Paihia Master Plan

The best design solutions are those which evolve out of a joint venture between users, inhabitants and planners where urban designs are enhanced by local knowledge of a community’s specific needs.

S&T have been privileged to work on a truly collaborative project with Paihia, a bustling little seaside town with a rich history and flourishing tourist economy. The goal was to create a new plan with a focus on delivering a unique sense of place for the town with a contemporary maritime feeling and enhanced connection between the land and sea.

This unique and exciting project also provided the opportunity for a design retreat in the Bay of Islands for our architectural team. Seven designers spent a weekend on location gathering data, developing ideas and discussing plans with community leaders to further hone concepts for the plan. Overall there was a high degree of commonality in the solutions developed by the team. The process itself was enjoyable and involved full engagement and communication between designers and client.

Feedback from this workshop was then worked into a presentation which was opened up to the community for comment. With an overwhelming positive response from the Paihia public the plan was launched on Sunday 27 November and has three stages (5, 10 and 15+ year plans) providing stepping stones toward a transformational outcome.

The Master Plan provides a future ‘look and feel’ for Paihia, however, as with all good long-term planning, the staged design retains flexibility to meet the changing needs of the growing community.

We look forward to working with the Focus Paihia group in seeing this fantastic plan to fruition and to meeting their goal of becoming the number one tourist destination in the country!

For more information on the Paihia Master Plan or how S&T can help reinvigorate urban areas elsewhere, please contact Ken Stanton at kstanton@stephensonturner.com or 09 920 9510.

---