Planning out loneliness - Rejuvenating Greymouth

The history of urban planning highlights how built environments in Aotearoa fail to facilitate social interactions. For instance, urban planning during the 20th century in America was greatly influenced by automobile movement.

Early examples of this urban planning include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City project, which became the traditional American suburb (and subsequently ours), driving people out of cities and into sprawling and disconnected suburbs. Additionally, Robert Moses promoted the development of highways, which severed viable and lively existing urban communities and neighbourhoods.

Today the movement of the car today still shapes and severs the built environment. As a result we’ve inherited a legacy of poor integration and limited access to surrounding land uses, inadequate pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, and a lack of inviting social spaces.