Urban design guru reviews new city centre plan

World-renowned architect and urban designer Jan Gehl's philosophy of designing cities to meet the needs of people has been successfully applied to Copenhagen, Melbourne, Sydney, Amman and New York.

Jan has recently been working with Auckland Council on its desire to be the world’s most liveable city.

In this free lecture, Jan outlines the value of designing a city around the needs of its people.

He will point to acclaimed cities around the world that can serve as an inspiration to Auckland and consider the progress Auckland is making. He will give his impression of Auckland's new draft City Centre Masterplan, a bold initiative to transform the city centre in the coming 20 years.

Ludo Campbell-Reid, Auckland Council’s urban design champion, says that a survey that Gehl undertook two years ago to understand the amenities of the city from a pedestrian point of view, and to point at opportunities to unlock hidden economic potential, had formed the basis for the council’s recently released plans for the future of the city centre (Draft City Centre Masterplan).

“The draft city centre masterplan was very well received by the public during its recent public consultation. Given Jan’s international success rate, we are eager to find out how we are tracking in terms of projects we have delivered and to also gain an international perspective on the masterplan and the projects we need to deliver into the future,” says Mr Campbell-Reid.

The event is open to the public and media and anyone wishing to attend should RSVP to
aucklandconversations@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz