Walking backwards into the future in Te Pokapū Tāone, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s city centre

Te pokapū tāone o Tāmaki, Auckland’s city centre, is the belly of Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand’s fastest growing residential neighbourhood and a significant contributor to the region and to the country. Globally, cities have been significantly impacted by Covid-19 and this has led to questions of the viability of city centres and central business districts and their future role. If we look to the patterns of this wāhi, or place, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s city centre has been founded on, and will continue to be, a neighbourhood, drawing together diverse functions such as being a place for people to live, for trade, for education and for entertainment. However, we know that the city-centre experience will change, and we need to look far into the future to help the city centre become a resilient place that supports human and environmental wellbeing. This paper outlines the importance of future thinking in planning, development and programming, and behaviour change to support the city centre to be a healthy neighbourhood and to become a resilient place for people.