Do We Have an IntensCITY?

Do we have an IntensCITY, one whose centre is bustling with people and whose streets, parks, plazas, and waterfront invoke an immense sense of loyalty and pride of place?


Wellington City Council's inaugural IntensCITY Week, which launches this Thursday, aims to answer that with a resounding Yes!

IntensCITY Week celebrates Wellington's urban spaces and how the city's investment in quality urban design contributes to the cosmopolitan nature of life here. IntensCITY Week also seeks to debate the physical future of our city through to 2040 – the 200th anniversary of formal settlement. It runs from Thursday to Friday 5 October in various locations around the central city.

Opening events on Thursday (open to the media) include:

11.15am: the launch of Capital Centre: LOOK Again, a public art installation at Aitken Street which encourages people to take a fresh look at the building and spaces of national importance nearby.
5.15pm: Official launch of IntensCITY Week, opening of IntensCITY Week Exhibition, and awards ceremony for the Just Imagine schools art competition, and the aBc competition for the route from airport to city. Hon. Marian Hobbs, MP for Wellington Central will open the event in the State Insurance Building foyer, 1 Willis Street.
Other key events include: INSite – a public art project in which invited artists reinterpret city spaces from the shelter of steel shipping containers; Urban Critique – a large-scale photographic poster campaign; My Little Eye – a people's choice competition for the most popular Wellington urban space; Spaces Through Time – archive film footage of the city from early last century on; and a public lecture series. All events are free to the public, and everyone is encouraged to get involved.

Wellington City Council's Director of Transport and Urban Development, Ernst Zollner, says the focus of IntensCITY Week is quality urban design, which he defines as "the creation of our shared world".

"Urban design is do with the design of the buildings, places and networks that make up our cities, and the way that we all use them.

Well-planned public spaces hold the city together, he says.

"Cosmopolitan centres, efficient infrastructure and well-connected neighbourhoods and services are attractive to people and to business, and they're far more environmentally sustainable too.

"With IntensCITY Week, we want to celebrate urban design but we also want to encourage debate among Wellingtonians about their city – what do they value, how and where would they like to see things change, what are our next priorities?"

Mr Zollner says Council has been delighted with people's enthusiastic early response to IntensCITY Week.

"The INSite shipping containers have generated a lot of intrigue over the last couple of weeks, as has the construction over the past few days of the Capital Centre: LOOK again structure in Aitken Street.

"We had a good response to both the Just Imagine schools art competition and the aBc ideas competition, and there's been lots of interest in the public lecture series.

"Wellingtonians care about their city and its future potential, so we're confident that people will embrace IntensCITY Week and enjoy the activities planned."