Fresh Concept

A Fresh Concept for Maungawhau Station

Words: Suzanne McNamara

Photography: Fresh Concept and Blink Ltd

There's a good chance you've encountered the work of Fresh Concept without knowing it. The Uptown-based creative agency is behind many of the public spaces, events and activations that bring people together across Tāmaki Makaurau.

Now the team has turned its attention to a significant piece of Uptown itself - the large area surrounding Maungawhau Station. Engaged by Auckland Council to deliver Make Space, Fresh Concept is taking what could have been a temporary void in the middle of the city and turning it into somewhere people can meet, eat, play, shop and spend time.

For Strategic Design Director Neill Gaddes, that is what good placemaking is about-giving a space "value and meaning". The area around Maungawhau Station has been through a protracted transformation. To make way for the new station, many of the buildings in the surrounding streets were purchased and demolished, leaving a substantial area of land awaiting its next chapter.

There was a risk that this temporary space could simply become a carpark or an empty expanse while longer term development plans took shape. The Uptown Business Association was keen to see something more meaningful happen in the interim - a space that could benefit the community and contribute to the vitality of the Uptown area.

Auckland Council listened, and Fresh Concept was brought in to help make that happen. The result is Make Space - a flexible community space designed to evolve with the people who use it.

Fresh Concept takes its projects from strategy through to delivery, including thinking about how a space will actually be used and activated by the community. For Make Space, that process began with hundreds of conversations with local residents and businesses to understand what they wanted from the site.

The next step was to turn those ideas into reality-but not necessarily all at once. Fresh Concept's approach is to test and trial different ideas, see what people respond to, and then develop the ones that work.

"We bring in programmes and activities to see if they work and, if they work, we incubate them," says Neill. "We keep them going and growing and hopefully this could be something that has a real foothold in the area."

It's an approach that means Make Space isn't a finished product. It is deliberately flexible, allowing the space to change as the community discovers what it wants from it.

Flexibility was particularly important given what the surrounding community had already experienced. Years of construction had disrupted residents and businesses, so Fresh Concept knew that whatever came next needed to have a low impact and be welcoming.

Fresh food emerged as a strong theme through the community consultation. In response, Fresh Concept approached the operators of the Parnell Farmers' Market, who agreed to bring a 40-stall market to Make Space every Sunday from 9:30am to 2pm. There will be fresh fruit and vegetables, delicious baked goods and plenty more for locals to browse, buy and take home.

The vision extends beyond the market. Neill envisages people arriving with picnic blankets and settling into the west-facing pocket park, which gets all-day sun. There will be a programme of music, skateboard lessons for children and a bike hub where people can fix their bikes or try an e-bike before buying one.

And then there is the train.

Maungawhau Station opens up the possibility of people travelling into Uptown from neighbouring suburbs specifically to enjoy the market and Make Space. "It's like a door opening," says Neill. "In effect, we are shrinking the city."

It's conceivable that people could hop on the train with empty shopping bags and return home with them full of fresh produce and market finds. "Hopping on a train is a completely different proposition," says Neill. "Everything about it is different."

For visitors, the train removes some of the hassle associated with driving - navigating traffic, finding a suitable carpark, and then walking to their destination. Neill believes it will take time for people to change their habits, but that a regular, fast train service will eventually make visiting Uptown an easy proposition.

There's also been plenty of inventive thinking behind the scenes. As part of Fresh Concept's reuse and recycle ethos, the team knocked on doors across Auckland Council to find out what useful materials might already be sitting in storage.

The search paid off. "We've managed to get native plants, a lot of the public furniture - benches that were left over from another project years ago - and we've repurposed them to use them on the site," says Neill. "It's part of just trying to do everything as cost-effectively as possible."

And Fresh Concept isn't stopping with the programme it has already developed. The agency is open to approaches from people with ideas for pop- ups and activities that could bring more life to the space. Outdoor performances are one example of how a self-contained operator could come in and use Make Space for a community activity.

That openness is central to the Fresh Concept philosophy. The agency isn't trying to dictate exactly what Make Space should become. Instead, it is creating the framework and giving the community room to experiment.

The opening of Maungawhau Station, with its various exits has fundamentally changed how people

can arrive. After being closed for so long during construction, the station is now doing what it was built to do - bringing people directly into the heart of Uptown.

And with Make Space providing a reason to get off the train and stay awhile, the area around the station is beginning to take on a new role. It's not just a train station or transport interchange, but a place to meet, shop, eat and spend time.

For Fresh Concept, an Uptown business helping to shape Uptown, Make Space is an opportunity to put its placemaking philosophy into practice on its own doorstep.

After years of construction, the station is open, the trains are running and there is finally a space for the community to use. So why not hop on the train, come into the heart of Uptown and see what's happening at Make Space?

Submit ideas:

makespaceakl@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Make Space is made possible by Auckland Council and delivered by the Auckland Urban Development Office's Placemaking programme in collaboration with local agency Fresh Concept.