Beyond The Back garden: Centralising the community connection to third spaces within Eastern Auckland’s suburban landscapes

<p><strong>Suburban development across Auckland focuses on increasing the number of dwellings on a single section. This is creating a loss in outdoor space for suburban residents which defeats the main attraction of suburban living. The idea of the quarter acre section within a reasonable distance to the CBD is long past, nowadays you would be lucky to even own a lawn with your newly built subdivided townhouse. Creating space for suburban recreation and increasing the potential for neighbourliness through third spaces within the suburban landscapes, is a direct response to this increase in townhouse builds around the outer suburbs of Auckland.</strong></p><p>This research explores how suburban landscape can be the connection point between private residential space and public recreational space, and how looking beyond your private back garden for recreational use can lead to informal interaction with neighbours, thus creating a stronger connection to your wider community. Throughout this research the ideas of neighbourliness, suburban development, communal space and community connection are unpacked through literature reviews and then developed into a final design strategy.</p><p>The first phase of this research used focus groups to unpack the issues within the community, from there an initial design was developed and then shared back to the same group of participants for feedback. This led into the second phase of research, which focused on using the participants preference to develop the design strategy and ultimately the final developed design. Using the visual preference focus group as way to reflect on the different stages of design helped push this design lead research into a final design that not only showcased the solutions to the problems highlighted by the community but also responds to the rapid increase in suburban development within the area of Howick.</p><p>Key words: Suburban development, Third spaces, Neighbourliness, Suburban Auckland, Community connection, Sense of place, Suburban landscapes, Communal landscapes, Focus groups.</p>