Revitalisation of a Suburban Community: Enhancing the Social Community through Place-Specific Community Infrastructures

New Zealand suburbs are socially oriented to a core public space often consisting of a local mall or community centre. The core public space works cooperatively with other supporting components scattered around the suburb, such as educational facilities, health care facilities, and recreational spaces. This research challenges the suburban built environment by reinterpreting the community network and acknowledging the informal community components within a social community. The study approaches this problem by questioning the importance of place identity and place-specific requirements of a community.

Waitangirua is a culturally rich suburb with a predominantly youthful community located in Eastern Porirua. The new residential developments and the Transmission Gully establishment have created an opportunity for suburban development. Therefore, exploration of suburban community architecture is crucial for forming a solid foundation for the direction of the built environment revitalisation. The historical patterns of community development in the suburb and existing data collected by ‘Kainga Ora’ and ‘Porirua Development’ in 2017-2020 will be the foundation for reflecting the community’s voice and shaping the research direction.

The research aims to develop and test a place-specific community network along with an architectural design implementing the social traits and place-specific characteristics inherent to the existing community. The existing community is investigated at a macro-scale to identify the informal community network and its emergent qualities. The study is significant, as it seeks to form a solid foundation for the direction of built environment revitalization in Waitangirua and other developing small-scale suburbs in New Zealand.