

There was a focus on places such as Milldale, Millwater, Warkworth, Pukekohe and Drury as more people settled rurally, he said. 

In 2018, Auckland Council introduced a proposed target rate of about $1.30 per week for the average residential household which would fund investment in water infrastructure to reduce wastewater overflows into the city's waterways. 

This would generate $400 million and would form part of council's $7 billion investment in Auckland's water infrastructure in the proposed 10-year budget.

Darby said he hoped in 2038 there would be no warnings or health notice signs on the city's beaches. 

'I want Auckland's beaches to be worthy of swimming and fishing, and they'll be at a standard we've not seen for 100 years,' Darby said.

A DOWNTOWN STADIUM OR A LIBRARY?

By 2038, Auckland will have hosted the America's Cup and even, possibly, the Commonwealth Games. 

The topic of stadiums in 2018 has been heated and failure to get support for a compromise funding arrangement has cast doubt over the city's stadium strategy. 

Auckland Council's plans were to move speedway to Colin Dale Park, clearing Western Springs stadium for redevelopment as a cricket oval for test matches.

Eden Park's future and the potential for a new stadium in the city centre or the waterfront would have been the next dominoes to fall in that discussion. 

McKay believed that in 2038, Eden Park would be gone, with the site converted into housing and a downtown stadium would be built.

However, Darby said although Auckland Council had identified a city centre location for a downtown stadium, there was a lot of work that still needed to be done.

Stadiums were not to everyone's benefit and ate up funding, WIU's Emma McInnes said. 

In 20 years' time, McInnes hoped to see a community space, what she referred to as a 'library', by Auckland's waterfront with an outdoor space next to it. 

The building would have 'community meeting rooms, places for people to sit quietly, places for mothers to breastfeed and change diapers', she said. 

'There's almost nowhere in the city mothers can currently do this, other than the current library and Ellen Melville Hall.

'It would also be a place that inspires and facilitates connection between people and it would also function as a 'third space' where people who live and use the CBD can treat it like their living room.'

HOSPITALS

To meet the needs of Auckland's population in 2038, there are plans for an acute care hospital south of Auckland's city centre, and upgrades and expansions to current hospital facilities.

Auckland's three metro district health boards and Northland District Health Board are expected to have 2055 more beds across all services and 41 extra theatres in about 20 years, according to the Northern Region Long Term Investment Plan – a vision for district health boards in the north.

By 2038, an acute hospital could be in operation in the south of Auckland's city centre, according to the report. This hospital would cater for people who live in the Counties Manukau area as well as those in Waikato and the Midlands.

It would have about 400 beds, but if further population growth needed to be met, this could expand to 600 beds, the report said.

In anticipation of a 20- to 50-year demand growth, land north of Auckland may also be bought for a development and this would be a similar size to the south Auckland hospital, the report said. 

OPEN-PLAN SCHOOLS

In 2038, schools will be a mix of traditional and modern as new schools stray from 'single cell' classrooms to an open-plan, studio style. 

According to senior lecturer Bill McKay, 'they are building more of those open-plan areas where students can work in groups and then break out into little groups, and you've got teams of teachers in there.

'The idea of these big studio style teaching areas is that you can have team teaching and you can have the kids teaching themselves.'

Newer schools would also be similar to those in the United States – multi-storey buildings with two to three levels.

For physical education, students would have a multi-purpose space that could operate as a hall or a gym.

Older schools, like those in Auckland's double grammar zone, were likely to stick with the old-fashioned, 2018 way. 

'They tend to focus not so much on recreating their classrooms but on adding a music studio or that kind of thing,' McKay said.