Greening of cities has become a significant motivation for landscape architects, urban
designers, and architects, as well as a growing public expectation. While there is need
for the development of new technologies to accomplish some of this greening, a
reappraisal of traditional New Zealand parks (19th century), often modelled on the
English Landscape parks of earlier centuries, such as found at the Unitec campus, may
also offer innovative contributions to the understanding of green networks (or urban
forest) in the city, through their plant selection, management, promotion and evolution.
Unitec Institute of Technology, in Auckland, New Zealand, is well known locally for its
park like grounds. Unitec’s campus and tree collection can also be understood in its
wider urban vegetation context, and has potential to be developed into a more widely
recognised and utilised arboretum resource. The tree collection has been documented by the institute, assisted by research from botanist Mike Wilcox (1996) and senior lecturer Penny Cliffin (2001).
This paper will illustrate the project progress to date, and reflect on the impact of these
developments in relation to urban vegetation values, such as biodiversity, green
infrastructure and watershed management, public recreation, amenity and education.
Students are currently developing concepts for the arboretum including improved path
networks, connections to the wider community via pedestrian and cycleways, and
planting proposals for enhancing Arboretum themes such as bird habitat and fruiting
trees as well as experiential aspects of spatial design. Along with this design exercise,
students are undertaking campus tree research and documentation, by updating and
enhancing the campus database, including the addition of photographs and Geotagging.
Online and direct mapping and visitor interpretation such as a brief history of the campus
and tree labels, is also being developed to promote the arboretum as a resource for staff, students and the public, in order to better understand urban vegetation values and
provide student with experience for their future practice
