Hapori / Community
Community Land Trusts – Lessons for Aotearoa New Zealand
Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have delivered positive benefits across urban regeneration projects; have mitigated some of the negative impacts of gentrification and of market uncertainty and volatility; have made good use of publicly-owned land for affordable housing; have provided pathways to ownership opportunities; and have engaged residents and supported community capacity building.
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Opportunities for independent play versus car parking?
Children are at the heart of this research. To evaluate the opportunities for independent mobility and play within residential areas, we observed, documented and analysed access to and design of different open spaces as places for children to play where they can experience and learn about cooperation, creativity, freedom and joy.
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Hot off the press! Joint Zero Waste Network-Manaaki Whenua research report into organic materials management models
The Zero Waste Network and Manaaki Whenua teamed up to research organics processing systems in New Zealand, including conducting a national survey of operators. The report Scaling-up, scaling-out & branching-out: Understanding & procuring diverse organic materials management models in Aotearoa New Zealand - summarises the findings. The report adds to current understanding of the scale, scope and nature of organics collectors and processors across Aotearoa, with a focus on composters. It is primarily designed to support those at central and local government charged with making investment and procurement decisions in relation to the infrastructure and services for collecting and processing organic materials. The national survey of operators showed a lot of diversity in the sector so, to help decision-makers navigate the options for organics materials services, the report develops a shared language to talk about different operating models, presenting this in a simple taxonomy that distinguishes operators based on factors most relevant to procurability and scaleability. This taxonomy is then used to explore the various challenges, impacts and outcomes for each type of operator. The research was funded by Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge, and the Zero Waste Network.
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Kaupapa Māori researchers forge a brighter future for mokopuna
Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge - He Kainga Whakamana Tangata, Whakamana Taiao recognizes the importance of community knowledge in the development of effective housing solutions. With over 75% of their research partners being Māori and members of communities impacted by current housing challenges, BBHTC has been able to access a unique depth of knowledge and understanding that traditional Westernised research has never been able to acquire. This insight has inspired the creation of innovative, sustainable housing solutions that prioritise the well-being of both people and the environment. At a recent National Māori Housing Conference, BBHTC Tangata Whenua co-chair, Rihi Te Nana, highlighted the amazing impact of community-led kaupapa Māori research. Representatives at the conference were encouraged to explore bold and innovative ways to share their research with the wider community.
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Maia Ratana - Home on wheels part of housing solutions for young Māori
Maia Ratana speaks to Julian Wilcox of Mapuna RNZ about her experience on building a tiny home on wheels as a way to provide a kainga for her whanau. She also talks about the realities that face rangatahi māori when it comes to the current housing market and how this can be a viable option for people looking for home security.
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He Whare Mō Wai?
He Whare Mō Wai? is a by rangatahi, for rangatahi podcast and video series hosted by Jacqueline Paul, Maia Ratana, Hanna-Marie Monga and Pania Newton. He Whare Mō Wai? creates a space for rangatahi to share stories, advice, and aspirations for kāinga across Aotearoa and to inspire others who wish to pursue their housing dreams. In this series, we kōrero with rangatahi and experts about navigating home ownership, renting, finance, mortgages, homelessness, and more.
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What Makes a House a Home: Discussions with young mothers at Te Tipu Whenua o Pa Harakeke.
Finding out from young mothers what makes a house a home can help guide housing policy and strategy to ensure that young mothers and their whānau (kinship collective) have accommodation that not only meets their requirements for how they want to live but supports them to grow into their full potential as a whānau. In this study, young mothers at Te Tipu Whenua o Pa Harakeke, Flaxmere, Hawke’s Bay took part in housing discussions towards the end of 2020. This small study trialled the HOMING method. This is an innovative technique designed by Dr James Berghan that uses blocks to help people to articulate what makes a house a home for them and allowed us to work with young mothers to get an insight into what they value in a home.
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Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: Māori housing realities and aspirations - chapter summaries
The Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua Kaupapa Māori Research Project draws on expertise from across the Māori housing sector. The project responds to the right and aspiration of Māori researchers, in collaboration with Māori organisations and communities, to develop Māori housing solutions. The outputs of the Kaupapa Māori Research Project include a book Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: Māori Housing Realities...
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Huritanga: 10 years of transformational place-making
This book celebrates a decade of Life in Vacant Spaces, affectionately known as LiVS, and the collection of over 700 projects that LiVS have supported in the ten years since the devastating Canterbury earthquakes of 2010/2011. The projects supported by LiVS have varied in shape, scale, location, aims, outputs, participants, and people reached. The book captures just some of the diverse impacts...
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Social Impact Assessment: Guidelines for thriving regions and communities
In this paper, Building Better researchers Dr Nick Taylor, from Nick Taylor and Associates, and Dr Mike Mackay, from AgResearch, have developed a comprehensive practical guideline to Social Impact Assessment (SIA) to help councils and community groups learn the basics about how to conduct an SIA, contribute to an SIA, use the results of an SIA, and judge if an SIA is fit for purpose. . .
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Dialogues for wellbeing in an ecological emergency
At a time of ecological emergency there are pressing reasons to develop more responsive wellbeing-led governance frameworks that engage with both human and more-than-human wellbeing. Attempts to incorporate wellbeing indices into wellbeing-led governance include the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the Gross National Happiness index of Bhutan, and a variety...
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Quality of life, quality of business, and destinations of recent graduates
One of the main challenges facing non-metropolitan regions is convincing highly educated young people to move into their area and then keeping them. This research tests whether students from different types of institution and from different fields of study decide to live in places that are regarded as fun or in places that are good to do business. Graduates from all fields of study other than agriculture...
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Jetties and small settlement regeneration
This report explores the community-led restoration initiatives of jetties in small settlements around Te Pataka o Rakaihautū/Banks Peninsula. New Building Better-funded research shows that jetties are deeply valued by people in a variety of ways from the recreational, to the historical, to the aesthetic. Jetties are places of connection, with intergenerational value. . .
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Kaupapakāinga: The potential for Māori cohousing
Approaches to kaupapa Māori development such as papakāinga housing bear similarities with collective housing models such as cohousing. Cohousing, a Danish model of collective housing, combines private dwellings with shared spaces and facilities. Papakāinga and cohousing communities often share aspirations for social, environmental, and economic sustainability...
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Te Wairoa, Te Kāinga Tahi
In late 2019, Morehu Monro began a housing research project in Te Wairoa, a small town in the north of the Hawke’s Bay region. He talked with people at marae, at meetings with local organisations, and during visits with whānau and kaumātua who had always lived in Te Wairoa and those who had returned. He also reflected on his own father’s return journey to Te Wairoa. The survey group wanted to improve the way. . .
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Ex post analysis of irrigation development for future SIAs
Irrigation development is an important way that rural communities can drive economic regeneration. However, it also creates a complex set of positive and negative social impacts. Their assessment and management has implications for net social wellbeing over time. The social licence for large-scale irrigation development requires commitment to strategic and project-level Social Impact. . .
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Practicing wellbeing through community economies: an action research approach
Research at the intersection of wellbeing and economy has tried to understand socio-economic ‘development’ differently. Yet it has often done so by conceiving of wellness in narrowly individualistic terms, easily overlapping with economic modelling based on individual rational economic actors. In this chapter, the researchers reclaim wellbeing as a socio-economic concept based not on individual wellness. . .
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Social impact assessment and (realist) evaluation: meeting of the methods
Building Better researchers examine the interlinkages between social impact assessment and evaluation and, in particular, realist evaluation. They draw on recent research in the South Island, in which they link social impact assessment and elements of realist evaluation in the study of rural and small-town regeneration. The research identifies connections and makes suggestions regarding methods in social. . .
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Building the foundations of collaboration: From housing development to community...
Collaborative governance and planning are an improvement on technocratic “top-down” approaches. They are however, often criticized for exacerbating power imbalances. Other criticisms include failing to be inclusive and impartial and ignoring historical conflict. In this paper, BBHTC researchers investigate how strong foundations for collaborative housing renewal can help community renewal. . .
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Delineating functional labour market areas with estimable classification stabilities
This paper describes a method for delineating functional labour market areas (LMAs) in national commuting networks. Identifying functional, rather than administrative, LMAs is important for analysing spatial patterns of economic activity. Functional boundaries capture the geography of interactions among employers and employees, whereas administrative boundaries typically ignore such interactions...
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Searching for community wellbeing: population, work and housing in the town of Oamaru
Regional settlements experience great variation in social, cultural, environmental and economic change, and the capability and resources they have to manage change. In the Waitaki, the primary rural economy comprises agriculture, associated food processing industries, and the visitor sector. Over recent years, the demand for labour in these sectors has required an increasing workforce of overseas. . .
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"Hometown & whānau, or big city & millennials?"
One of the main challenges facing non-metropolitan regions is the attraction and retention of highly-educated young people. A loss of the brightest can lead to reduced business creation, innovation, growth and community wellbeing in such regions. The researchers use rich longitudinal microdata from New Zealand’s integrated administrative data infrastructure to analyse the determinants and geography of the choice...
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Engaging communities in the design of homes and neighbourhoods in Aotearoa
This Counterfutures journal article by Dr Rebecca Kiddle says a successful engagement process empowers communities by acknowledging their mātauranga (place-based knowledge), and by taking the time to build strong relationships that can form the base of all future engagement. Specifically, there is a range of things agencies and those doing the engaging could do. These include: engaging with communities early...
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Ecology of community: Socially-based tenure in urban papakāinga and cohousing
This PhD thesis explores social (or communal) tenure - systems of rights. Social tenures are a feature of many Indigenous cultures, where land and resources are managed from a collectivist, rather than an individualist, standpoint. Māori society was traditionally based around territorial tribal living, with hapū (sub-tribes) controlling and defending particular territories. . .
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Assessing the impacts of a new cycle trail: A fieldnote
Prior to the Covid-19 lockdowns, Building Better researchers assessed the impacts of the South Island’s Alps to Ocean (A2O) cycle-trail. The study focussed on the sustainability of tourist trails and how associated tourism initiatives were working together to improve the economic, social, and environmental performance of Oamaru and settlements in the Waitaki Valley...
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Commuting to diversity
Auckland is New Zealand’s most diverse city, but the impacts of diversity are likely to be less if interactions between different groups are limited by where they live and work. This study examines exposure to local cultural diversity based on where people work as well as where they live. The study also examines whether the relationship between commuting and exposure to diversity differs between. . .
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Modelling inter-urban migration in an open population setting: The case of New Zealand
In this book chapter, BBHTC researchers examine the modelling of gross inter-urban migration flows in Aotearoa New Zealand. They identify a range of geographic, demographic, economic, and climatic characteristics of urban areas, which are statistically significant determinants of migration. The researchers argue that in a small but open population such as New Zealand...
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Urban Regeneration and Social Cohesion
This report investigates the effectiveness of the Tāmaki Regeneration Company (TRC) project. Glen Innes was built in the 1950s, close to central Auckland, and was a primarily low socio-economic suburb, with a significant Māori population, living in State (social) housing. The TRC project saw Housing New Zealand Corporation and Auckland Council working together to replace 2,700 properties...
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Commuting to diversity (2)
In this extended report for BBHTC (which later became a peer-reviewed journal article of the same name in the New Zealand Population Review), researchers ask does commuting increase workers' exposure to difference and diversity? The uneven spatial distribution of different population subgroups within cities is well documented. Individual neighbourhoods are less diverse than cities...
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Valuing cultural diversity of cities
This paper estimates the impact local cultural diversity has on city wage and rent premiums, and whether diversity is a source of local production and/or consumption of amenities. The researchers find that the presence of people from different cultural backgrounds enhances the profitability of urban firms. In contrast, a city’s population has a weak preference for living near others who are culturally like...
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Assessing environmental sustainability outcomes at neighbourhood scale
This research focusses on assessing the environmental sustainability of neighbourhoods. It further develops and tests a framework for post occupancy evaluation of the planning and delivery of a neighbourhood’s environmental sustainability. The matrix developed to examine Hobsonville Point is the underpinning methodology. It categorises environmental performance measures...
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Designing walkable future neighbourhoods: Considering diversity
Research about walkable neighbourhoods is commonly based on the notion of an adult able-bodied walker. However, people have different physical, social, cultural, emotional, and financial abilities and resources to navigate the neighbourhood landscape. This diversity should be recognised at design and planning stages, along with the recognition that the resident population of a neighbourhood is not static...
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Suburban shopping malls as spaces for community health and human flourishing
As urbanization continues to increase, the focus of urban development needs to shift to the suburban if we are to create cities that offer places to flourish. Suburbanites are increasingly seeking greater opportunities for place attachment, community cohesion and identity. This paper examines the role of semi-public spaces (in this case shopping malls) in Aotearoa suburbs...
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Tūranga ki te marae, e tau ana - Reimagining marae-based kāinga in Tāmaki Makaurau
Houses (and people) were never built to stand in isolation. Rather, whare were to be located in relation to the pā for communal living. Marae are integral to Māori whānau and communities and, throughout the ages, marae have continued to adapt to new contexts. Many marae are actively seeking marae-based kāinga solutions for whānau, hapū, iwi, and communities, and many marae have shown. . .
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Soft infrastructure for hard times
In this report, the researchers present seven case studies looking at various initiatives for rebuilding after the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2020-2021. They range from community-led projects through to more hybrid approaches, to state-led examples. Though many of the organisations involved were active before the earthquakes, their activities, purpose or way of operating. . .
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Building for shared rental homes by non-profit community housing providers: Building...
This report is part of a study focused on building solutions that address barriers to making our building stock perform better for the needs of older people. It responds to the limited opportunities for older people to find affordable rentals. The report examines whether profits from shared rentals could be increased while providing homes that adapt to future changes in use. This report contains potential designs...
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Ahakoa te aha, mahingia te mahi - In service to homeless whānau in Tāmaki Makaurau
Just before winter 2016, Te Puea Memorial Marae opened their doors to anyone in desperate need of shelter and support. Since then, the work of the Marae has continued and developed with a focus on supporting whānau to secure housing tenancy and to support home-building for achieve whānau ora. The issue of homelessness is neither new to Māori, nor is it an issue that is separated from wider...
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Exploring Papakāinga: A Kaupapa Māori quantitative methodology
This paper offers a strategy for gathering and analysing large-scale data. The aim is to understand how Māori might better fulfil aspirations for the designing, financing, and building of housing, as well as perceptions of housing and papakāinga, and the contribution this has to Māori wellbeing. The researchers say a study of this kind will contribute new knowledge and better understanding of Māori...
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A really good home for our kaumātua: A toolkit for kaumātua housing
By 2040, 25% of people living in Aotearoa New Zealand will be aged 65-years and over. The He Kāinga Pai Rawa project aimed to find out what made Moa Crescent Kaumātua Village in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, a healthy housing community for Kaumātua. The result was this toolkit designed for anyone working with urban, rural, marae and other communities, who aspires to co-design and build culture-centred. . .
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Living at density in Hobsonville Point, Auckland: Resident perceptions
Over half of residential development in Auckland now involves attached housing types such as terraces and apartments. This working paper presents residents’ perceptions of living at higher density in Hobsonville Point. Despite being 2-3 times the density of a typical suburb, respondents in the survey express a reasonably high level of satisfaction with their dwelling design, and the relationships with their neighbours...
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Te Moemoeā: The Dream
Think Piece One: This first report in a series of three discusses culturally responsive, secure, affordable, and healthy housing for kaumātua. It tells the beginning story of Moa Crescent Kaumātua Village, Kirikiriroa Hamilton, which started in the early 2000s. The researchers ask: what could we learn from the stories of ‘ngā kaiwhatu moemoeā’ (visionaries) about the seeds of potential for kaumātua...
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Kia tūtuki te moemoeā: The road to making the dream/vision a reality
Think Piece Two: This report continues the story of the development of Moa Crescent Kaumātua Village, Kirikiriroa Hamilton. What could we learn from the stories of ngā kaimahi about values, decisions, and processes that enabled kaumātua housing? The journey of becoming in spiritual terms means passing through the many phases of the nights within Te Pō. In order to explore the stories...
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Te ao mārama - Kua ea te moemoeā: Achievement of the dream/vision
Think Piece Three: The third and final report in a series about culturally secure, responsive, affordable, and healthy housing for kaumātua. It explores the stories of being in the realm Te Ao Mārama: Kua ea te Moemoeā: the achievement of the dream/vision stories of kaumātua, their whānau and supporters, from Moa Crescent Kaumātua Village in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. Researchers interviewed 19 kaumātua...
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Planning for regeneration in the town of Oamaru
This paper provides a preliminary insight into Oamaru’s past, present, and future regeneration initiatives and the issues associated with their integration and resourcing. It emphasises the importance of careful planning, the effective integration of multiple regeneration activities, the harnessing of local energy and creativity, and sympathetic engagement with residents to ensure that a widely acceptable. . .
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Tourism-led settlement regeneration: Reaching Timaru’s potential
This paper is a preliminary study of tourism development in Timaru, South Canterbury. Tourism is used to illustrate how local efforts are focused on making regional settlements more attractive places economically, socially, culturally, and environmentally. There are many actors on Timaru’s tourism stage, which means it has an increased need for coordination and strategic planning.
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Waimakariri Way: Community engagement in Kaiapoi Town Centre Plan
Waimakariri District Council’s Kaiapoi Town Centre Plan is part of a broader recovery - and now regeneration - process for Kaiapoi following the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes. The Council employed a number of innovative and interactive tools and engagement strategies in order to facilitate public participation in the process. These tools and strategies reflect a ‘community-based’ logic. . .
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Editorial – Special issue on building better towns and communities
Associate Professor Hamish Rennie, Lincoln University, writes the editorial for this special issue of the Lincoln Planning Review with a theme dedicated to rural towns (Oamaru, Timaru and Kaiapoi) and community development. The journal issue features three articles by members of the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities team and students the challenge supports. . .
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Te Aranga Māori Design Principles
Te Aranga Māori Design Principles were developed by Māori design professionals as a response to the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol in 2005. Over time the principles have been developed and adopted by the Auckland Council with the support of Ngā Aho. This article asks landscape architect graduate Jacqueline Paul (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), and landscape architect William Hatton...
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Concepts of Neighbourhood: A Review of the Literature
This report looks at why the concept of neighbourhood is important. Key ideas include neighbourhood planning (development, growth, and transit-oriented development), neighbourhood units and boundaries, neighbourhood walkability, neighbourhood (and in some cases residential) satisfaction, and neighbourhood change. Studies that look at both location and sociological factors will...
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Post-Occupancy Evaluation of neighbourhoods: A review of the literature
This report provides an overview of the application of Post-Occupancy Evaluation at the neighbourhood scale, focusing on environmental performance and liveability. Post-Occupancy Evaluation is a useful way of confirming the actual performance of the built environment. The researchers present the main international and national methodologies and examples. Existing assessment and certification...
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Tackling homelessness through marae-led care
This Unitec Advance magazine article looks at Te Puea Memorial Marae’s kaupapa Māori-led work with vulnerable whānau, to show how marae can be an integral part of urban housing solutions. Māori are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis; for example, 53% of rough sleepers in Auckland are Māori. This research seeks to provide information that will strengthen marae...
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Unlocking transport innovation: A sociotechnical perspective of the logics of transport...
This paper investigates the architecture of decision-making that influences delivery and outcomes of urban environments. It uses the case study of a new style of pedestrian crossing proposed for Massey Road in Mangere, Auckland. Local traffic concerns impeding walking and cycling were identified through a community engagement process. A neighbourhood-scale intervention was designed...
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Remaking community: Building principles of communal tenure into contemporary housing
Models of land administration often promote a more individualised, Western-style of tenure. The dangers are that Māori values might become diluted or even lost in this transition as social responsibilities become divorced from land rights. Recognising this, planners of some Māori land development projects have sought to reintroduce key communal or socially-based tenure principles to the planning equation...
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4. Initial scan of policy/issues relevant to autonomous vehicle development and deployment
This document supports forward-planning, additional research initiatives, and public consultation by transport officials and other relevant stakeholders by summarizing a pilot policy scan of national autonomous vehicle regulation and initiatives. It explores concerns influencing contemporary government policies. Three are shared internationally: safety and ethics, liability and insurance, and policy for ageing...
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Rangahau Māori (Māori Research): An Indigenous Perspective
This paper explores the strategies being developed by Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities: He Kāinga Whakamana Tangata, Whakamana Taiao (BBHTC). BBHTC is taking an innovative approach to Māori research and development, operating across academic, cultural, and social sectors. The paper presents a model for conducting research with and for Māori, that is empowering and mutually...
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Urban Wā Kāinga: Integrating and embedding Te Aranga and Kaupapa Māori into communities
‘Urban’ is defined in relation to the characteristics of a town or city. ‘Wa Kainga’ in Māori is also known as a home. In a wider context papakainga is also used generally in the sense of traditionally Māori village-type living which has been integrated into more modern-day living. This research project aims to explore the potential of papakainga or wa kainga and understand how it can contribute...
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Kāinga tahi, kāinga rua: A kaupapa Māori Response of Te Puea Memorial Marae
While urban marae have always been able to provide manaakitanga in times of crisis they have also progressively expanded their day to day roles from the 1980s to include health centres, kaupapa Māori education and te reo Māori revitalisation initiatives. However, these marae are now responding to the systemic Māori and wider community homelessness which is the result of the housing crisis...
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Supporting regional settlements
A national conversation is in progress about the strength and integrity of regional settlements in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is influenced by characterisations of small settlements as zombie towns and is framed by questions about how to reboot struggling regions. Driving the conversation is a set of mainly economic and demographic issues linked to quantitative evidence of declining and ageing populations...
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Exploring Te Aranga design principles in Tāmaki
Te Aranga Design Principles are a cultural landscape strategy/approach to design thinking and making which incorporates a series of Māori cultural values and principles. This study strives towards a better understanding of the principles, and how they apply in developing policy and design for residential development in the Tāmaki Area. This study also suggests how the principles can be embedded...
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Can higher density enhance liveability?
A magazine article examining higher-density housing in Auckland. Higher-density housing requires quality urban development to deliver liveable, walkable communities. A National Science Challenge-funded survey in Auckland showed this is what people want from where they live. Associating enhanced liveability with higher density at first glance seems illogical. In the early part...
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Does higher density housing enhance liveability? Case studies of housing in Auckland
This paper examines how liveability is enhanced in intensified suburban contexts. Three case study areas in Auckland were used: Albany, New Lynn, and Onehunga. Key reasons for moving into higher-density housing were opportunities to form social networks, affordability, and proximity to schools, shopping, public transport, and employment. The research also examined walkability and car...
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