The project consists of the redevelopment of ten dispersed underlying sites. Half of the sites are individual suburban Lots, with the remainder being an amalgamation of two or three Lots.

A mix of standalone houses, duplexes and terrace typologies are used on seven of the ten sites, with three of the larger amalgamated sites developed using three-storey walk-up apartment buildings. The apartment buildings, both Kiwi Build and market units, make a significant contribution to intensification within the overall development. Intensification within the underlying suburban fabric, is a key focus of the development and results in smarter, more efficient land use – particularly desirable in areas that have good proximity to public transportation networks, schools, and recreation and community facilities, as the Ōwairaka precinct does.

The overall development also responds to increasing demand for affordable housing within the Auckland urban area, versus the current trend based on land availability, to provide affordable housing almost exclusively on the city fringe.

Brown Field developments such as this present a number of unique challenges. These challenges include:

• working with existing infrastructure, which in this project required significant upgrade as well as repositioning
• the social challenge of introducing density within the existing suburban fabric
• the architectural challenge of using the new buildings to ‘knit together’ existing streetscapes and working with the architectural language of the area
• the regulatory challenges, where compliance with planning controls for sites can be difficult to comply with due to the density proposed
• the challenge of building a market for new housing typologies within an existing

All of these were part of the framework that informed the design for the redevelopment of these sites.