Reimagining Public Life in Paraparaumu

Abstract

Paraparaumu, like many of New Zealand’s regional towns is unable to promote a strong sense of civic pride through the articulation of its town centre. The town lies at the heart of the Kapiti Coast, forming a focal point for the region. Though, somewhat ironically, Paraparaumu is lacking an identifiable town centre itself. The focal point currently is centred on the Coastlands shopping mall site. The big box architectural typology is employed where expanses of car parking frame a single, massive, retail structure that occupies the central site. The quality of the resulting spaces is not conducive to forming a community centre and instead presents a plethora of urban design and human issues.

Through the lens of urban design theory, this thesis explores how the unification of people in public space provides an important vehicle for social interaction, which can contribute greatly to people’s happiness and wellbeing. It also recognises the importance of this space being governed by the people and not private entities.

The development of an urban framework will look to enable a more sustainable way of life for local residents socially, economically and environmentally in a way that that does not significantly inhibit the New Zealand way of life. This will provide a method for understanding how mixed use zoning can be combined with the provision of public space, while looking to promote active transport modes in and around the town centre.

Architectural explorations test desirable, higher density housing alternatives as an effective way of addressing many of the issues posed by the sites current condition. Significantly more residents located in and around the central area will lead to a more vibrant space with a broad range of diurnal activity. The introduction of residential use will also cause demand for a variety of other programmatic uses in its vicinity, which creates the conditions needed to form a successful, robust public centre for the community. The difficulty however, comes in the form of reluctance from the local people towards these housing typologies, which is understandable considering the limited history of successful medium and high density housing developments in New Zealand. To counter this mind-set, the design proposals will look to provide maximum amenity and individuality in alignment with New Zealand’s existing housing ethos.