Wellington Waterfront - permeable places and spaces

Wellington Waterfront. Midwinter pictures. Permeability 1. This series of posts about Wellington's waterfront visually analyse what I see as a very successful and popular people's waterfront. There are several themes in these posts. This first one is permeability portrayed in these 7 pictures. Urban transparency.

This first one shows the closeness of the city, and its connection with the waterfront...


Wellington Waterfront. Midwinter pictures. Permeability 2.

This is another point of linkage and connection between waterfront edge and city behind. Close, direct, desire line evident. Showing the way...


Wellington Waterfront. Midwinter pictures. Permeability 3.

And here's a wet day, cold and grey, access easy to the waterfront. Shelter above. Buildings ahead. But gaps in between. Not walls between you and the view....


Wellington Waterfront. Midwinter pictures. Permeability 4.

...stepping forward a bit, turning left, a variety of buildings, some old some new. Gaps in between revealing new surprises. New views. And always the water the sea. Distant views. Not walled away...


Wellington Waterfront. Midwinter pictures. Permeability 5.

This view is tighter. Interesting sights to look at, some near, and some far. Ways to continue - various. But not walls. Not closed off. Pathways to the distance, to the next place, the next interest, near. No need to walk backwards...


Wellington Waterfront. Midwinter pictures. Permeability 6.

Substantial waterfront building to the right. But more than compensated for, by the space ahead, by the open view to the heads ahead. No sense of enclosure. Places to walk. Public places to go. No sense of invading the private...


Wellington Waterfront. Midwinter pictures. Permeability 7.

And inside the private for a coffee. The building itself is permeable, see through. When a wall is not a wall. Maintaining that sense of distance protecting and preserving distant views, even for those not inside, and access to distant treats and pleasures.

Singapore Waterfront Urban Design 1

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to be invited to make a couple of presentations to the Annual Marcus Evans City Development Conference. It gave me an opportunity to look around that modern Asian city - especially the waterfront.




This montage is from an outside walkway outside a Mall by the waterfront. I'm not especially keen on malls, but the way the design resolutely provided quality public space - while allowing shops of all sorts to operate within the building - was very interesting. These next three pictures give a flavour of the actual waterfront space and design adjacent to the mall building, and also looking back into the shopping area.












This next montage (below) shows another example of this spatial approach to development adjacent to the waterfront. The circular enclosed space is public space. It is very sheltered from prevailing winds, while providing a sort of market square focus for the retail and cafe activities at ground level. There is considerable public space provision on top of this building, and this space is well planted with small trees, gardens and shrubs. The classic green roof - but actually a park, very useable and with great amenity.



Stepping through the rooftop garden, you can then view the adjacent waterfront spaces and views. The next montage (below) is from the roof. You can see the carefully designed waterfront spaces and planting. The sail shaded area is a a public performance area - bands and informal concerts occur there.



This final montage (below) actually contains 3 shots of the same slice of waterfront space between the built edge, and the water edge. What the photos try to show (!?) is the fact that there is a public pavement directly adjacent to to the buildings (some of which are activated), then there is a planted strip that contains outdoor restaurant seating and cafes (you can make out the StarBucks umbrellas here), and then there is another wide public pavement.



These designs show the kind of approaches that can be adopted to waterfront edges which genuinely respect public space, and provide for successful private business, without getting them all mixed up and in conflict.