KARAKA DEVELOPMENT PLAN

NICK REGAL

CONTEXTSITE - REGIONAL TO LOCAL By 2050 it is projected that 75% of the world’s population will be living in cities. With the ever growing population of Auckland City, developments need to be taken to insure the projected population rise can be accom-modated within New Zealand’s largest City. Whether our city area is con-centrated into high rise development or to try managing urban sprawl which we love so much in the past, are all questions yet to be answered by councils and planners.

In Karaka, a rural area in South Auckland a large amount of land own-ers known as the Collective have proposed to the Auckland City Council that they will sell off the majority of their land for development. The Karaka area consists of two major land masses known as Karaka North and Kara-ka West. These areas are mostly dominated by agricultural practice. With horse studs, sheep and dairy farming mostly taking place. In recent times land lots being sold in the past they and mostly been developed and sub-divided into high end residential dwellings.

As a group we have come up with a plan of the area that will allow for approximately 35,000 people to live in the area. The plan consists of high, medium and low residential density zones. We intend for our proposal to be an environmental sensitive approach to development within Karaka as well as a step in the right direction for Auckland becoming the most liveable city.

SITE- REGIONAL TO LOCAL

PROJECT ONE- ZONING MAP

CHOSEN SITE

FOCUSED ANALYSIS

CATCHMENT PROPOSAL

BUILDING FOOTPRINT & CARPARKS

SITE CIRCULATION

HYDROLOGY- STORMWATER

VEGETATION AND OPEN SPACE

MASTER PLAN

3D VIEWS

CONTENTS

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CONTEXTSITE - REGIONAL TO LOCAL

NORTH ISLAND

AUCKLAND CONTEXT

KARAKA SITE

By 2050 it is projected that 75% of the world’s population will be living in cities. With the ever growing population of Auckland City, developments need to be taken to insure the projected population rise can be accommodated within New Zealand’s largest City. Whether our city area is concentrated into high rise development or to try managing urban sprawl which we love so much in the past, are all questions yet to be answered by councils and planners.

In Karaka, a rural area in South Auckland a large amount of land owners known as the Collec-tive have proposed to the Auckland City Council that they will sell off the majority of their land for development. The Karaka area consists of two major land masses known as Karaka North and Karaka West. These areas are mostly dominated by agricultural practice. With horse studs, sheep and dairy farming mostly taking place. In recent times land lots being sold in the past they and mostly been developed and subdivided into high end residential dwellings.

As a group we have come up with a plan of the area that will allow for approximately 35,000 people to live in the area. The plan consists of high, medium and low residential density zones. We intend for our proposal to be an environmental sensitive approach to development within Karaka as well as a step in the right direction for Auckland becoming the most liveable city.

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CHOSEN SITE

We decided to chose the highlighted area as our site as we be-lieve that it is probably the most interesting site within the Karaka area. It is a site which is situated within the large western catch-ment. The site hosts the greatest views in the area, this is a major driver for the site and we will have to develop the site to capture this view for all inhabitants. Another reason why we picked the site was because it is an area which has the greatest diversity as it has a segment of all three living densities as well as a large ripirian corridor which reaches from the town center to the coast as a public accessway.

PROJECT ONE- ZONING MAP

This shows our final mapping which conveys our density develop-ment for Karaka West and Karaka North. As stated earlier within the e-book we wanted to reduce as much impact to our site as pos-sible. We decided to structure our site much like a Watershed. We wanted to locate the areas with higher impermeable surface areas at the ridgelines of our catchments and the areas with a smaller per-centage of impermeable areas filtering down towards the coastline. The development would act much like a natural catchment.We wanted to avoid as much additional run off within the site to avoid damaging existing ecologies around the coastal boundary.

There are positives for each of our density development. The Higher Density allows greater view shafts to the coastline and is closer to amenities. As we move further towards the coastline the land plot being to increase in size and there is less high rise development. Larger green space and closer contact with the coast is also a huge positive for these lower lying areas.

There is a sensitive topic regarding a bridge from Weymouth onto Karaka West. We wanted our design proposal to be compatible whether or not this bridge was implemented or not. Having 35,000 people to enter our site I feel the bridge would be a good idea to gain the most from our design proposal.

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Legend

Green Corridor

Green areas

Low Density

High DensityMedium Density

Re-vegetated land

Main Roads

WatershedsCoastal Walkway

KARAKA ZONING

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FOCUSED ANALYSISSOUTHERN ASPECT

This map shows the southern facing slopes on our chosen site. Majority of the southern facing areas are found where the steep slopes are located. The southern slopes will be areas which we will look to re-vegetate as they are not the best place to live as the residents wouldnt get much sun during the days. Although some of the southern facing sites are on very flat land so houses on these sites will still get some sun as the houses will be raised above the land.

FOCUSED ANALYSISSLOPE

This mapping shows the slope of our site greater than 15 degrees. These indicate all the slopes too great to be built upon. All the areas represented in the red will need to be vegetated to avoid surface run off as well as any further degradation to the slope.

Through this mapping we understand there are a small amount of steep slopes in the area. Karaka is compiled mostly of gentle undulations which gives testament to its primary use of agricultural land use.

Most of these slopes follow areas of hydrology, such as coastline and rivers. In this instance these areas will also be re-vegetated due to riparian corridors as well as coastal buffers.

In the blue areas show the southern facing slopes of our site. These areas are undesirable areas for building. These area can be plant-ed and activated through vegetation.

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FOCUSED ANALYSISEXISTING VEGETATION

Throughout our site there are small patches of vegetation within the boundary constraints. However looking outside our boundary there are both areas of vegetation which could be used to incor-porate into our proposal. Patches of both indigenous and native vegetation consist around the southern end of our constraints line. These patches would house existing ecologies, with further expan-sion of this areas of native and indigenous into a Karaka develop-ment would allow steeping stones for these ecologies.

FOCUSED ANALYSISHYDROLOGY

This map shows tributaries within our site in Karaka. These will be re-vegetated with a 15metre buffer to create riparian corridors. These corridors are used for soil conservation of the river banks and a drainage area for the surrounding properties; they can also hold extremely diverse ecologies.

Throughout our mapping we show both the water catchments and the riparian corridors. Areas around our coastline will also be buffered. These are sensitive areas due to the ecologies based around this boundary. These areas can be buffered to avoid run off as well as a coastal buffer for possible sea level rise.

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FOCUSED ANALYSISEXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

This mapping shows the existing roads within our site. Being an area built mostly of large land plots road connection isn’t too dense within our area. Most of our roads reside along the high ridge-lines of our site. The existing infrastructure seems to mimic the ridgelines of the watersheds. These areas can become main arte-rial routes of transport for further development and a possibility of branching out into each catchment.

FOCUSED ANALYSISLUC

From looking at this mapping we notice the majority of the cho-sen site in Karaka is of a Class II category. In all consideration this is good land judging by its class system. Majority of the land has very slight limitations in accordance to slope, drainage, erosion, soil, as well as climatic limitations. Within our boundary a reasonable amount of land rates in either Class III or Class IV categories. The class IV area seems to be where there is steep slope and southern aspect and the class III area is located on the flat plane by the water edge.

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FOCUSED ANALYSISNON-BUILDABLE CONSTRAINTS

This shows the current constraints working within our site. Steep Slopes over fifteen degrees, riparian buffers, southern facing slopes, coastal buffers as well as indigenous forest all restraint where we can develop. The watershed isn’t necessarily a con-straint for our development but it is the key driver behind our de-sign proposal. We use the watershed as a gridding agent for our design process.

STEEP SLOPE SOUTHERN ASPECTRIPIRIAN CORRIDORSFOCUSED ANALYSIS

WATERSHED

Through this map shows the Drainage Catchment for our site with the green lines being the ridgelines. Watersheds start at the ridgelines and move down towards the sea. Through looking at this map we can see the drainage catchments break down the Karaka site into a mosaic of separate cells. The Watershed has become a key drive for our design proposal as each cell can be used for pockets of development depending on the particular constraints within that cell. Our site is situated with the catchment on the western side.

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BUILDING FOOTPRINT & CARPARKS

For our design proposal we want to base our development around the concept of the watershed. The Watershed has be-come our main restraint in order of conveying our density plan. Watersheds act as a drainage divide. We look to structure our development based around these divisions. We have broken our catchment into three main densities of high, medium and low. Within our proposal we look to place areas of high density along the ridgelines of each catchment. With high density areas having higher impermeable surface area there will be greater run off in these areas. As we move down our density catchments from me-dium to low density the impermeable surface area will become less. With less runoff down towards the coast we can attempt to mimic the natural structure of the catchment. With less run off, there is less impact upon the sensitive ecologies that live around our coastline boundaries.

The Watersheds allow us to structure our design proposal as we can design for each particular catchment. The Watershed cre-ates a mosaic of cells within our site. This allows us to work upon each cell individually and to apply our theory to the constraints of that cell.

CATCHMENT PROPOSAL

This map shows the building footprints and major carparks within my site. The different shades of orange highlight the different building densities within my site. The more vibrant orange with the large building footprints show the high density buildings within my site. These high density buildings are a mixture of three to four sto-rey apartment blocks and two to three storey terraced housing. There are 21 high density lots on my site.

The medium gradient orange housing blocks shows the medium density housing, the medium density houses would be of one to two storey houses which are situated on an average of 2,000sqm sites giving the residents more of a rural feeling with their large sections. There are 158 medium density lots on my site.

The low density housing is shown by the browny coloured blocks, the low density houses would be family homes of one to three storey houses which are situated on an average of 5,000sqm lots. There are 9 low density lots on my site.

DEVELOPMENT CATCHMENT PROPOSAL

For our design proposal we want to base our development around the concept of the watershed. The Watershed has become our main restraint in order of conveying our density plan. Watersheds act as a drainage divide. We look to structure our develop-ment based around these divisions. We have broken our catchment into three main densities of high, medium and low. Within our proposal we look to place areas of high density along the ridgelines of each catchment. With high density areas having higher impermeable surface area there will be greater run off in these areas. As we move down our density catchments from medium to low density the impermeable surface area will become less. With less runoff down towards the coast we can attempt to mimic the natural structure of the catchment. With less run off, there is less impact upon the sensitive ecologies that live around our coastline boundaries.

The Watersheds allow us to structure our design proposal as we can design for each particular catchment. The Watershed creates a mosaic of cells within our site. This allows us to work upon each cell individually and to apply our theory to the constraints of that cell.

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HYDROLOGY- STORMWATERSITE CIRCULATION

Pedestrian circulaton revolves around the whole site as people are able to walk through the corridor to the coast, as well as along the roads that are on the site.

Cyclists are able to access all of the areas that the pedestrians are able to reach, with the exception of the deep ripirian cor-ridor where it would be to dangerous to allow the cyclists to mix in with the pedestrians.

Cars are limited to the roads in circulation within the site.

PEDESTRIANCYCLECARS

MAJOR STORMWATER PIPESMINOR STORMWATER PIPESRUN OFF COLLECTION POINTRIPIRIAN CORRIDORROADSCOAST

This map shows the hydrology and stormwater within the site. The runoff from the surrounding residential sites and roads will run into the ripirian corridor as it has a steep gradient. The re-vegetation of the corridor will help to slow the run off to the coast, it should filtrate the water on the way to the coast by catching sediment.

Major storm water pipes will be placed beneath the main roads on the site. Minor stormwater pipes will create a small network un-derground, these pipes will link from the stormwater drains on the site to the major stormwater pipes below.

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MASTER PLANVEGETATION & OPEN SPACE

The vegetaion and open space take up a large amount of area on my site, this is due to the re-vegetation that I haved planed for the ripirian corridor in the site. The large green corridor starts on the ridgeline in the town center and reaches out to the coastline creating an incision in the site which public are able to venture through. The corridor is also an area that will help deal with the run off from the impervious surfaces that surround it to the coast.

A large amount of my site is also taken up by public open space, this public open space is mostly found around the green corridor and the coast. I have placed open green space near the ripirian corridor as it will help like the bush to the surrounding communities. I have made sure that there is a buffer between the corridor and housing on the southern side of the bush as overtime the trees will grow and create a shadow over these areas. I have also allowed for a large amount of public open space by the coast as I believe this is an area which should be utilised by the whole community, for games, sports, barbeques, picnics, etc.

This is a map of the master plan for my site. The site is a mixure of high, medium and low density housing with an insert of re-vegetation and open space. Due to the design being set within a watershed and being set out the same way as a natural catch-ment with high density at the highest point, the medium density in the middle and the low density in the lower lying areas. With this catchment layout of the housing it allows for the majority of resi-dents to have a view out to the west. The major roads run along the existing ridgelines of the area. The ripirian corridor acts as a connection point between the residential areas, the coast and the town center.

Pedestrian Walkway/Cycleway

Legend

Roads

Low Bush

Open Public Space

Water

Settlement Pond

Dense Bush

Shops

Carpark

High Density

Medium DensityLow Density

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PERSPECTIVE LOOKING WEST GREEN CORRIDOR PERSPECTIVE

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SITE PERSPECTIVE

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