To whom does the street belong?

Recently we touched on the large billboards that cover buildings along with the preparations for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in a few weeks time. The problem, though, is deeper; there is unawareness in our society how far the public realm of a city reaches. Is the façade of a private building part of it or under the discretionary power of the private owner, which would entitle him to do with it what he wants (unless health and safety are not put at risk).

Let’s just compare two images. One shows contemporary office buildings which surround a little plaza that frames the southern end of Lighter Quay in Auckland; the other one is taken from Stan Neumann’s film “Paris, roman d’une ville” from 1991 that depicts the fringe of a typical Parisian pre-WW1 apartment building in the Boulevard Raspail. This image discloses that the lime stones of the façade stand out to allow the neighbour to connect his future building seamlessly to the existing one. A Parisian building was considered unfinished unless it has become part of the street, which was seen as a continuous wall. The individuality of the single building was reduced to the variety of ornaments applied to windows, balconies, the mouldings, dormers, and the portal.

The Auckland ensemble speaks a different language. Firstly, even buildings that almost touch each other remain separated; the fully fenestrated façade equipped with all the louver suites face a dark wall two metres ahead a meaningless, awful space. Secondly, the architects were eager to demonstrate individuality even though all of them are office buildings. Thirdly, the owners of the building in the foreground took the opportunity to cover his glass façade with a huge billboard, which individualises his building even further.

Two different ages, places, cultures, and attitudes. Given that all buildings aim for the success of the client as well as they contribute to the success of their city, we can simply compare which of the two attitudes is more successful. A sports-metaphor would suggest that the stronger team is the one that incorporates individual strength for joint efforts. Euromonitor International published a survey of Top City Destination Ranking 2009. It shows Paris ranked at 8, Auckland 80. Even if we compare cities of a regional importance only and of a fairly similar population yet the opposite building culture, we find Barcelona at 16, Amsterdam at 23, Vienna at 28 or Stockholm at 41 – far more successful as Auckland.

Given that for many cities urban tourism is their number one industry, generating not only rising income but also underpinning many projects, we as Aucklanders should thrive for a greater quality of our urban spaces. Auckland is blessed with one of the most exciting landscapes for a city to be located in. We should make more of it; for instance

• Give op our suburban building culture and accept party walls as something that maintains strong urban spaces;
• Sustain more the particular properties of quarters to strengthen the sense of place;
• Win more accessibility to the shore in order to truly become a maritime city.

To whom does the street belong? Can we leave the appearance and the financial success of our city to the private property owners? Auckland can’t be the Paris in the Pacific but it can constitute as a unique place defined by a high architectural quality and a consistent urban character as it became visible in the new Wynyard Quarter.

- Posted Aug. 31, 2011