On the drive to Christchurch I drove by the develpment Pegausus and decided to check it out. Quite a grand scale of a design, the town is focused around recreation with it's motto being "Live where you Play".
At the moment very little of the town is built, but I was surprised to see the towns cafe crowded with customers, and the sports fields occupied with childrens rugby teams (which seems to suggest that Pegasus is trying to engage with the surrounding established communities).
The town is situated next to wetlands which are full of birdlife. The town has attempted to engage with this by providing many tracks and bird hides. However one must wonder what the long term ecological effects of situating a town so close to the wetlands will be.
The town center will be built around a massive man made lake that will feature numerous beaches and allow for many water activities. At the moment the lake is built and the landscape around it is complete, but the site remains quite deserted and eery as no construction has begun on the town center.
Yes the town will have a suspension bridge, and even a waterfall.
This is a housing development so of course there was plenty of cheese.
Howdy Partner, why don't we mosey on down to the General Store and buy us a bag of Doritos.
One can also get in touch with their ancient Greek roots.
The buildings at the moment aren't the prettiest, and don't seem to differ much from your run of mill housing development. It will however be interesting to keep an eye on how the grand planning of this development pans out.
At the moment very little of the town is built, but I was surprised to see the towns cafe crowded with customers, and the sports fields occupied with childrens rugby teams (which seems to suggest that Pegasus is trying to engage with the surrounding established communities).
The town is situated next to wetlands which are full of birdlife. The town has attempted to engage with this by providing many tracks and bird hides. However one must wonder what the long term ecological effects of situating a town so close to the wetlands will be.
The town center will be built around a massive man made lake that will feature numerous beaches and allow for many water activities. At the moment the lake is built and the landscape around it is complete, but the site remains quite deserted and eery as no construction has begun on the town center.
Yes the town will have a suspension bridge, and even a waterfall.
This is a housing development so of course there was plenty of cheese.
Howdy Partner, why don't we mosey on down to the General Store and buy us a bag of Doritos. One can also get in touch with their ancient Greek roots.
The buildings at the moment aren't the prettiest, and don't seem to differ much from your run of mill housing development. It will however be interesting to keep an eye on how the grand planning of this development pans out.
gross
ReplyDelete'scuse the out-of-class 'teaching' but, if you want to investigate the principles that are guiding this development, take a look at "New Urbanism" - we have stuff in our library that will elucidate the curious...
ReplyDeleteThis appears to be a kiwi 'twist' of those ideals... (think of 'Seaside, Florida' - of Harry Truman fame (now there's another film for your class screenings))...
the second-to-last image is really irritating me..
ReplyDeleteweather-board COLUMNS? seriously? and on a brick building? vomit.
The new urbanists drew lots of ideas from Jane Jacob's The Life and Death of Great American Cities (if you haven't read it, pick up a copy).
ReplyDeleteAnd the New Urbanists had nice, really sensible principles. But, as most movements do, it succumbed to 'style' and the style is so sweet it's painful. Seaside has plenty of great urban spaces (so they say), but unfortunately the designer's hand is heavy, with strict aesthetic rules becoming part of building policy.
Wasn't diversity one of Jacob's key conditions for a successful urban space?
And isn't diversity exactly what the new urbanist style sub-division developments lack?
You can't design a town.. not sure why people still try.
Yea had a good laugh at the weatherboard columns.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this town is walkable,it is missing a place of work. As such it means a great deal of its inhabitants will commute the 30 minutes to Christchurch each day.
The Heavy focus on recreation. The beach,golf course, man-made lake, sports fields, horse riding and walking tracks, etc and the accompanying hotel, yacht club make a pretty good argument for this development to be a weekend playground for the wealthy Christchurch resident.
As of right now the town's beach is already popular as a summer destination. The development is in danger of becoming a holiday town, and in this sense the town may have already failed to become a community. How does one start a community if half the house owner's don't reside there?
Also funny discovery, I have reached the age were I look like a prospective investor in real estate. Though my girlfriend and I probably looked like the ideal mid 20's ready to start settling down couple that Pegasus wants to fill their ranks with. I have to wonder if Pegasus is at all selective about the people buying houses there. That school they are planning on building will be awfully useless without any kids around.
Anywho I believe you can design a town, Pegasus just needs more suspension bridges.