Auranga Town Centre is projected to become an anchor destination for up to 50,000 people in south Auckland, and become an integrated health and wellness centre, including integrated medical, physical, rehabilitation and pharmacy facilities.
A recent Auckland Unitary Plan change has enabled Auckland development company MADE to progress its visionary town centre for the new Auranga city in Drury, south Auckland.
Forming the “civic heart” of its community, Auranga Town Centre is projected to become an anchor destination for up to 50,000 people living nearby.
Fully imagined for campus-like living and a vibrant working community, the 13.4ha first stage of the town centre will comprise multi-storey residential and commercial buildings built from enduring materials and with European-inspired design themes, set in park-like surroundings around an existing lake.
MADE is expecting to start earthworks in 2023, and has commenced positive discussions with prospective commercial and civic partners, including key grocery and health care providers, about acquiring facilities and retail space, and offering services to the Auranga and wider Drury community.
Auranga, which means “Breath of life that inspires”, is located on State Highway 1, amidst the future commercial hubs of Auckland’s south.
Significant development is planned on both sides of the Southern Motorway over the next two decades.
Ancient city centre intimacy
MADE founder and chief executive Charles Ma says the town centre will have the intimacy of an ancient city centre, with walkable streets, a central piazza, atriums, water features, trees and shade areas, places to linger, and amenities that provide the social cohesion missing in many existing and new cities.
Ma says the development already has its first thousand residents, and the Ngakoroa primary school will be opened by the beginning of the 2023 year.
“The Auranga Town Centre is a deeply thought-out and highly-aspirational design for better living that is purpose-built for today’s times to meet living, working and social needs,” Ma says.
Hospitality, education, health care, employment, recreation and entertainment facilities are provided for in the centre’s design.
Apartment-style homes are planned, as well as significant capacity in commercial buildings for employment roles in digital and gig economy, education, communications, professional services, and government.
Specific features include a lake-edge amphitheatre, a four-storey arts centre, swimming pool and exercise facilities, bell tower, interdenominational prayer chapel, medium and boutique-size retail with circular-economy values, and supermarket and artisanal farm-to-table food services.
Ma says that in working with public health agencies and providers, MADE is planning an integrated health and wellness centre serving the whole of Drury, which will include integrated medical, physical, rehabilitation and pharmacy facilities.
Places that ‘leave no one behind’
“Collaboration and partnership around a shared vision is the key to building places that leave no one behind,” Ma says.
“Different agendas in city-making means there are often road blocks, so our approach is to inspire all parties to work together around a better way based on modelling and leading international best practice.
“Our town centre at Auranga will be a shared path to showing what is possible.”
Auranga — key attributes
• Auranga has 2000 home sites in consent, consented, in construction or delivered, and approvals on the 13.4ha stage 1 of the town centre.
Its master-planned location in south Auckland is optimal for supporting a centre from the perspectives of economic growth potential, wider connectivity, strong spatial layout encouraging active mobility, and direct connection to a substantial employment area.
• Goals of the urban design include reducing the community’s carbon footprint, providing a walkable urban living experience, fostering environmental regeneration, and improving social equity and quality of living, including community connections to decrease social isolation.
• As a transit-oriented community, Auranga is developing and leveraging existing and new mobility networks to reduce private car use through an integrated suite of transport options, including bus, cycling, micro-mobility, shared electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles.
Auranga is designed as a convenient, climate-friendly transport network that is interconnected with multiple options to connect beyond the car.
• Nature is a core element of the Auranga experience. Establishing Auranga in 2013, MADE invested in extensive amenities ahead of its first residents, including setting aside a 5km coastal walkway and 15ha of eco-islands, with more than 100,000 native plantings in collaboration with mana whenua.
