City Planners

A missing hospital floor. A redesign in clay.

Presented by: City Planners

From: Ōtepoti | Dunedin

Internationally recognised and award-winning consultancy the City Planners will be back in Dunedin to provide pivotal and decisive input into the development of Dunedin’s new hospital.

“Our values and deep, practical knowledge can be harnessed to contribute crucial insight to the successful and timely delivery of a new hospital that meets people’s expectations”, said co-CEOs Marion Familton, Liz Rowe, and Bronwyn Gayle.

“We will invite participants to join us in developing fresh and innovative ideas by thinking through clay. During our many years of practical, solution-based approaches to problem solving, it has become clear that clay is a portal through which we can channel and harness outstanding solutions”, they said.

The co-CEOs said the City Planners team was known for its innovative thinking and intellectual culture which empowers change by looking ahead to create value today and fuel prosperity for tomorrow.

Two years ago, the team embarked on an ambitious project to rebuild Dunedin city in clay. This was an astounding success, with huge public buy-in and hands-on assistance from all walks of life. By re-imagining the city towards sustainable and inclusive growth the project was able to generate ideas that will keep the council planners busy for years to come.

“Our preliminary research into the hospital project has identified a key issue for analysis, namely the fake ward syndrome. It appears that those writing the cheques and those advising them believe that building wards that will sit empty for years is a strategic move that will save money. It looks like they’ve forgotten a key principle of a successful building project – content is king. We need to circle back over some of these decisions and take a deep dive into how a hospital actually works”, they added.