Ako Ako 2022: When is placemaking…?

November 21-25, 2022

Ako Ako is a week of online lunchtime kōrero - we meet every day at 12 pm as a placemaking collective to talk about our practice, learnings, struggles and wins. We come together to listen, to share, and to meet other placemakers from all across Aotearoa, growing our networks and expanding our understanding of how placemaking is being applied in our places.

This year was about understanding where placemaking emerges in different environments, developments, and scenarios.

 

Placemaking and Partnerships: Facilitating Mana Whenua Involvement in Public Projects

November 21, 2022

Catalyse joined Marcus Bishop (Iwi Partnerships Technical Advisor at Wikaira Consulting in Wellington) for a discussion about his work and how it relates to Mana Whenua engagement in placemaking projects.
We discussed examples of approaches to project planning that support and improve iwi representation, and strategies that better enable Mana Whenua involvement in public-facing projects.

Hosted by:

  • Robin Wachsberger, Catalyse

  • Marcus Bishop, Iwi Partnerships Technical Advisor at Wikaira Consulting

 

Placemaking Public Markets: When are markets placemaking?

November 22nd, 2022

Mel Skinner (Kaikoura Market Manager) and Mike Fisher (former manager Riverside Market) discussed placemaking public markets and the important role that they can play in communities by connecting people to place - transforming the experiences in a town or city. Successful markets don’t happen by accident and need significant effort and energy, with key placemaking elements to thrive.

We learned about what goes into the creation of public markets, what they bring to communities and the community values that they emphasize.


Hosted by:

  • Mel Skinner, Kaikoura Market Manager

  • Mike Fisher, former manager of the Riverside Market

 

When is Community Development Enriched by Placemaking?

November 23rd, 2022

This session involved a panel of current Community Development and Placemaking practitioners from Aotearoa. The panel discussed their views on the role of Placemaking in Community Development and the role of Community Development in Placemaking, exploring how placemaking enriches community development to highlight how the two practices work together and align.

Building capacity in our communities means that we need places where people want to go, and it requires us to be intentional about the places we are designing, creating and inhabiting, and the purposes they can serve.

Hosted by:

  • Christine Olsen, Chief Advisor Placemaking at Kāinga Ora Developing innovative placemaking strategy

  • Barbara Holloway, Principal – City Centre Place Activation | Development Programme Office (DPO) at Auckland Council

  • Denise Bijoux, Locally-led Change Advocate | Community Activator | Director at Catalyse

  • Alexanda Whitcombe, Senior Design Strategist for The Cause Collective

Useful resources:

A video on The Great Places Erased by Suburbia (the Third Place)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvdQ381K5xg

15 minute cities

https://www.15minutecity.com/

Te Whakaoranga o te Puhinui (Puhinui Stream regeneration)

https://www.ekepanuku.co.nz/.../te-whakaoranga-o-te...

Urban Play Mapping and Play Trails: The Theory of Urban Play

November 24th, 2022

Play is typically highly accessible: it’s fun, open to all, disarming, and generally uncontroversial. Urban play as an attribute for the city has wide appeal, providing a safe framing for trying new things; making civic engagement more approachable; making spaces for new people, groups and communities.


Mapping urban play and subsequently developing play trails is a simple device to draw people to urban play. It’s a discrete, readily understood tool that will allow for scalability, accessibility, and many surprises.


But how do you map urban play and what could you include in a play trail? Hear about the theory and practice of urban play and play trails from practitioners and theorists in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Whanganui and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Hosted by:

  • Dr. Ryan Reynolds, Director at Gap Filler

  • Whitney Cox, Research and Evaluation Lead at Sport Whanganui

  • Alexandra Bonham, Elected Member of the Waitematā Local Board, Auckland Council

“Post” Covid Cities: Recovery to Regeneration and everything in between:

November 25th, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic, fiscal, social and political fallout for all of us, with cities being especially affected. There is work going on around the globe on how we both “bounce back” as well as big questions on the role and function of cities now and into the future. Amongst all of this mahi there is a clear call to consider how we might do things differently, to ensure more resilient (and relevant) futures for our metropolitan centres.


This session was a discussion on both what we are facing, as well as how we might (or should be?) using this moment to instigate activity that prompts short-term and some longer-running social changes in the structure and morphology of our cities, suburbs, and metropolitan regions.


Hosted by:

  • Frith Walker, Head of Placemaking at Eke Panuku Development Auckland

  • Cyndi Christensen, Urbanism-Economics-Placemaking

  • Daniel Chapman, Urban Designer, Landscape Architect, Regenerative Practitioner

  • Natalie Donzé, Founding Committee Member of Women in Urbanism Aotearoa

  • Cam Perkins, Urban Pirate

  • Mark Noyes, Neighbourhood Resilience Advisor at Wellington City Council

 

Have ideas for the future Ako Ako series or similar events?

Get in touch!

 

Ako Ako