Urbanists meet in New Zealand

The second semiannual Urbanism Down Under gathering was held in Auckland, New Zealand, recently, attracting 400 participants, according to urban designer Chip Kaufman. The first event was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 2001. “There was a mix of planners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects, developers, government officials and staff, academics and students,” reports Kaufman, a longtime new urbanist activist. The agenda was broader than New Urbanism. “Because the new urbanist leadership in Australia and New Zealand is not formally organized and did not control this conference, the organizational reporting and strategizing so integral to the North American CNUs [Congresses for the New Urbanism] did not take place formally during a plenary session at the 2003 [Auckland] conference,” he says. “My personal impression is that New Urbanism may have lost some momentum and focus regionally by not mustering the effort to retain control of these conferences. The upside of the New Urbanism dilution may be a more inclusive position in this smaller pond.” With fewer resources than their counterparts in North America, new urbanists in Australia and New Zealand often focus more on getting projects built that serve as examples than on promoting the concepts, Kaufman adds.