Centres of Research Excellence Fund

2006 Expressions of Interest

Centre for Urban Futures

Director:  Prof. Jennifer Dixon
Host:        The University of Auckland

Partners:   Auckland University of Technology
                 Building Research Association of New Zealand
                 Landcare Research New Zealand Limited
                 Lincoln University
                 Massey University
                 University of Canterbury
                 University of Otago

Abstract:

For the first time in human history the proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas has recently passed the 50 per cent mark. This has reinforced the role of cities as nodes of national and transnational economic, social and cultural transformation associated with globalisation, restructuring, consumption, sustainable development, and new forms of urban infrastructure and environmental management. Consequently, an international community of scholars and practitioners is attempting to understand and deal with a growing array of associated urban development and management challenges. In New Zealand, despite being 85 per cent urbanised, our capacity for such urban research is under-resourced and requires significant improvement to enhance the quality of urban design, management and policy-making. The need for an urban research centre which can both conduct New Zealand research and contribute to international debates and urban policy initiatives is urgent. The research focus of the Centre for Urban Futures will be on understanding the ways economic social, cultural and environmental changes can be incorporated effectively in diverse and fluid urban settings.

The Centre’s research will elaborate four themes. The first, urban capacity and capability, will incorporate labour and information flows; physical infrastructure and service provision; capital investment; social infrastructure; and industrial innovation and adaptation. A second theme will be sustainable design embracing the achievement of urban sustainability in the areas of housing; indigenous design; building efficiency; and neighbourhood and community safety. The third theme, creative futures, will deal with responses to urban change associated with community diversity and democratization; work and leisure; urban design, and strategies for enhancing urban vitality and vibrancy. The final theme urban environments will interpret and seek solutions to current and emergent conflicts in the everyday lives of urban residents associated with changes to built and natural environmental amenity, and allied equity and identity issues.