The client brief was to stimulate informed discussion and solicit feedback to Auckland Council as part of the consultation process for the draft Unitary Plan. Specifically, feedback was sought on the proposed changes to height and density rules needed to provide the additional 400,000 homes required over the next 30 years.

As a detailed urban planning document, the (lengthy, technical) format of the Unitary Plan presented a significant barrier. With few people every likely to read the plan, any feedback was likely to be uninformed, or general at best.

To address this, I proposed a strategy entered around the creation of an interactive simulator that provided a graphical representation of how each of the the proposed rule changes impacted the number of new homes it would be possible to build.

Visitors were encouraged to explore alternative scenarios - for example, increase CBD apartment heights in order to preserve the green belt - and use these as the basis for discussion with others, and in providing direct feedback to Council.

In doing so, we were able to provide a tangible focal point for informed discussion between residents, and also improve the quality of submissions received by Council. In total, the campaign generated 6,540 posts and comments (1200 through Shape Auckland and 5,340 through other social media channels).

The volume and quality of submissions was noted at that time as being higher than any previous Council consultation.