Garrick Tremain GOLD #housing

23 May 2017

In a statement provided to the Otago Daily Times Mr  Cull said it was not the council’s place to lead discussions, but it would be happy to take part in  Government-led discussions.

### ODT Online Sat, 20 May 2017
Affordable housing hitch
By Vaughan Elder
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull has declined a request from local MPs and social agencies for the Dunedin City Council to lead a crisis meeting over a lack of affordable housing. This comes as a group of social agencies, including the Salvation Army and Presbyterian Support, agreed to a statement saying the situation was reaching or had reached “crisis point”. The group said rising rents were making it hard and sometimes impossible for people on low incomes  to find affordable rental properties. “We are seeing a trend of landlords ending and not renewing leases, which forces tenants into a rental market they often cannot afford.” Waiting lists for social housing were growing and more families were living in cars and garages or being put up in motels while they waited for social housing. The group, led by Dunedin South MP Clare Curran, called on the council to co-ordinate a city meeting focused on identifying the problems and finding short-term solutions. “We believe the Dunedin City Council can play a strong role given it provides social housing and that housing quality and availability is an objective of its social wellbeing strategy.” They also believed the  Government was not doing enough to remedy the problem and that it should be involved in finding a local solution to the problem.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: An idea promoted by the mayor: relocatables for managed retreat [Shadow Man 2013 – Matakishi’s tea house (detail) via matakishi.com]

Getaways —Dezeen 2016

A brief selection of short and long stay architectural showpieces.

OPA finds backer for cliffside residence sunken into Lebanese mountain
Jessica Mairs | 5 May 2016 ● Dezeen
Open Platform for Architecture (OPA) is moving forward with plans to build a subterranean residence that will slice into a mountain near Beirut and feature a glass swimming pool for a roof. OPA originally released plans for Casa Brutale in July 2015, with no site, client or budget to build it. But the viral success of the renderings has now brought forward a backer with a plot of land on Faqra mountain near Beirut and a budget of $2.5 million (£1.7 million).

The project is expected to break ground this summer and its owner will be Alex Demirdjian, the chief executive of Lebanese real estate agent Demco Properties. The buried dwelling will be bracketed by three board-marked concrete slabs, while a fourth glazed wall will allow views of the valley to take centre stage. A glass-bottomed pool will allow light to shine into the earth-encased living spaces.
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/05/05/casa-brutale-opa-sunken-cliffside-residence-lebanese-mountain-swimming-pool/

Renderings: Terpsichori Latsi (LOOM Design)

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Tiny camping pods by Andrea Zittel serve as a creative refuge in the California desert
Jenna McKnight | 19 August 2016 ● Dezeen
Artists and writers wanting to play out a “desert fantasy” can rent a tiny sleeping pod at a remote campsite in southern California, which looks like a scene from a sci-fi film. Called the Wagon Station Encampment, the experimental project was conceived by US artist Andrea Zittel, who is known for her explorations into self-sufficient and sustainable living systems. The site consists of 10 sleeping pods, called wagon stations, as well as a communal outdoor kitchen, open-air showers and composting toilets. “It’s sort of a cross between a retreat and a residency and a normal campground,” said Zittel. The encampment – described as having a sci-fi aesthetic – is located on a 35-acre (14-hectare) site near Joshua Tree National Park, which is dotted with unusual rock formations rising up from a vast expanse of desert.

The metal-and-wood shelters are meant to evoke the classic family station wagons often found in suburbia, along with the covered, horse-drawn wagons that were common in old Wild West. While the pods do not have wheels, they can be easily collapsed, moved and reassembled. Guests enter their pod by unlocking and lifting up the front panel, which can be propped up and left open. The panel has a transparent strip that enables occupants to view the surrounding landscape and sky while lying on their bed. Inside, the enclosure contains a mattress, clothing hooks and a small door for ventilation. Artists can bring their own decor, such as rugs and paintings, to personalise the pod. The campsite is part of a larger property known as A-Z West, which was established in 2000. It contains Zittel’s primary residence, a studio and shop facility and a collection of shipping containers converted into apartments. Other camp shelters include the recently unveiled Autonomous Tent, which is a sculptural enclosure with a wooden porch, and portable micro cabins designed by Harvard students for stressed-out city dwellers.
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/wagon-station-encampment-andrea-zittel-tiny-camping-pods-creative-refuge-california-desert/

Photography: Lance Brewer

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Eight concrete boxes form a “moveable” vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard
James Brillon | 20 August 2016 ● Dezeen
A cluster of eight interconnected concrete volumes make up this Martha’s Vineyard residence, which is designed to be moved in the event of site erosion. The single-family East House was created by Canadian architect Peter Rose in the town of Chilmark. Serious concerns about the site’s ability to support the 4,000 square foot (372 sq m) residence led the architects to devise a system that allegedly allows the house to be moved if necessary.

The home’s living spaces were designed as eight individual cast-in-place concrete boxes. They are connected via interstitial corridors, which were built using lightweight timber construction. According to the architects, this makes them structurally independent from one another, which in turn allows them to be moved more easily. “The solution was to cast the floors in concrete, making each box a single structural unit that can be individually lifted and moved to a location far from the bluff in case of erosion.”
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/20/eight-concrete-boxes-form-a-moveable-vacation-home-on-marthas-vineyard/

Photography: Chuck Choi

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Luxury campsite in Antarctica offers tiny domed pods for sleeping and dining
Jenna McKnight | 31 August 2016 ● Dezeen
This remote “glamping” site in Antarctica features a series of igloo-like enclosures fitted with upscale decor like fur-covered chairs and bamboo headboards. White Desert – billed as the “only luxury camp in the interior of Antarctica” – consists of heated, spherical pods made of fibreglass. Six are designated for sleeping, with each designed to accommodate two guests. Additional pods house a kitchen, a dining room, a lounge and a library. The domed shelters rest atop wooden platforms and are secured to the ground with metal cables.
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/31/white-desert-luxury-campsite-antarctica-tiny-domed-pods-extreme-glamping/

Photography courtesy of White Desert

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BIG stacks shipping containers to create floating student housing in Copenhagen harbour
Jessica Mairs | 22 September 2016 ● Dezeen
Shipping containers are stacked on a floating platform to create these buoyant student halls of residence designed by Bjarke Ingels’ firm (BIG) for Copenhagen harbour. The project named Urban Rigger aims to provide low-cost housing for students in the centre of the Copenhagen, docked in the harbour.

BIG’s scheme comprises nine shipping containers stacked and arranged on a floating base, to create 15 studio residences over two levels. The blocks are angled with their ends overlapping to frame a shared garden in the centre of the mobile platform – also intended to protect the housing from the threat of rising sea levels. The flat roofs of the three containers forming the upper floor each have a different function. One provides a terrace, another hosts solar panels and the final roof is covered in grass. Urban Rigger is the latest addition to a string of proposals considering shipping containers as a model for affordable housing. Copenhagen’s harbour area is currently undergoing significant redevelopment.
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/09/22/big-bjarke-ingels-shipping-containers-floating-student-housing-urban-rigger-copenhagen/

Photography: Laurent de Carniere

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Baca Architects moors modular floating home on Chichester Canal
Eleanor Gibson | 23 October 2016 ● Dezeen
Baca Architects – the studio behind the UK’s first amphibious house – has completed a boxy floating home on Chichester Canal in southern England. The London-based architects developed the floating house as a prototype with British company Floating Homes. The replicable design named Chichester won an ideas competition seeking solutions to London’s housing crisis earlier this year.

Baca Architects referenced the design of canal boats when drawing up plans for the house, but increased the scale and included plenty of windows to create a more spacious and luxurious home on the water. The architects played with the traditional rectangular shape of house boats to create a split-level design. A white staircase leads from the lounge up to a terrace carved into the flat roof of the house and surrounded by glazed balustrades. Simple finishes like white-painted walls and pale floorboards keep the space light and open.
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/10/23/chichester-model-canal-baca-architects-wooden-floating-home-uk/

Photography courtesy of Floating Homes Ltd

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Precarious Alpine cabin by OFIS offers shelter to Slovenian climbers
Jessica Mairs | 10 November 2016 ● Dezeen
This tiny aluminium-clad cabin by Slovenian studio OFIS Arhitekti cantilevers over the edge of a mountain on the Slovenian-Italian border. OFIS Arhitekti worked with local structural engineers CBD to develop the Kanin Winter Cabin, which is designed to resist extreme weather conditions on its exposed site on Mount Kanin. “This particular site was chosen because of its 360-degree views over Slovenia and Italy, and spectacular views to Triglav, Soca Valley and Adriatic sea,” said the studio.

This tiny 9.7-square-metre cabin has a narrow floor plan containing three shelf-like floors, and has dimensions of just 2.4 by 4.9 metres. It is made from a combination of cross-laminated timber, glass and aluminium panels. “The interior design dictates modesty, subordinate to the function, providing accommodation for up to nine mountaineers.”
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/10/cantilever-alpine-shelter-kanin-winter-cabin-ofis-architects-climbers-slovenia/

Photography: Janez Martincic

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Flat-packed cabin concept allows tiny houses to be assembled like IKEA furniture
James Brillon | 20 November 2016 ● Dezeen
A Vancouver-based startup’s conceptual design for flat-packed recreational cabins would allow users to build for themselves, making the wilderness more readily accessible. The Backcountry Hut Company is an offshoot of interdisciplinary design firm Leckie Studio. Its goal is to facilitate the process of building cabins for a variety of uses. The huts are provided in pieces that can be efficiently packed flat and assembled on site. Rather than being built by professional craftspeople, the cabins can be put together by a small group working together. The simple geometrical cabins encompass two floors. The ground level contains public areas that vary according to individual preferences. Sleeping quarters are located above, and are accessed using a ladder. The metal-clad huts are part of a larger trend towards building small, modular dwellings.
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/11/20/backcountry-hut-company-leckie-studio-flat-packed-cabin-concept-assembled-like-ikea-furniture/

Images courtesy of Backcountry Hut Company

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Antarctic research centre to be towed inland to escape dangerous ice crack
Amy Frearson | 13 December 2016 ● Dezeen
The world’s first mobile research centre on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica is going to be moved to a new location for the first time, due to fears it could be trapped on an iceberg.

Photo: British Antarctic Survey

Photo: Hugh Broughton Architects

Designed by Hugh Broughton Architects for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Halley VI Antarctic Research Station has only been operational since 2013, but now needs to be towed 23 kilometres to a new location. This is because a chasm that had previously been dormant for approximately 35 years started to grow just after the station was installed, putting it at risk of separating from the ice shelf. The £25.8 million research station is built to withstand extreme winter weather. Made up of seven interlinking blue modules, the structure is raised on hydraulically elevated feet to stay above the many metres of expected snowfall.
These ski-like feet also make it possible to tow each of the modules over a prepared ice track. But the team did not expect to have to move the building less than five years after the facility opened.
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/13/halley-vi-antarctic-research-station-towed-inland-escape-dangerous-crack-brunt-ice-shelf/

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Help to the Homeless, elsewhere #SocialEnterprise

C O L L I N G W O O D • M E L B O U R N E

Northumberland Development. Images: Grocon

### ArchitectureAU.com 7 June 2016
Wardle-designed new office tower lends hand to homeless
News | Words Linda Cheng
A proposed office tower development in Melbourne’s Collingwood designed by John Wardle Architects will provide assistance to the local homeless.
The development, dubbed Northumberland, will occupy the site of the existing Collingwood Telephone Exchange on Wellington Street – a red brick building which is to be retained. A 13-storey office tower and a 5-storey retail building with a cafe on the ground floor is proposed around and above the existing building. The design will take cues from the local industrial past, street patterns and material expression. The southern facade of the smaller retail building will be characterized by a sawtooth window facing Northumberland Street. The office tower will be set back from main street, Wellington Street, as well as the existing building, which will create a new laneway and general new public space. The design of the office building will target a 6-star Green Star rating.

The development will share its end of trip facilities with the homeless. The shower and change room facilities are designed with assistance from Launch Housing, a provider of housing and homeless support service. During hours of minimal use by office workers, showers and change room facilities in the office complex will be managed by the organization to provide clean and safe change facilities in support of local homeless people while sorting out their housing crisis. Northumberland will also be one of the first commercial buildings to contribute to the Homes for Homes initiative, a sustainable funding source for affordable housing established by The Big Issue in 2013.

Developer Grocon will contribute 0.1 percent annual office rent received to the fund. The proceeds will be used to refurbish and manage social housing for low-income and homeless people in Australia.

Grocon has submitted the design for planning approval. If approved, construction will commence in early 2017. The development will be located across the road from a proposed 13-storey apartment tower, also designed by John Wardle Architects and developed by Cbus. The proposal is currently being assessed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). The matter was heard on 11 and 12 April but was adjourned until 14-15 July to allow for amendments to the plans.

ArchitectureAU Link | Captions

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A U C K L A N D

via Architecture + Women • New Zealand

Te Puea Marae. Image: RNZ/Shannon Haunui-Thompson

A+W•NZ & JASMAX ORGANISING TE PUEA MARAE DONATIONS
The media has been reporting recently that those without homes now include families who cannot afford the rising rents which accompany the increasing house prices in New Zealand, and especially in Auckland. To help address this issue, Te Puea Marae has generously opened its doors to the homeless, with other Marae and charities following their example.

While homelessness is mainly a political issue, it is also an architectural one, in that architects can offer solutions to our built environments and the use of them. Architects work on a daily basis within the financial structures which contribute to the high cost of housing, as well as with many clients who are involved at the coalface, from religious groups to social services and charities.

A+W•NZ has built some powerful networks and structures since its beginning five years ago. We thought that those networks can be put to good use by collecting blankets and food to donate to those being generous to others, starting with Te Puea Marae.

Te Puea Herangi is important to A+W•NZ as an early leader in her contribution to Maori architecture, establishing Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia, central to the Kingitanga (King Movement). She went on to establish Marae throughout the Waikato (Mangatangi, Rakaumanga) carved houses (Turongo, Tamaoho), and to re-establish canoe building at Turangawaewae.

Jasmax Auckland has generously agreed to act as a collection point for all items donated, and the A+W•NZ team will deliver the goods to Te Puea Marae at intermittent times. Please take your donated goods to the reception at Jasmax, 2 Marston Street
Parnell, Auckland 1052, between 9am and 4pm Monday-Friday.

They will be gratefully receiving bedding, toiletries, non-perishable food, and clothing. If you have any problems or difficulties with drop off during those hours, please contact us at architecturewomen @gmail.com

A big thank you to Jasmax for providing the support required to receive and store donated goods. If you wish to make a financial donation directly to Te Puea Marae, a GiveALittle page has been set up by the Marae.

4:19 pm on 6 June 2016
RNZ News: Te Puea Marae finds homes for 21 Auckland families
The chair of an Auckland marae supporting the homeless is commending those who have had the courage to accept its help. Te Puea Memorial Marae has housed 21 families in just under two weeks and has helped some of them get paid jobs. Its chair, Hurimoana Dennis, says based on those outcomes, agencies helping the homeless cannot keep applying a business as usual approach. He believes a kaupapa Maori approach would be a key long-term solution for the current housing crisis. Mr Dennis said overcrowding, eviction, poverty, family violence, substance abuse and bureaucracy have all individually or collectively played a part in the families coming to the marae.

Te Puea Memorial Marae
Address: 1534 Miro Rd, Auckland 2022
Phone: 09 6365683

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Boris J knows Exactly how New Zealand came to this #KeyGovernment

“The whole EU system of regulation is so remote and opaque that the super-rich are able to use it to their advantage, to maintain their oligarchic position.”

### telegraph.co.uk 15 May 2016 • 9:20pm
Of course our City fat cats love the EU – it’s why they earn so much
By Boris Johnson
At last year’s Tory Party conference I drew attention to a worrying statistic about the way our society is changing. It is the number of times the salary of the average FTSE100 top executive exceeds that of the average – the average – employee in that company. This multiple appears to be taking off, at an extraordinary, inexplicable and frankly nostril-wrinkling rate.
Plato said no one should earn more than five times anyone else. Well, Plato would have been amazed by the growth in corporate inequality today. In 1980 the multiple was 25. By 1998 it had risen to 47. After 10 years of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson – and their “intensely relaxed” attitude to getting “filthy rich” – the top executives of big UK firms were earning 120 times the average pay of the shop floor. Last year it was 130 times.
This year – cue a fusillade of champagne corks – the fat cats have broken through the magic 150 barrier. The average FTSE100 CEO is taking home 150 times as much as his or her average employee – and in some cases far more. Let us make no bones about it: these people have so much more money than other people in the same company that they are flying in private jets and building subterranean swimming pools, while many of their employees cannot afford to buy any kind of home at all.
Read more

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (b. 19 Jun 1964) is an English politician, popular historian, and journalist who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015. Johnson previously served as the MP for Henley from 2001 until 2008, and as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Conservative Party, Johnson considers himself a One Nation Conservative and has been described as a libertarian due to his association with both economically liberal and socially liberal policies. Born in New York City to upper-class English parents, Johnson was educated at the European School of Brussels, Ashdown House School, and Eton College. He studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1986. Beginning his career in journalism at The Times, he later became The Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent, with his articles exerting a strong influence on growing Eurosceptic sentiment among the British right-wing.

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#JohnKeyPm kicked out of house ths week but he's feeling righteous My #cartoon @sundaystartimes #nzpol #panamapapers pic.twitter.com/E7DyjooyXj

— Sharon Murdoch (@domesticanimal) May 14, 2016

H is for House.
An old #cartoon for a worsening problem. @PressNewsroom #housing #poverty #childwelfare pic.twitter.com/wt1h7vPFqc

— Sharon Murdoch (@domesticanimal) May 15, 2016

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### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 11:22, May 16 2016
Labour leader Andrew Little: PM ‘out of touch’ with families in hardship
By Rosanna Price
Prime Minister John Key has advised families living in garages or in cars to go and see Work and Income. But Labour leader Andrew Little has called that advice “impractical”, saying Key is “out of touch” with these New Zealanders in hardship. Key’s comments come after social housing groups and community workers have called on the government to increase their supply of affordable housing. There have been reports families in Auckland have been forced to rent garages and shipping containers, with the Salvation Army estimating one in ten Auckland garages is used as a home. Social agencies say the number of families living out of their cars has increased.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: theguardian.com – Boris Johnson

ELEMENTAL | UC Innovation Center

An open and eco-friendly university building.

Location: San Joa­quín Cam­pus | Uni­ver­si­dad Ca­tó­li­ca de Chi­le | San­tia­go, Chi­le
Client: Grupo Angelini | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Category Winner: Architecture
Designs of the Year 2015, Design Museum, London

Architects: ELEMENTAL (Chile)

“Santiago’s climate requires to change the conventional approach to working space design. We substituted the contemporary typical glass skin, responsible for serious greenhouse effect in interiors, for a thermal mass on the perimeter that avoids undesired heat gains. On the other hand, innovation and knowledge creation requires increasing encounters among people, so openness is desired. We multiplied open air squares throughout the building’s entire height and proposed a permeable atrium core so that while circulating vertically, people could see what others are doing. This reversed placement of opaqueness and transparency is the way sustainability and human relationships informed the form.”

Construction Year: 2012-2014
Budget: USD 18 million

ELEMENTAL (Alejandro Aravena, Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó, Diego Torres) is a Do Tank founded in 2001, focusing on projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure and transportation. A hallmark of the firm is a participatory design process in which the architects work closely with the public and end users. ELEMENTAL has built work in Chile, the United States, Mexico, China and Switzerland. After the 2010 earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile, ELEMENTAL was called to work on the reconstruction of the city of Constitución, where we had to integrate all the previous experiences. The approach we developed proved to be useful for other cases where city design was used to solve social and political conflicts. At the moment, we keep on expanding into new fields of action.

█ Website: http://www.elementalchile.cl/

Photography: Cristobal Palma, Felipe Diaz Contardo (www.fotoarq.com), Nina Vidic, Nico Saieh

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Social housing, Incremental housing, Half a good house instead of a small one…. Housing as investment

Kosovo Architecture Foundation Published on Oct 8, 2015
Prishtina Architecture Week 2015, Day 4, Alejandro Aravena
Principal of Alejandro Aravena Architects, established in 1994 and, since 2006, Executive Director of ELEMENTAL, a for profit company with social interest working in projects of infrastructure, transportation, public space and housing, partnering with Universidad Catolica de Chile and COPEC, Chilean Oil Company.

He has been member of the Pritzker Prize Jury since 2009. The laureates chosen during his presence in the Jury have been: Peter Zumthor (2009), SANAA Kazuyo Sejima (2010), Eduardo Souto de Moura (2011), Wang Shu (2012), Toyo Ito (2013) and Shigeru Ban (2014). He was named Honorary International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2009; member of the Board of the Cities Program of the London School of Economics, London, since 2011; Regional Advisory Board Member of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies;

Board Member of the Holcim Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland, since 2013; Foundational Member of the Chilean Society of Public Policies; Leader of the Helsinki Design Lab for SITRA, the Finnish Innovation Fund for the Government of Finland to design a national strategy towards carbon neutrality; and Board Member of Espacio Público, an independant chilean research center created in 2012. He was one of the 100 personalities contributing to the G+20 Rio Global Summit in June 2012, and was one of the speakers of TED Global 2014 in Rio.

Aravena was recently named as the Director of the 15th Architecture Exhibition of the Venezia Biennale.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

ELEMENTAL | Participatory design, social modelling for housing

Dunedin’s social housing need —they built a bastard stadium

Dunedin civic leaders built a ‘bastard stadium’ instead of making the conscious decision to look after our most vulnerable citizens.

The increasing cost of private rental accommodation in Dunedin has seen the demand for social housing rise during the past six months, with Housing New Zealand housing one family a day during that time.

The amount of money people needed just to get in the front door of a private rental was out of reach for many families.
–Nicola Taylor, Anglican Family Support

### ODT Online Sun, 2 Mar 2014
State housing in demand
By Tim Miller – The Star
Unaffordable rental property in Dunedin is driving lower-income families into social housing, with one property manager saying the situation could get worse if rental properties are required to lift their standards.
Increased demand has seen the waiting list of families waiting for one of Dunedin’s 1451 state houses increase to 64.
Read more

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### radionz.co.nz Friday 28 February 2014
Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
09:08 Revised statistics reveal true extent of elderly poverty
Roy Reid, president Grey Power New Zealand Federation; and Jonathan Boston, professor of public policy at Victoria University and co-chair of the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty.
Audio | Download: Ogg   MP3 ( 23:33 )

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The Accommodation Supplement available to low income people and beneficiaries has not been raised for NINE YEARS.

This fact, of course, doesn’t and won’t stop upwardly mobile Dunedin landlords (many of them absentee) seeking capital gains and higher rents, while exercising tax avoidance under current legislation —there are insufficient casual, part-time and full-time jobs available in the city to service increasingly high rents (income poverty). With the result Dunedin renters in genuine need are being severely squeezed — this impacts on the health and wellbeing of individuals, couples and families, placing a long-term cost burden on the rest of society. Not surprisingly, the number of homeless people is rising. Meanwhile, the mayor, the council chief executive and friends are skooting off to China on junkets, in the time-honoured tradition of the Old Dunedin CARGO CULT.

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Accommodation Supplement is a weekly payment which helps people with their rent, board or the cost of owning a home.

You may get an Accommodation Supplement if you:
• have accommodation costs
• are aged 16 years or more
• are a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident
• normally live in New Zealand and intend to stay here
• are not paying rent for a Housing New Zealand property.

It also depends on:
• how much you and your spouse or partner earn
• any money or assets you and your spouse or partner have.

How much you will get on the Accommodation Supplement will depend on:
• your income
• your assets
• your accommodation costs
• your family circumstances
• where you live.

For more information go to:
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/individuals/a-z-benefits/accommodation-supplement.html

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: odt.co.nz – State Housing (re-imaged by whatifdunedin)

Dunedin housing: building up or Brown-like sprawl #intensification #costlyinfrastructure

There was a risk that Government intervention could actually drive up house prices in Dunedin.

### ODT Online Wed, 12 Jun 2013
DCC seeks changes to housing Bill
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council could be forced to open up land for development – sidestepping long-term council planning in the process – as part of a Government push to bring down house prices. The concern was raised at yesterday’s planning and environment committee meeting, as Dunedin city councillors discussed a council submission on the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill. The Bill, which is before a parliamentary select committee, would allow the Government to create ”special housing areas” in parts of New Zealand deemed to have significant housing affordability problems. Councils would be able to enter into accords with the Government to create the new zones but, if they resisted, the Bill would give the Government the power to force the creation of the new areas.

The council had been given just 10 working days from May 16 to respond, which was “completely insufficient” to allow councils and the public to assess and provide detailed feedback on the Bill, it said. ”In our view, these consultation time frames raise serious concerns about the democratic nature of our legislative process and New Zealand’s system of representative government.”

And, while the Bill appeared aimed primarily at Auckland, Dunedin could also qualify for one of the new housing areas, city councillors were warned. Dunedin could be deemed in need of a special housing area, based on criteria proposed under the Bill, council city strategy and development general manager Sue Bidrose told the meeting. That was largely because of the high population of students and the elderly, whose economic circumstances skewed the city’s housing affordability results, the council’s submission said.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
2.4.13 Dunedin: Developers stoop to resource consents…
29.3.13 Reykjavik, Iceland: The strongest mirror [speculative apartments]
3.3.13 RNZ Sunday Morning | Ideas: Re-imagining the Urban House
29.10.12 Govt to open up more land for houses
29.8.12 Beloved Prime Minister ‘Jonkey’ speaking #childpoverty
14.4.12 How perverse is the New Zealand housing market?
17.2.12 Salvation Army: The Growing Divide
2.2.10 “Tax codes, zoning, community boards, and financing…”
8.12.11 interest.co heats NZ housing debate – listen up
23.11.11 Last night, did John Key watch Inside New Zealand (TV3)…
26.10.11 2011 Voices of Poverty: Research into poverty in Dunedin
26.12.10 New Zealand housing, a sorry tale

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In early 1937 the government provided new loan money for councils to build new dwellings to help meet a chronic housing shortage. The aim was to provide an affordable alternative to the government’s state-rental scheme. Dunedin was among the councils that took advantage of the measure, building hundreds of dwellings for private sale in suburban Clyde Hill. The first three houses were opened by Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage in September 1937.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/document/32437/dunedin-houses-opened

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Dunedin housing (detail) [ODT files]

Green Island activity centre

Progressive Enterprises is in talks with the Dunedin City Council aimed at turning the Royal Tavern site and surrounding land at Green Island into a major supermarket development.

### ODT Online Mon, 29 Apr 2013
New supermarket plan hailed
By Chris Morris
A planned multimillion-dollar supermarket development in Green Island could bring jobs and investment and trigger wider improvements in the area, a Dunedin city councillor [Colin Weatherall] says. Progressive Enterprises is in talks with the Dunedin City Council aimed at developing a Fresh Choice supermarket on land between Main South Rd and Shand St. The site includes the now-closed Royal Tavern, as well as land next to Green Island Memorial Park and a block of council-owned flats.

A Progressive Enterprises spokeswoman would only say there were no confirmed plans for Green Island, although the company was ”always looking for great sites and Dunedin is no exception”.

The development is yet to be confirmed, but council staff have confirmed ”reasonably serious discussions” began six months ago and are progressing.

The proposed site was zoned ”Local Activity 1”, which allowed for a supermarket as long as conditions – including site coverage and signage – were met. That meant a non-notified consent process – without submissions or a hearing – was most likely, unless special circumstances warranted otherwise.
Read more

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Would you trust Dunedin City Council to protect public and private interests via a non-notified consent process ? ………..NO.

A major development should always be PUBLICLY NOTIFIED, otherwise there’s stuff to hide.

‘Red carpet not red tape’ is FULLY ANTI-DEMOCRATIC.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

interest.co heats NZ housing debate – listen up

This is not just about the Accommodation Supplement that 320,000 New Zealanders received last year. Alex Tarrant’s full post prompts a sharp, sometimes shonky blogging debate. It raises critical issues that dog the consultation and drafting of Dunedin’s spatial plan but which never got a look in, and never will. Read the comments.

Our ‘first’ spatial plan should not have been rushed, given the time scale it must address. For ‘rushed’ substitute ‘superheated’, where respect and consideration are much diminished for existing patterns of living (good and bad), underlying and surrounding issues, Southern practices and philosophies, utilisation of natural and people-made resources, regional and global influences, and cumulative effects – and the real economics of PLACE-SHAPING that hinge on the recent actions of a badly-managed, far-from-smart city council that has manufactured a mountain of unsustainable debt.

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### interest.co.nz December 7, 2011 – 04:12pm
Property
Accommodation Supplement: Landlord subsidy punching a big hole in govt books due to unaffordable housing, or an essential benefit?
By Alex Tarrant
The government is being urged to boost the supply of affordable housing to help wean people off a state rent subsidy which could cost NZ$2.2 billion a year – almost twice as much as official predictions – by 2016. But any fix could require a large up-front investment in state house building, and/or require action from the private and community sectors to help increase housing supply, and therefore affordability, at the lower end of the price spectrum.

The Green Party has called on the government to see whether spending on the Accommodation Supplement could be more effectively spent elsewhere, with the party touting construction of more state houses as one solution to problems of housing and rent affordability. Co-leader Meteria Turei has attacked the Accommodation Supplement in Parliament as a subsidy for landlords. Turei told interest.co.nz high house prices, with constrained supply, meant higher rents and therefore costs to the government through the rent subsidy.

Meanwhile, the government’s Productivity Commission, which is currently investigating issues of housing affordability in New Zealand, has had the issue of the Accommodation Supplement, and the possible hit to the government’s books, raised with it by the Salvation Army.
Read more

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One (sample) blogger, right or wrong…

by PhilBest | 08 Dec 11, 11:08am (at Tarrant’s thread)

The fact, observable everywhere in the world where there are urban growth containment policies, is that the escalation of urban land prices under this racket, is always greater than the ability of people to “trade off” space to keep within what they can afford.

The few remaining undistorted markets in the world, have a LOWER median multiple house price AND a far larger average amount of space per person. A one-eighth of an acre section in NZ or Britain, costs literally several times as much as a 1 acre section in many US cities (regardless of pre-or-post-crash conditions. The US cities without urban land rackets had no price bubble).

The result of fringe homes being $150,000 houses on $250,000 sections instead of $150,000 houses on $50,000 sections; is that a decent apartment near the CBD is $1,000,000 (almost all of which represents gold-plated land value) instead of under $200,000 as it is in the undistorted market.

The biggest irony in all this, is that FAR LESS people have the “choice” of living near the CBD, under the “inflated land price” model. Economist Jan Brueckner says in a paper entitled “Urban Growth Boundaries: An Effective Second-Best Remedy For Unpriced Traffic Congestion?”:

“…failure of the Urban Growth Boundary to appreciably raise densities near employment centres is the main reason for its poor performance, and this failure will persist regardless of whether the city has one or many such centres…”

There are numerous other similar academic findings from economists listed HERE: http://www.performanceurbanplanning.org/academics.html

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Kevin McCloud interview

Interesting comments on contextual housing, and more…

### radio.co.nzSat 24 Sep 2011 at 11:05
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill
Kevin McCloud: grand designs
Architectural historian and designer Kevin McCloud is best known for the television series Grand Designs, and has also made series about Europe, the slums of Mumbai, and urban blight and regeneration. He writes about architecture and people, most recently in the book Kevin McCloud’s 43 Principles of Home: Enjoying Life in the 21st Century (Collins, ISBN: 978-0-00-726548-0), and runs HAB (Happiness Architecture Beauty), building sustainable and contextual housing schemes. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters. Kevin McCloud visits New Zealand for the first time for One Night Only, an evening of design and anecdotes, on 26 October at Auckland’s Civic Theatre. (35′28″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin social housing

Recent discussion of social housing for Dunedin has been taking place on another thread.

What if? has copied and linked the previous conversations to this thread.

2010/07/29 at 9:33 pm
kate said:
{substituting new link from the DCC website -Eds}

Social Housing Strategy (PDF, 1.6 mb, new window)
The Social Housing Strategy provides a platform for the consideration of social housing issues right across Dunedin. Social housing is defined as the provision of accommodation assistance for individuals and families whose housing needs or circumstances are not adequately provided for by the private sector. The Strategy also directly addresses issues regarding the Dunedin City Council’s own social housing stock.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Future of Carisbrook: Not on advice of one planning consultant

1. Time to check what an individual’s business agenda might be.
2. In the interests of balance, ODT shouldn’t have privileged the views of one planning professional in the story.

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### ODT Online Tue, 29 Jun 2010
Carisbrook for sport and build on Bathgate Park, meeting told
By Chris Morris
Carisbrook would be retained as the home for sports fields in South Dunedin and Bathgate Park developed for new affordable social housing under a proposal floated at a meeting in Dunedin last night.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Where’s the FULL background information pack that would normally prompt consultative practice – the Mayor can’t skip the requirement on Dunedin City Council to provide this.

Bathgate Park isn’t owned by the Dunedin City Council. The Park isn’t in the equation for Carisbrook’s future.

Have your say on Carisbrook’s future at http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/public-consultation/consultations/future-of-carisbrook/_nocache

DCC Annual Plan dilemmas

### ODT Online Fri, 22 Jan 2010
Plea to defer city projects
By Chris Morris
Three of the most expensive capital projects planned by the Dunedin City Council, together costing tens of millions of dollars, could be temporarily shelved in an effort to ease the burden on ratepayers. The idea to defer planned work on the Otago Settlers Museum, the Town Hall-Dunedin Centre and the Regent Theatre was raised by deputy mayor Syd Brown during yesterday’s pre-draft annual plan meeting.

A report on changes to stadium funding for the Forsyth Barr Stadium and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd, the company tasked with running the venue, would also be presented to the [council’s February 1] meeting, Mayor Peter Chin confirmed.

Read more

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### ODT Online Fri, 22 Jan 2010
Lovelock Ave realignment plan queried
By Chris Morris
The future of Dunedin’s Lovelock Ave realignment appears to have been thrown wide open, after serious doubts emerged among some councillors at yesterday’s annual plan meeting.

Cr Bezett said if residents got organised the way Judith Medlicott and Harrop St extension opponents had, they might be able to stop the [realignment] plan.

Read more

Other stories:
Lower Octagon initiative fails to impress council
Request for fairer rent rise
Waste money back
City CCTV network still some time away
Redevelopment still being planned
Approval to consult on changes

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

UPDATED Game over – Cr Stevenson's apology

The councillor allegedly leaked a confidential letter in which the Dunedin City Council offered up social housing in return for government funding support to the stadium…

### ODT Online Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Stevenson apology finally accepted
By Chris Morris

Dunedin city councillors want new powers to police elected representatives who break the rules, following an end to the long-running saga over Cr Teresa Stevenson’s apology.
Read more

Cr Stevenson – Apology to DCC 22-6-09

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This has been very obvious, nothing like taking a rent free holiday as an elected councillor…

### ODT Online Fri, 26 Jun 2009
Stevenson late for council most often
By Chris Morris

A study of council minutes dating back nearly two years shows Cr Stevenson is the city’s tardiest councillor. She has arrived late, without a prior apology, for 25 council and committee meetings this term.
Read more

‘Super ward’ + Stevenson chasing votes over apology (ODT)

### ODT Online Tue, 16 Jun 2009
Super ward supported – now it’s over to the public
By David Loughrey
Plans for a “super ward” that could give voters a far greater say on which councillors represent the city have been supported by the Dunedin City Council. It is now the turn of the city’s voters to have their say on the issue before a final ruling is made.
Read more

Stevenson is prone to abstain from voting when the going gets tough; she isn’t backing the super ward idea. This councillor has served a long term and not picked up any chairing or senior responsibilities in all that time. She’s probably feeling a bit threatened by the prospect of representational change. And so she should.

What comes next?
June 22: Council to consider yesterday’s vote.
July 4 to August 4: Public consultation period.
September 15: Final council decision.
October 15: Close of appeal period.
April 10, 2010: Final date for Local Government Commission decision.

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### ODT Online Tue, 16 Jun 2009
Stevenson apology sent to ‘third party’
By Chris Morris
Cr Teresa Stevenson has sent a second apology to Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, but doubts it will be good enough.
Read more

This is nothing more than a bid on Stevenson’s part to attract voter sympathy – but actually we’re sick of it. This protracted stoush between Chin and Stevenson doesn’t deserve the exposure. Grow up.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Pedantry from our "very patient guy"

### ODT Online Fri, 22 May 2009
Chin awaits second attempt at apology
By Chris Morris

The silence appears to be deafening as Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin awaits a second attempt at an apology from city councillor Teresa Stevenson.
Read more

Cr Stevenson cues media

### ODT Online Wed, 20 May 2009
Tale of apology that wasn’t
By David Loughrey

When is an apology not an apology? Answer: When it does not meet Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin’s requirements. Dunedin city councillor Teresa Stevenson’s apology, sent to the council last Friday, was sent back, marked “not acceptable” by Mr Chin.
Read more

****

ODT has released the apology from Cr Stevenson, it reads:

“I unreservedly apologise for raising questions which brought public awareness to the content of a confidential briefing. I now understand that the councillors and the mayor sincerely and deeply wanted finance for a city project and my questioning of the mayor’s confidential letter with its suggestion to gift assets put this funding in jeopardy.

“This questioning of this confidential mayoral letter showed I was not working as part of the team for which I apologise. I am committed to work or the benefit of the city and in the future will work more constructively to achive this objective with the other elected members.”

Mayor Peter Chin: 'not about social housing'

Cr Stevenson was alleged to have leaked details of a confidential letter about the Forsyth Barr Stadium…

### ODT Online Mon, 18 May 2009
Stevenson yet to apologise
By David Loughrey

Dunedin city councillor Teresa Stevenson has yet to apologise for breaching standing orders, 10 days after she was ordered to do so, and Mayor Peter Chin said yesterday he was expecting it “sooner, rather than later”.
Read more

### ODT Online Mon, 18/05/2009 – 5:11pm.
Comment by Duke of Ban Phai on Council doomed

I very much hope that the Mayor and his fellow councillors will be kept waiting until doomsday for any apology from Cr Stevenson. Of course, they may not need to wait long.
Read more

Things you shouldn't hide

### ODT Online Wed, 6 May 2009
Stevenson to apologise for leaking information
By Edith Schofield

Dunedin City councillor Teresa Stevenson will be censured for breaching the code of conduct and standing orders, and asked to make an “appropriate apology” to the council.
Read more

Hmmm, squander social housing for new stadium?

### ODT Fri, 10 Apr 2009
Concern at housing cutback plans

By Bruce Munro

A city council plan to get rid of its annual $1 million social housing building budget has concerned social service groups.

Read more online here;

Public submissions on the LTCCP close on Wednesday 15 April at 5pm. Go to Draft Community Plan.

City Council community development team leader Rebecca Parata said the public would have two opportunities to make submissions on the proposal, during the draft LTCCP consultation period and when the draft Social Housing Strategy was released for consultation in July.

Read more

Some thoughts

These are random, but as the site is again gaining momentum (strange watching visitor numbers fluctuate), I’ll add some other food for thought. I’m not saying they are relevant here, but to my mind all design is about the synthesis of ideas, from whatever source. So why not look at what else is being done and are these relevant to us or not.

The first I will just briefly talk about is old Carisbrook.

To my thinking modern stadiums have no place in a suburban setting. There are of course exceptions to this, where redevelopment has been restricted etc. I will never be convinced that Eden Park should have been redeveloped where it is, and in that form. Highbury, the home of Arsenal football stadium, has recently been redeveloped in a two-stage process. Arsenal and its financial backers were looking to house a champion side (ow that hurts to say that) in a modern new facility, with all of the bells and whistles which go with it, not to mention larger capacity. Arsenal (like most clubs in the UK) is located in a suburban location in North London, this is its major restriction, but was turned into its advantage.

The club built a new stadium at Ashburton Grove is an industrial plot of land just 500 metres from the old stadium. The new stadium is big, it’s brash and it’s also by HOK (Dunedin Stadium architects). Putting its architectural integrity aside, it’s regarded as a wonderful place to watch sport.

What did Arsenal do with the old stadium?

Simple, they are turning the old Art Deco structure into an apartment complex, with the insular looking nature of the complex to its advantage and redeveloped, the pitch into an Eden, an apartment common. All of the complex’s apartments have sold out, and this development is actually making the club money.

I’m not saying that Carisbrook is good for anything in its current form. It doesn’t have the stunning Art Deco architecture of the old Highbury, which is an advantage as Art Deco is among other things a very strong dwelling architectural language; it lent itself to this redevelopment almost immediately, and some bright spark saw that.

Now of course, Carisbrook will never be turned into luxury apartments, so what can we do with the land? A favourite saying of mine is the old, “we are limited only by our imagination”, and I believe that we are very much in that situation. This is a pretty prime piece of land (not in absolute value), but in size and location. It’s suburban, it’s in a lower socio-economic area, and there are shortages of accommodation in South Dunedin. Granny flats would be a disaster, but why not adventure into the social engineering and look at stunningly designed and landscaped low cost housing? There is a history in New Zealand of pioneering in this area, with the likes of Athfield’s work in and around Wellington providing immediate reference. Also the council flats in Upper Riccarton in Christchurch are another fine example.

This part of town will always be home to a mix of young and old people. Play on that, include in the redevelopment amenities that will foster the youth of the area to be active citizens of the area, skate park etc.

I’m not saying it’s what should be there, but there is no reason that social housing shouldn’t be considered worthy of architectural integrity; in fact, they are the very reason why architectural rigour shouldn’t be applied to this. And I am talking about the total built environment, landscape and surrounds included. The apartment developments within the lands of the University of British Columbia are a stunning example of the integration of housing and social space through landscape architecture, there are references points over the entire world.

This is just one suggestion for this area, I hope many people have more ideas. I mean the actual geography of the area is also fascinating, this could be an inspiration for something too. Or failing that, what’s wrong with a modern technology/industry park. The back of the site is already that, the front is suburban.

I’d love to hear people’s opinions for what we can do there. Don’t bother posting if your suggestion is to slap lipstick on the old dear and call it a stadium. I’m working from the assumption that it’s gone, and what can we do with it now.

Some links: http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/ashburton/

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Posted by Paul Le Comte