Tactical Masterplanning

May 2024: Reflecting upon our tactical masterplanning approach in Timaru, on the occasion of winning a Canterbury Architecture Award

Post 1: The 2024 Canterbury Architecture Awards

"Twenty five projects have been named the best in the Canterbury region in Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Awards. Among the winners is an entire civil regeneration project, remarkable new houses and renovations, and an iconic Brutalist library.

In the Planning & Urban Design category, the renewal plan for Timaru town centre by Isthmus Group and Gap Filler has been awarded. With many heritage buildings remaining vacant or threatened by earthquake strengthening issues in Timaru, the architects’ tactical approach to community-led placemaking will create a healthy and resilient future for the heart of the town. The plan was created in collaboration with tangata whenua, businesses and community stakeholders, and demonstrates the transformative power of architecture projects."
–Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects

It's great to see our tactical approach to Timaru's regeneration get acknowledged.

Huge kudos to all of our community partners and supporters who made the trials possible (far too many to name), including Kimble Henderson, michael armstrong, Hamish Pettengell and the Aigantighe Art Gallery, Maania Tealei, Logan McMillan, Tim and the Hector Black's crew, Lloyd, Philip Howe and the South Canterbury Museum, Jacob Mulholland, Phil Elmey, Millie Rose, Tash and SoulSurfSkate, Jezer Hines, Sarah Edwards and VibrantNZ, Audrey Baldwin and so many more...

Big thanks to the Gap Filler team who worked on this project, particularly Stephanie Symns, Kathleen Planckaert and Simone Reynolds.

Big ups to Rosie Oliver at TDC for the visionary brief and amazing staff with special thanks to Suzy Ratahi, Brendan Madley & Rachel Hermens.

And biggest thanks to Helen Kerr and the Isthmus team for incredible leadership.

Post 2: The use of trials in masterplanning

I posted last week about our ‘tactical’ approach on the Timaru CityTown project nabbing an award, but I didn’t explain anything about that approach.

We combined a highly Participatory Design process with a programme of trials to test things out when there was disagreement.

We – with Isthmus at the lead – started by designing & delivering four monthly half-day workshops with two advisory groups of local residents, alongside observations, analysis & one-on-one conversations with residents, business owners & community groups.

The 1st workshop (& month) was entirely focused on discovering the place: what people love, how they define the place, what they struggle with or wish for, how they feel about the city’s future. And the more quantitative: is the population growing?; how’s the local economy?; how many vacant shops in the central city?

Thousands of impressions that don’t yet need to be coherent.

One of the questions we asked the advisory groups was ‘Where’s the heart of Timaru?’ Nearly everyone placed their little flag on the map at Strathallan Corner – & a discussion ensued.

If there’s ever a protest, that’s where people gather or end up. It’s the symbolic centre. How does it get used day-to-day? Well, not much. A few people eating lunch there on weekdays; otherwise mostly just passing through or using the public loos.

It's a quiet, sunken, sheltered area, separated from the main street (Stafford) by a wall & fountain. It’s a legacy of when Stafford St was State Highway One, with heavy traffic coming through the centre of Timaru.

That hasn’t been the case for decades, but Strathallan Corner is still a refuge. Some people love it as a quiet spot for lunch. Others thought it could be ‘turned around’ to face Stafford, for people watching & to better accommodate events.

Here’s where the tactical approach comes in: if you find an important issue where there’s disagreement, give it a try.

Before the 2nd monthly workshop, we developed a short-term way to trial reorienting Strathallan Corner by covering the sunken area with a temporary platform. It was designed to stay in place for a month, to test if it would become a place for people watching or for more gatherings & events.

The participatory design aspects carried through to the trials: e.g. some of the people who thought it could be a space for events (YMCA, the library, a theatre director) tried running events there when the platform was in place.

We monitored it closely & got good data & survey responses. The trial wasn’t meant to be definitive, but to be part of the conversation about the purpose & design of the physical & symbolic centre of Timaru.

That’s the essence of the tactical approach, to give real experiences of how the place could be different – in relatively low-cost temporary ways – to further the conversation & inform longer-term decision making.

And when the final designs are done, the people who’ll be using the space have helped shape & test it.

Post 3: The soft stuff!

We’d been engaged to make a city centre regeneration plan which was structured as a streetscape and public spaces design project, so the ‘solution’ had already been half-decided in the brief: upgrade the streets and civic squares.

But the double diamond design process we used spends at least as long thinking about and working on discovering and defining the problem as the solutions.

There are lots of long-term residents in Timaru, and many people harbour nostalgia (and regret), thinking about the thriving place as it was decades ago with more life on the street, late-night shopping and optimism.

But that coincides nicely with the vision of newer residents for a place that’s welcoming, with more visible arts, more nightlife and more small, interactive events where you can meet people.

Most of this vision can’t directly be achieved by a streetscape and civic space upgrade, only enabled by it.

But with our trials programme, we were able to test out some of these aspirations directly. Timaru District Council supported us to trial not only new roading layouts and civic space interventions, but also other ways of achieving vibrancy.

What if there were popup galleries in some of the vacant shops? What if some shops stayed open late on Fridays and there were outdoor concerts, open artists’ studios and theatre and dance in the streets? What if there were buskers on most street corners every Thursday afternoon?

We got to trial all of these things directly, so people could ‘get a taste’ and give feedback from firsthand knowledge about what worked and what didn’t, or what aspects of more life on the street, nightlife & visible arts and culture were most important.

Now we’re finalising the masterplan, and it’s much more than a streetscape and public realm design project. It has nearly as much content about soft measures for achieving vibrancy and enabling tactics as it does about the transport network or parks & civic spaces.

Tweaking some grant funding criteria, starting a vacant shop broker, having some pre-approved locations for public trading, making some policy and bylaw changes… (and all based on experiences in Timaru).

I’d say these softer measures are more important than ever, given the increased financial pressures on Councils since we started this process – inflation, cost of living, three waters infrastructure.

This approach still provides a clear programme of (low-cost) work that Councils and all sorts of external partners can start straightaway even if major capital works get scaled down or delayed.