Town planning controls as a determinant of urban form

Abstract

This research report documents the changing restrictions on building form embodied in the five successive sets of Town Planning Ordinances operational in the central city region of Wellington over the last thirty years (1950-1980), and their corresponding effect in promoting desirable building forms. By selecting, analysing and comparing three buildings designed by one architectural practice, which are representative of buildings designed under these changing regulations, it has been possible to show that the changing regulations have produced significant changes in building form in this period. Buildings over the last thirty years have occupied increasingly larger sites, with a lower proportion of floor area to site area; the tower/podium building type has emerged as the predominant building form, and more public spaces at ground level have been included within the design.