KEY POINTS:
The perimeters are the giveaway. Amid the bustling neighbourhood of townhouses, duplexes, apartments, flats and family homes, it's odd that the fences are all the same. Pen-like, the 1.2m flimsy aluminium spikes and rails are sufficient to mark property boundaries, but leave an openness for all to see.
Backyards, front-yards and side-yards give up privacy for a greater good - watching eyes and no surfaces for taggers.
An architecture of disguise is almost complete at Talbot Park in the heart of Auckland's Glen Innes. The place was once described as a state housing ghetto, rife with crime, vandalism and other social problems.
But today after a $48 million urban renewal makeover, the site is home to 700 residents - 200 more than before - and has people regularly inquiring whether they can buy or rent there.
"It doesn't look like social housing," Housing New Zealand housing services manager Dene Busby says of the tidy brick and weatherboard apartments and townhouses which would look just as much at home in Parnell or Remuera. "No one would ever dream this is Housing New Zealand."
Talbot Park is state housing by camouflage - an architecture that is at once uneasy about identifying the so-called underclass it provides for, and defiant about providing shelter, welfare and community for people who need them.
"There is no reason why public housing should look cheap in my view," says Design Group architect Neil Cotton of the eight three-bedroom terrace houses his firm designed."In fact I was almost expecting a right wing backlash against the quality of what's provided."
All eyes are on this estate - literally from the inside with residents' units deliberately designed to monitor the newly created parks and streets. And from the outside, by many who wonder whether it's wise to so densely populate a place with low income residents. And whether, at about $70,000 per resident, this is government money well spent.
Four years ago at public meetings to explain its proposal, Housing New Zealand was told in no uncertain terms, it was building a slum. But at the official opening last month, nothing could be further from the truth. "Today we have both buildings and a community to be proud of," proclaims Housing New Zealand Corporation chief executive Dr Lesley McTurk.
Housing minister Chris Carter is similarly upbeat in his speech, describing the new Talbot Park as a model for the future for tackling zones of entrenched social deprivation. "Five years ago, Talbot Park was marred by crime, and soaring tenant turnover as people sought to move out of the community. Today all that has changed. Tenant turnover is down to 5 per cent a year, and there are strong indications graffiti, vandalism and petty crime are all down as well."
Talbot Park is a triangle of government-owned land bounded by Apirana Ave, Pilkington Rd and Point England Rd. In the early 1960s it was developed for state housing with 167 units comprising nine three-storey "star flat" apartments (108 units) and 21 two-storey weatherboard "multis" (multi-unit blocks and duplex flats with 59 units) built around a linear park that ran through the middle.
Initially, there was a strong sense of a family-friendly community. Former residents recall how the Talbot Park reserve played a big part in their childhoods - a place where the kids in the block came together to play softball, cricket, tiggy, leapfrog and bullrush.
Sometimes they'd play "Maoris against Pakehas" but without any animosity. "It was all just good fun", says Georgie Thompson in Ben Schrader's We Call it Home: A History of State Housing in New Zealand. "We had respect for our neighbours and addressed them by title - Mr and Mrs so-and-so," she recalls.
Quite what went wrong with Talbot Park is not clear. We Call it Home records that the community began to change in the late 1970s as more Pacific Islanders and Europeans moved in. The new arrivals didn't readily integrate with the community, a "them and us" mentality developed, and residents interacted with their neighbours less.
In the process standards dropped and the neighbourhood began to look shabbier. But it's possible some residents' accounts about the causes of the problems are also clouded by nostalgia. One remembers that Flanders Street, in the middle of the block, "was always disgusting and grubby with junk cars in full view" and the flats as a "a filthy grotty dump".
What was clear was the buildings were deteriorating and becoming dilapidated, petty crime was on the rise and the reserve - focus of fond childhood memories - had become a wasteland and was considered unsafe.
But it wasn't until 2002 that Housing New Zealand decided the properties needed upgrading.
A partnership between Housing New Zealand and the Auckland City Council decided to find out what was possible under the city's new Residential 8 zone.
The master renewal plan didn't take advantage of the maximum density allowable (one unit per 100 sq m ) but did increase density to one unit per 180 sq m by refurbishing all 108 star flat units, removing the multis and building 111 new homes - an increase of 52 homes.
In the process about 500 people had to move out - some less than willingly - to alternative accommodation. About 30 per cent came back.
The population today is cosmopolitan: 50 per cent Pacific Islanders - Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island, Niuean; 20 per cent Maori; 15 per cent Asian - including Fijian Indian and people from China, Myanmar, Sir Lanka and Afghanistan; 10 per cent New Zealand European; and the remaining 5 per cent include immigrants from Russia, the Ukraine and Iran.
"These are buildings for various compositions of families of various ethnic origins," says architect James Lunday of Common Ground which designed the 21 large family homes. "Architecturally we decided to be relatively conservative - nice house in its own garden with a bit of space and good indoor outdoor flow. There's a slight reflection of the whare and a Pacific fale, but not overplayed.
"If you close your eyes a bit and squint they could also be two-storey Ponsonby villas."
A common reaction of residents when shown their new homes is to be overcome with emotion - a combination of relief, disbelief and gratitude at the quality. There are signs too of families taking pride in their new homes, tending gardens and adding their own landscaping decoration.
The renewed Talbot Park has the fresh glow of new paint, roading and landscaping. The only blot on the shiny makeover is the sodden, bare earth of the reconfigured Kotuku and Talbot parks which Auckland City is yet to finish - a project costed at $1.5 million which will provide park pathways, planting, playgrounds, drinking fountains, seating, skateboard rails, a half-size basketball hardcourt, and a pavilion.
But if there was any doubt this is a low socio-economic area, the demographics for the surrounding Tamaki area are sobering .
Of the 5000 households there, 55 per cent are state houses, 28 per cent privately owned (compared to about 65 per cent nationally) and 17 per cent are private rental (low compared to the national average of 30 per cent). Thirty per cent of the population is under 15 years and 11 per cent are unemployed compared with 3.8 per cent in the Auckland region.
The area has a high concentration of households with incomes in the $5000 to $15,000 range and very few with an income over $70,000. That's in sharp contrast to the more affluent suburbs like Kohimarama and St John's that surround the area.
While the formula for renewal breaks with the tradition of "pepper potting" state houses, and more lately with an incognito style that makes it hard to distinguish the housing, the idea of assimilation to avoid the state house stigma is very much alive at Talbot Park.
"We wanted to avoid that institutional trap that says 'Housing Corporation building'," says Design Group architect Ken Crossan of the 24 two-bedroom "walk up" apartments on Apirana Avenue. "Because those tenants have been dealt a bit of a rough hand, we wanted to make sure they got good quality buildings, good quality materials and good quality design. We didn't want the stigma; we wanted to give them a lift."
The Talbot strategy can be summed up as mix, match and manage. Mix up the housing with a variety of designs from a mix of architects, match house styles to what's built by the private sector, match tenants to the mix, and manage their occupancy.
Inevitably cost comes into the equation. "If you're going to build low cost homes, you've got to keep them simple and you can't afford to put fancy bits on them.
"It seems to us low cost housing is getting as much amenity as you can for the money," says Michael Thompson of Architectus which designed the innovative three-level Atrium apartments lining two sides of a covered courtyard. At $300,000 per two bedroom unit, the building is more expensive but provides for independent disabled accommodation as well as offering solar hot water heating and rainwater collection for toilet cisterns and outside taps.
There's no doubt good urban design and good architecture play a significant part in the scheme. Tight, efficient designs and architectural tricks wring out spaciousness from minimum room sizes and a no-frills, industrial approach to kitchens, bathrooms and floor coverings keep costs down.
But probably more important is a new standard of social control. Housing New Zealand calls it "intensive tenancy management." Others view it as social engineering.
"It's a model that we are looking at going forward," according to Housing New Zealand's central Auckland regional manager Graham Bodman who says the corporation will keep its office on site for the next 12 months.
What it means is having a tenancy manager with smaller portfolio of properties to manage - in this case the 219 at Talbot Park. "The focus is on frequent inspections, helping tenants to get to know each other and trying to create an environment of respect for neighbours," says Bodman.
That includes some strict rules - no loud parties after 10pm, no dogs, no cats in the apartments, no washing hung over balcony rails and a requirement to mow lawns and keep the property tidy.
The Talbot Park tenancy manager walks the site every day, knows everyone by name and deals with problems before they get out of hand. That includes recommendations on tenancy allocations and an unofficial policy to ensure the homes don't become enclaves for one particular ethnicity - to avoid for example an area being called Tongan row or the Chinese block.
Housing New Zealand has also been active in organising morning teas and street barbecues for residents to meet their neighbours.
"It's all based on the intensification," says Community Renewal project manager Stuart Bracey. "We acknowledge if you are going to put more people living closer together, you have to actually help them to live closer together because it creates tension - especially for people that aren't used to it."
Inevitably, enforcing the rules sometimes means issuing a notice to vacate - something that's happened about three times in the last four years. "We have had to move some tenants on," says Bracey. "In all cases a couple of neighbours come along to the Tenancy Tribunal to support us. It's almost unheard for tenants to do that."
The ultimate goal of intensive tenancy management is to get residents to take over the policing role themselves. Several of the refurbished star flats now organise their own monthly meetings. But perhaps a clearer sign that the community is beginning to take control of its own destiny is seen in the indignation of local kids when their playground was recently hit by graffiti.
A key aspect of making the community feel safe is surveillance - from within. That requires a design that provides a panoptic view, one that not only lets residents see what is going on - "eyes on the park" - but also lets them know they are seen.
While the third floor decks of the star flats and other apartments provide ideal monitoring platforms, the urban design also ensures no cul-de-sacs or properties hidden from view, that the parks are not enclosed by trees and that most boundary fences are see-through. A community contained but without walls.
While Talbot Park undoubtedly signals a resurgence of the state house, or as it's more politically correctly called, social housing, the estate breaks new ground for urban and environmentally sustainable design too.
"The private sector is way behind in urban design and sustainable futures," says Bracey. "Redesigning streets and parks is a big deal and very difficult to do. The private sector won't do it, because it's so hard." He's talking about resource management approval and other bureaucratic machinations required to get anything built.
The narrow 12.4m pedestrian friendly roads were a prime example.
"Auckland city hasn't had new roads for decades. That was the first fight. We said we don't want 20m wide roads - they aren't safe. But the city had no urban code of development - no new road design requirements."
The site is also leading the way in sustainable design. As well as solar hot water heating and rainwater collection in some of the units, there are also porous rain gardens designed to retain and filter stormwater.
But while Talbot Park is paraded as the way forward for social housing, a question remains - what next?
The 5ha block between Point England Rd and Maybury St has 160 run-down multi units. Under the Residential 8 zone it could take a density of 500 units.
But would that be such a good idea? Could Housing New Zealand mix, match and manage such a high concentration and its attendant social issues?
Current thinking is if the mix is right - with first home private ownership options thrown in - it might just work.
Sun and rain can cut down costs
As well as leading the way in urban design, Talbot Park is trialling environmentally sustainable features. These include solar hot-water heating in some of the units.
At $6250 each, the installations are not cheap but do provide savings on electricity bills for the tenants.
The Atrium apartments have a shared solar system that preheats the water before it reaches hot-water cylinders in individual units, also reducing tenants' power bills.
A large rainwater tank in the Atrium apartments and smaller tanks in eight other units collect rainwater for use in flushing toilets and for outside taps, helping to reduce water costs.
