WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND Countryside to Cityscape: The Slow Urbanisation of a Wellington Hillside

This exhibit presents a series of projects, both commissioned and speculative, that contribute to the slow evolution of a Wellington suburb, Hataitai, from productive farm to collective urban environment. Hataitai is on the eastern side of a 200m high hill which rises out of Wellington Harbour. Colonial city planners in the 1840s declared it beyond the ‘town belt’ and it was used for grazing stock well into the twentieth century when improved access opened the way to residential development. Roads were formed along the contours of its complex terrain and the result is a road network that works better for cars than pedestrians. Hataitai is only 2km from the city centre, yet 36% of commuters travel by car and it has an average density of only 33 people / hectare. The increasing pressure to both intensify and pedestrianise comes with a renewed enthusiasm for community activities and public space. Each project in the exhibit explores the possibilities of an expanded pedestrian infrastructure and more public space which contributes to this shift from countryside to cityscape, in the capital city of the most recently inhabited landmass on earth, Aotearoa New Zealand