Developers make a point on high density

A‘‘spite’’ project designed to show Auckland developers how to build higher-density housing that people can actually live happily in has opened in Hobsonville Point.

The red ribbon has been cut on the 120-apartment Bernoulli Gardens, but though developers Mark Todd and Ben Preston from Ockham Residential were keen on making money from it, they were also out to make a point.

‘‘We came out to Bernoulli Gardens to do a ‘super lot’ out here, at three times the density [of mainstream greenfields developers], at 0.6 average price with over 200 per cent more green space,’’ Todd said.

The project was designed ‘‘to show developers who specialise in greenfields subdivisions how they could use this suburban land far more effectively, and make just as much money, and respond more effectively to the social and economic needs of Aucklanders’’.

It was a big leap for Ockham. ‘‘Our main passion is brownfields regeneration of sites next to train stations,’’ Todd said.

‘‘This is really a project that I wanted to do because I wanted to change things – kind of out of spite – because it’s so wasteful.

‘‘This was a huge gamble, saying I could build character flats in Hobsonville, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere, really. It’s not what I normally do.’’

Hobsonville Point is a massive master-planned township rapidly rising on former defence land to the northwest of Auckland across the upper Waitemata¯ Harbour from the city’s central business district.

It’s a hive of activity, with multiple developers at work erecting buildings, but Bernoulli Gardens was designed by architect Martin King to challenge the models other greenfields developers use.

The Bernoulli Gardens site was ‘‘terraced housing/mixed housing urban’’ split zoning, Todd said, with limited density controls.

But, he said: ‘‘There’s institutional bias that believes people want to drive their car to their house’s front door, and they want a fee simple title.’’

That assumption led greenfields developers to favour rows of shoebox, tunnel-like homes, with no room left for green or communal spaces.

By contrast, Bernoulli Gardens is centred around a large open, communal green space, and was consciously designed to have ‘‘bump spaces’’ where people living there will bump into each other. There are car parks, but they are underground.

‘‘By doing that, I’ve put three times the number of houses on this site as compared to that lot,’’ said Todd at Bernoulli Gardens’ grand opening, pointing to rows of terraced housing being built across the road.

‘‘And, it’s at 0.6 of the average price, and it’s got 240 per cent more green space, and the green space is not little pig pens associated with each house. Kids can play with balls here.’’

The community can decide to develop the communal land, he said. A tennis court, a children’s play area, and formal gardens were all possibilities.

In previous developments, the community lounges have been in almost constant use for birthday parties and anniversary celebrations, he said.

The Bernoulli Gardens apartments have high ceiling studs compared to most newlydeveloped homes, and there was a focus on rooms having multiple windows on adjoining walls to bring in light from more than one direction, and avoid the tunnellike feel common to many apartments.

This year, Ockham would do about 280 ‘‘turnkey’’ apartments, Todd said. Buyers were mostly individuals seeking homes for themselves.

‘‘Three years ago it was about

50-50 between owner-occupiers and investors, but now it’s about

90 per cent owner-occupiers,’’ Todd said.

Todd and Preston don’t talk like property developers.

In Preston’s Bernoulli Gardens opening speech he lamented how hard it was to find women mathematicians to name buildings after. Ockham buildings are traditionally named after mathematicians.

Bernoulli Gardens was named after 18th-century Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli, whose work paved the way for aircraft design.

Both Todd and Preston did maths at university, Todd doublemajoring in philosophy and Preston in commerce.

Neither grew up wanting to be a property developer.

‘‘I wasn’t really planning to be a builder or a property developer, or even an apartment developer,’’ Todd said.

‘‘My favourite phrase is ‘My life is just an ad hoc concatenation of historic events.’ ’’

They got into property development in the midst of the global financial crisis, a time when New Zealand was waking up to the full scale of its leaky and shonky building failures.

‘‘There was a period when the wrong products and design methodologies were being used,’’ Todd said.

‘‘It was the blind leading the blind there for a while.’’