Apartment residents sharing green space and commercial land turning into residential areas may be innovative for Onehunga - but they're global trends, seen in growing cities, says an Auckland urban designer-landscape architect.
Stuart Houghton of Boffa Miskell helped conceive landscaping for new architecturally-designed apartment development Fabric of Onehunga, which embraces both trends he's watched heighten overseas.
He is also on the Urban Design Panel which provides independent design review of significant Auckland projects to enhance design quality.
"Cities such as Sydney and Melbourne have tended to be a step ahead of us with their housing trends," he says.
"I was in Sydney earlier this year and that whole inner South area, between the central city and the airport, is an enormous band of former industrial land tracts transitioning to residential apartment developments.
"As cities grow, relatively central areas historically suitable for activities such as warehousing and manufacturing become in demand for housing, especially if they're on good transport links like Onehunga's. Meanwhile some industries become defunct while others move further out where land values aren't so high."
A highly lauded example is Carlton United Brewery's former Sydney site.
The brewery closed early last decade and now the area known as Central Park Sydney includes apartments and shared green spaces in a large-scale mixed-use development also encompassing retail and other functions.
Fabric of Onehunga will see five four-storey apartment buildings built new on a 1.29 hectare mixed use site which once housed the Holeproof clothing factory from the 1960s.
The history helped guide the development's name as did developers Tim and Andrew Lamont's desire to fit within the existing urban fabric of one of Auckland's oldest suburbs.
It's a diverse suburb which retains character housing in tree-lined streets alongside areas which became part of the city's southern industrial belt.
Andrew Lamont says: "One of the things that sets this development apart is the extent of the landscaping between the buildings and in the central pocket park."
Green spaces will be shared by residents, whose apartments will all have either balconies or private ground floor courtyards.
Houghton says European countries which have had highly developed urban cultures for generations have long embraced the model of residents sharing green space.
"If you live in Berlin or Vienna, there are lots of older apartments arranged around green space in courtyards shared by residents, although tourists may not be aware of them as the apartments face outwards."
He believes this shared green set-up did not feature in early Auckland because the city at first tended to spread rather than intensify central residential development.
Freemans Park, in Freemans Bay, was a 1960s early adopter of communal green areas.
However Stuart saw the trend in sharing green spaces gain real traction from the early 2000s - when they featured in the Beaumont Quarter residences west of Victoria Park.
He says the heightening popularity accompanies increasing recognition by Aucklanders that urban environments and nature don't have to be completely separate.
"Nowadays you see green walls in so many more restaurants, shop fronts and lobbies - also, trees are good for the micro-climate, managing heat and wind and sun.
Lamont & Co had the vision of shared green spaces as a way of bringing people together and making people feel comfortable about living in somewhat closer proximity."
"There's always going to be some level of interacting with neighbours when you live in apartments; green spaces are good ways of breaking down barriers.
"The idea with Fabric was to provide a series of common green spaces, one larger one at its heart plus a series of four others between apartment buildings."
Fabric's central pocket park gives a sense of openness with a big lawn, a large native tree and a communal barbecue pavilion "while we wanted to give the areas between buildings more private character, more intimacy, more planting and a sense of being shared between the apartment buildings that face them."
Their planting will include simple fruit trees and herbs; Houghton says: "We're not trying to produce intensive allotments; it's about being able to pop down and grab a lemon and some rosemary when you're barbecuing on your balcony."
"Fabric's landscaping is designed so residents can think, 'yes, I live in an apartment but I still get great sun and am surrounded by light and air. And when I look out the window there are trees and birdlife and I can step outside onto a lawn.'"
Ashton Mitchell's design for steel-clad buildings with black joinery, timber and exposed concrete detailing reflects the industrial heritage of the site, handy to Onehunga's retail village, train station and regenerated foreshore.
Shared atriums featuring elevated pedestrian walkways will connect apartments ranging from one to three bedrooms with basement car parking.
Apartments are currently being sold off the plans with construction scheduled to start at the end of this year and 161 Stage One apartments due to be completed two years later.
For more information: www.fabricofonehunga.co.nz. Fabric of Onehunga's onsite display suite is open 11am to 3pm daily at 11 Spring St, Onehunga.
