NEWS RELEASE
26 September 2007

Do we have an IntensCITY?

Do we have an IntensCITY, one whose centre is bustling with people and whose streets, parks, plazas, and waterfront invoke an immense sense of loyalty and pride of place?

Wellington City Council’s inaugural IntensCITY Week, which launches this Thursday, aims to answer that with a resounding Yes!

IntensCITY Week celebrates Wellington’s urban spaces and how the city’s investment in quality urban design contributes to the cosmopolitan nature of life here. IntensCITY Week also seeks to debate the physical future of our city through to 2040 – the 200th anniversary of formal settlement. It runs from Thursday to Friday 5 October in various locations around the central city.

Opening events on Thursday (open to the media) include:

11.15am: the launch of Capital Centre: LOOK Again, a public art installation at Aitken Street which encourages people to take a fresh look at the building and spaces of national importance nearby.

5.15pm: Official launch of IntensCITY Week, opening of IntensCITY Week Exhibition, and awards ceremony for the Just Imagine schools art competition, and the aBc competition for the route from airport to city. Hon. Marian Hobbs, MP for Wellington Central will open the event in the State Insurance Building foyer, 1 Willis Street.

Other key events include: INSite – a public art project in which invited artists reinterpret city spaces from the shelter of steel shipping containers; Urban Critique – a large-scale photographic poster campaign; My Little Eye – a people’s choice competition for the most popular Wellington urban space; Spaces Through Time – archive film footage of the city from early last century on; and a public lecture series. All events are free to the public, and everyone is encouraged to get involved.

Wellington City Council’s Director of Transport and Urban Development, Ernst Zollner, says the focus of IntensCITY Week is quality urban design, which he defines as “the creation of our shared world”.

“Urban design is do with the design of the buildings, places and networks that make up our cities, and the way that we all use them.

Well-planned public spaces hold the city together, he says.
 
“Cosmopolitan centres, efficient infrastructure and well-connected neighbourhoods and services are attractive to people and to business, and they’re far more environmentally sustainable too.

“With IntensCITY Week, we want to celebrate urban design but we also want to encourage debate among Wellingtonians about their city – what do they value, how and where would they like to see things change, what are our next priorities?”

Mr Zollner says Council has been delighted with people’s enthusiastic early response to IntensCITY Week.

“The INSite shipping containers have generated a lot of intrigue over the last couple of weeks, as has the construction over the past few days of the Capital Centre: LOOK again structure in Aitken Street.

“We had a good response to both the Just Imagine schools art competition and the aBc ideas competition, and there’s been lots of interest in the public lecture series.

 “Wellingtonians care about their city and its future potential, so we’re confident that people will embrace IntensCITY Week and enjoy the activities planned.”

For further details, please contact:
Alexander Bisley, Council Communications, tel 803 8540 or mob 021 227 8540

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ATTACHED IMAGES: Urban Critique (one site) and Aitken St art installation.

IntensCITY Week
Programme at a glance follows…

AROUND TOWN
Capital Centre: LOOK again
This is an art installation in Aitken Street with a series of illustrated exhibition panels highlighting the many national institutions of government and architectural features in the area. Capital cities are the symbolic showcase of a nation, and the place in which to experience the heritage, culture and achievements of a country.LOOK again aims to question how the area could be made more visitor-friendly, indeed the heart of an inspired new Capital Centre.

INSite
Selected artists have been invited to work for three weeks in shipping containers in seven city spaces that could benefit from a rethink. It is hoped that both the steel container and each artist’s response will alter the experience of the space for passersby. On the weekend of September 29-30, people can walk around the containers, and the artists will be available to talk to people.

Spaces through Time
Film footage and still images of past moments in Wellington’s urban history have been put together as a 15-minute story cut into three sections that evolves as you move from the Railway Station/Parliament area to Courtenay Place. The footage, which will play in shop windows and other places around the city, features people’s use of these city spaces over time.

Urban Critique
Urban Critique is a billboard campaign that offers critical comment on the urban environment. A group of freelance photographers were invited to provide large-scale images and text on posters with the aim of encouraging the passerby to consider a particular public space.

FORUMS
¥€$ The Value of Urban Design: A developers’ forum
This invitation-only forum aims to highlight the value of urban design, deliver the Council's vision for the city and engage with people at the forefront of creating Wellington’s physical environment.

Wellington 1990 – 2040: A public lecture series, City Gallery lecture theatre, Civic Square
There will be presentations about the future of the city’s public spaces. All will be held at the City Gallery. All welcome but venue is limited to 128 people.

Ludo Campbell-Reid, ‘Views from up North: How others do it’.

Friday 28 September, 12.30-1.30pm.Ludo is an English urban designer. He is manager of urban design for Auckland City Council, and is specifically in charge of managing the Urban Design Review Panel the Mayor and Council has established, which reviews all central city development proposals. His previous job in London was providing urban design advice to 33 boroughs of London city.

Stuart Niven, ‘Looking Back with Fondness: The genesis of urban design in Wellington’. Monday 1 October, 12.30pm–1.30pm. Stuart Niven was the first Wellington City Council urban designer. He is currently Director, Urban Design for the Department of Sustainability & Environment in the Victorian State Government in Melbourne. Stuart will look back to Wellington in 1990, and ignite the debate as to where Wellington should be in 2040.

Ian Pike, ‘Our Evolving Waterfront: Wellington’s growing connection to the harbour’. Tuesday 2 October, 12.30pm–1.30pm. Ian Pike is CEO of Wellington Waterfront Ltd, the Wellington City Council-owned company that is progressively reshaping our waterfront into a world-class amenity.

Gerald Blunt, ‘New Zealand’s Capital Centre: Matching its urban landscape to its national importance’. Wednesday 3 October, 12.30pm–1.30pm. Gerald Blunt is Wellington City Council’s Manager of Urban Design Policy. He will take a closer look at the physical landscape of the Capital Centre and ask, ‘What more could we do to make this space reflect its symbolic importance as the heart of the nation?’

Wellington in 2040: A summary of ideas. Friday 5 October, 12.30pm–1.30pm. Invited design and development professionals from Australia, Auckland and Wellington will workshop ideas for the future of Wellington’s public spaces on Thursday 4 October. The key ideas of Thursday’s workshop will be publicly presented.

COMPETITIONS & EXHIBITIONS
IntensCITY Week Exhibition
All of the below will be exhibited in the State Insurance Foyer, 1 Willis Street (entry via Willis Street doors, south side of Sony Store). The exhibition opens on Thursday 27 September until Friday 5 October.

With My Little Eye
This is a photographic celebration of Wellington’s favourite spaces that incorporates a ‘people’s choice’ competition. Wellington City Council photographers Neil Price and Justine Hall have captured nine city spaces. People are invited to vote for their favourite space on the Council’s website – www.Wellington.govt.nz/rd/intenscity . Votes will be counted and a winner randomly chosen, and announced at the end ofIntensCITY Week. Their prize will be a gourmet meal and a photograph of the winner by Neil Price, in the winning space.

Welington 2040 – Just Imagine…
This is a schools art competition looking at Wellington’s physical landscape. Year 7 and 8 students have been asked to create an artistic vision of the city in 2040 that takes the best of the past into the future. 

aBc: Airport/Basin/City
This is an ideas competition on the route between the airport via the Basin Reserve to the city.

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