John Sinclair: City of Sails is all heart

The new urban design manager for Auckland City was interviewed on National Radio recently. What he had to say was encouraging - he would appear to have the skills and understanding of urban design issues that are needed at this time.

But the interviewer asked the question that articulates one misconception about urban growth. "What are you going to do" she asked "about the lack of heart? Auckland has no heart."

Spare my days, I thought - there speaks a Wellingtonian whose idea of a successful city is somewhere between an Italian hilltop town and Wellington.

As an Aucklander I love my city - and what I enjoy most is that like most great cities it is a collection of villages. I enjoy the city, Newmarket, St Heliers, Mt Eden, Parnell, Ponsonby, Devonport - and the many other parts of Auckland. I enjoy the variety of use and opportunity that each one offers ; and I enjoy the way they connect and relate to our natural features - the volcanic cones, the harbour and foreshore. I do not want Auckland to get one big centre - which seems to be this romantic notion of a city heart.

Auckland is in good company here. Where is the heart of London? Surely not the City of London which is deserted in the weekends. If you said Kensington, what about Hampstead, St John's Wood or Islington? Where is the "heart" of Rome, or New York, or Berlin?

Auckland is the city that has the potential to develop this great urban quality of multiple varied centres and links. That is where I want it to go - spare me from the city with just one heart.

* John Sinclair is past president New Zealand Institute of Architects.