Frith Walker is the Head of Placemaking at Eke Panuku, the Auckland Council agency tasked with the regeneration of Auckland’s central city – an area that has had its challenges due to construction disruption, a retail downturn, and the acceleration of flexible working. Here, she talks about the importance of the city’s “third places” such as Takutai Square and their fundamental role in the central city.
JEREMY HANSEN Central cities all over the world have been facing some unique challenges with the acceleration of flexible working practices. That’s created a stronger focus on the amenities that central cities offer, including public squares and gathering places, which are sometimes known as “third places”. Could you begin by explaining what a third place is?
FRITH WALKER A third place means there are two other places, which are work and home. So a third place is neither of those things – not a workplace or a home, but something in between, like a library or a public space. What’s different now is that our work isn’t necessarily something that is just nine to five, and our homes aren’t necessarily separate from our work. So third places are now spaces that support those other two aspects of our lives. If I’m in the city, where do I go to meet someone? Third places are like the glue that connects us: parks, civic squares, and libraries, of course.
JEREMY HANSEN Are third places like public squares more important amenities than they used to be?
FRITH WALKER The more digital our lives become, the more we desperately need real human contact. How do we know how to be good citizens? How do we remember our responsibility to our fellow people? Third places are shared, so they’re the places where you explore the answers to those questions almost unconsciously, where you bump into people and have to negotiate or navigate your way around a crowded place.
A lot of our lived experience at the moment is scrolling on our phones. If we wonder why we are sad or distracted or alone or stressed all the time, we’re actually not living a life that is good for our heads or our hearts. There are social cues that only come from hanging out with another human being. We need to build community and connections, and third spaces create those opportunities to get to know other human beings. We’re talking about social glue and how we hold together as a community.
JEREMY HANSEN Where does the design of these places come in?
FRITH WALKER It’s about designing spaces that connect people, but also connect the city as a whole. The design needs to help the people who use it care about it, and therefore look after it. Just plonking award-winning pretty things into space without thinking about how they serve a community isn’t necessarily going to work. You have to think about the ongoing care of them, you have to programme them to give people reasons to connect.
JEREMY HANSEN There’s a great deal of construction fatigue in Auckland’s central city at the moment, from the now-complete revamp of Quay Street to the ongoing work on the City Rail Link and its stations. That’s been tough, but how do we remind people that much of this construction is also bringing positive change?
FRITH WALKER If we think about Silo Park, Wynyard Quarter and the revamped Quay Street with Te Wānanga, as well as Te Komititanga and Takutai Square, we now have a city that has much better connections to its waterfront, and a much more established pedestrian journey for people who come here. It’s just a much better place to hang out. We need to make sure we are co-ordinated and thoughtful about the how, when and why of works most definitely, but a city needs to evolve to meet its changing needs and peoples. The way these third places are serving the city and giving people reasons to connect is really exciting.
JEREMY HANSEN This interview is for our sustainability report, and I wondered what links there are between the creation of successful third places and the quest for greater sustainability?
FRITH WALKER A successful city is built like an ecology that understands the rhythms of all the people who use it. And I truly believe that if we could live more densely, if we could understand cities as ecologies, we’d be more sustainable. Care for the place is crucial to this. And those moments where you meet each other as a community and learn to care for your place are what underpin the whole sustainability conversation.
JEREMY HANSEN Are there also economic arguments you can use to advocate for third places?
FRITH WALKER For sure. If you beautify a street, people are going to want to be in it more, which means they’ll want to be in the shops that are there, too. Or you can think of a place like Central Park in New York City. It’s lined with incredibly expensive apartments because the amenity value of the park is so high. But more important than a real estate outcome is the broader value that so many people – not just those who live nearby – get from being in a beautifully designed, much-loved place. A place with fabulous amenity is going to be much better off economically than a place that is difficult, hard, ugly and sad. We need to be creating beauty because ultimately, that’s what people want and deserve. And for me, as a long-time central city resident, I remember less about the buildings I’ve lived and worked in and more about the third places I’ve been in: Aotea Square, the libraries, Albert Park. They’re the places where memories are made.
