• Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

  • Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

    Blake Marvin/courtesy Surfacedesign, Inc

of

Transport

American Surfacedesign honoured for Auckland’s Airport design

San Francisco based landscape architecture and urban planning firm Surfacedesign win 2020 American Architecture Award

by Georgina Johnston 19 February 2021 Landscape

The honour, in the Urban Planning/Landscape Architecture category, was awarded by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. 

Because 75% of New Zealand’s visitors land in Auckland, airport management wanted to highlight the country’s historic land-use practices at and around the terminal. Our ecological landscape design is culturally rooted, informed by New Zealand’s centuries-old agrarian traditions from its indigenous Maori settlers and European immigrants in the 1800s.

James A. Lord, Co-Founding Partner, Surfacedesign, Auckland Project Leader, FASLA

The nearly six square mile landscape design was initially commissioned in 2007 and has since expanded to include phased improvements through 2044. The overall approach balances ongoing airport expansion with environmentally conscious urban design. 

Surfacedesign’s bold landscape treatment purposely makes a lasting impression from both air and ground. The firm’s design incorporates large geometric patterns inspired by sacred Maori stonefields (mounded-rock terraces that provided protection against weather and intruders), herringbone hedgerows planted by New Zealand’s European immigrants, abstract shapes referencing Auckland’s natural volcanic and coastal topography, and “V” patterns found in bird flight (significant in Maori culture) and runway chevrons. The overall plan cohesively connects existing greenspaces and creates additional airport-adjacent recreational opportunities, including a mountain-bike park and 45 acres of new open space.

Above and beyond references to New Zealand’s rich agrarian history, the landscape design fulfills the airport’s sustainability goals. To re-purpose excavated dirt on site instead of trucking it to a landfill, Surfacedesign animated the previously flat Oruarangi Creek Public Open Space with mounds patterned after abstracted seashells. Stormwater remediation is another priority.

Run-off into Oruarangi Creek and Manukau Harbour follows the traditional Maori natural filtration philosophy that water should always pass through rocks before entering a larger body. The project’s primary stormwater remediation pond, at the Auckland Airport Sculpture Park and Walk across from AKL’s retail district, combines ecological intervention and artistic amenity. A corridor of trees lures birds from the runway to the pond; lowland edge plants encourage additional wildlife habitation. Planned green infrastructure at AKL’s terminal plaza will include permeable gardens that naturally filter stormwater.  All hardscape materials and plantings are sourced locally, further minimising the project’s carbon footprint.  


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