Reset Urban Design is a specialist urban design and landscape architecture consultancy with offices in Auckland and Wanaka, covering the North and South Islands of Aotearoa/ New Zealand.
Ours is fundamentally a design company focused on applying constant learning and improvements to the critical and ever-changing interaction of people and their environment.
We offer a total design service in landscape architecture and urban design projects including rural and urban parks, waterfronts, cycle and walkways, town centres, streetscapes and plazas, housing and retail developments, expert assessments, master planning and strategic planning.
We are deliberately medium sized and are personally responsible as we collaborate and assist clients, both public and private, and coordinate with other expertise to create a holistic design-led approach.
We value passion and accountability as we work directly and responsibly to achieve sustainable outcomes for our clients that impact positively on the social, economic, and environmental fabric of our communities and the planet.
The Taurarua Judges Bay replenishment project represents the rediscovery of an Auckland inner-city jewel, as a vibrant public recreational park and beach. This project proudly preserves and celebrates the rich and varied cultural history and heritage and incorporates significant improvements to the amenity and accessibility to the foreshore, creating a park destination of the highest quality.
The first stage of this project encompassed the dredging and removal of sediment from the bay, followed by the placement of new sand, creating an extended, all-tide swimming beach. The second stage, led by Reset Urban Design addressed the immediate beachfront and foreshore park environs and included a reconfiguration of the roading and parking to increase pedestrian safety, stormwater treatment to improve water quality in the bay, improvements to physical pedestrian connections and legibility to the surrounding public open space and walkway network. The project included the demolition of the unsafe existing public toilet and changing building and commissioning of a new custom-designed facility. The scope of the design also extended to the construction of a new recreational pedestrian pier and a series of swimming pontoons to activate the water-space. Added features include the introduction of a comprehensive interpretive and way-finding signage network, a range of seating opportunities and site furnishings including barbeque, outdoor shower, and drinking fountain.
The Queenstown Bay Playground project is both a link and a destination, occupying a high-profile location between the central township and the popular Queenstown Gardens. It provides a destination play space that can be enjoyed by children and adults from all over the district and the world. For a long time, the site of the existing well-loved but tired play area next to Horne Creek was identified as a prime and iconic location for a destination playspace.
This project was about creating an innovative family-friendly environment that has been carefully integrated to enhance the natural landscape and provide a range of natural play opportunities and experiences to all ages and abilities.
The layout of the playspace is based on an iconic tree form with autumn colours, playing on the importance of the diverse planting of tree species and history of the Gardens. The playspace has added a valuable asset to the community and provides a strong landscape and urban connection, which not only recognises, but enhances the stunning natural setting of Queenstown.
Council community services general manager Thunes Cloete says the play
space “sits beautifully within our unique natural environment with features such as climbing rocks, the use of wooden materials, riparian planting along the creek, extensive landscaping, and organic shapes throughout, whilst retaining shade and structure through the existing trees”.
The upgrade of Hurstmere Road has successfully transformed a formally tired, vehicle dominated, and low amenity street into a revitalised open, vibrant beachside retail destination that is focused on people, all on a relatively modest budget. It is an exemplary showcase of a street that has been successfully retrofitted for flexible transition and truly designed as a space that is first and foremost for people not cars. The completion of this project will be a significant catalyst for the further regeneration of the Takapuna centre.
In viewing what looks like a relatively simple and straightforward streetscape upgrade, it is a design that has had to fulfil a complex variety of functions to meet people’s needs as places in which to live, to work and to move around. The design required a thoughtful approach that balanced potential conflicts between different users and objectives. The design needed to successfully meet the needs of people walking, cycling, scootering, lingering/ playing, doing business, providing city services, and driving, all in a constrained urban space.
The spectacular transformation of Matakana from a small rural service town to an iconic destination owes greatly to recent design efforts as it does to its location close to beaches and vineyards. Garth Falconer has been closely involved in the development of the overall site layout, the public spaces, streets, and farmers market in a comprehensive development.
Sustainability measures have been quietly integrated in the development from excavation of contaminated soil, drainage plan using porous surfacing and filter strips, reuse of timber and brick paving, and native riverbank plantings.
Reset was also engaged to extend the adjoining streetscape design for Rodney District Council along Matakana Valley Road; upgrading pedestrian walkways, lighting, planting, seating and parking.
On the southern edge of the Manukau Harbour the township of Waiuku sits at the terminus of the historic portage route to the Waikato River, connecting the central north island with the Manukau and beyond.
Reset worked with Auckland Council on several strategic fronts within the town centre. The redevelopment of the main street and the town square has reconfigured traffic circulation through the town centre to create a larger civic space.
The River Lane project has readdressed the uppermost reaches of the Manukau harbour and what was a busy port area. This project stage integrated with stormwater works, featured a new ‘keyhole’ weir to restore a water body and included stub piers that step out over gabion retaining walls.
A series of pou whenua or wharf piles act as a structural element, tying together both sides of the river edge.
