Well it has been some time since I have made a Blog entry. My excuse is that not only do I have a hectic family life within this piece of paradise, I have been quite busy with changing from PC to Mac computers and completing a variety of projects ranging from landscape features, remodeling of older cribs; extensions to 1950’s brick houses and a new build residence designed to withstand a Design Wind speed of 216km/hour. I am really looking forward to several of these projects starting on site once temperatures warm up in the spring.
I have also been busy as a member of the Queenstown Lakes District Council steering group for the development of The Wanaka Town Centre Guidelines. The guidelines were contracted out to some urban designers from Auckland who traditionally produce very good work. Unfortunately in this case they prepared a guideline that was very wordy with quite generic guidelines that didn’t demonstrate a local understanding of what makes Wanaka different. The steering group was quite disappointed, as we had hoped for something quite graphic and inspirational, instead we had abundance of words that were hard work to read through, let alone be inspirational.
After little progress with 4 drafts over a 6 month period QLDC took over the writing of the document and with the help of the local steering committee have produced a document that is specific to Wanaka and should help both building designers and developers produce good buildings that are sympathetic to the communities desires. I think it is a good demonstration that local knowledge is absolutely key, otherwise you will end up with a product that is not relevant no matter how clever the creators are.
Hopefully QLDC will look at bit closer to home in the future; there is good experience in Wanaka. The Guideline has been out for public comment and can be found on the QLDC website.
