AUT students redesign St Paul Street
St Paul Street is being renewed by the people who use it most – students of AUT.
A semi-permanent street upgrade, opening in late September, was designed last year by postgraduate students at the University’s School of Art and Design, in collaboration with Auckland Council.
The redesign of St Paul Street, which runs through the heart of AUT’s City Campus, will replace the existing activation which, in 2018, made the street one-way, removed some car parking and created extra pavement space and seating areas, making the street more pedestrian friendly.
After the Council’s Tāmaki Makaurau Design Ope (TMDO) joined creative forces with the Master of Design - Spatial Design students in 2023, an initial site analysis helped show how students and staff use the street and what activities needed to be provided for in the next design phase.
The resulting concept design was anchored by two main elements: a ‘wandering line’ and a series of bench seats.
The wandering line was designed to echo the line of the Rangipuke ridge meeting the upper stream of Te Waihorotiu, re-enacting the slow pooling motion of waterways that were once present in the area. Concrete benches rise and fall in wave-like forms.
Emma Choi, a student involved in the design, described the experience as invaluable: “The project provided opportunities to collaborate with various real-life professionals, and as one of the main users of St Paul Street, I enjoyed contributing to the street’s vision to become a more pedestrian-friendly place.”
Dr Carl Douglas, who heads the spatial design department at AUT’s School of Art and Design, said working on a live, quick-response project in collaboration with Auckland Council was a great way to ground our research students' practice-based inquiries.
In September council contractors will implement their innovative, semi-permanent solution, keeping the scope and budget to a ‘no dig’, low-disruption execution.