Project 70 - The City Planners

March 19 - 25, 2023

190 George Street, Dunedin

Marion Familton, Bronwyn Mohring, Liz Rowe, Locke Unhold, Eva Ding, and Lissie Brown

Images: Justin Spiers

Property Partner: Alto 198 Limited

THE CITY PLANNERS: a team of bureaucrats employed by some unnamed local authority and charged with a city rebuild over the course of a week. Progress was dictated by an ever-changing set of rules governing city development and interrupted by regular committee meetings, as they negotiated the demands of the public and elected officials.

The public were invited to do some paperwork to foster their dreams and demands. While public consultation encouraged audience involvement no promises were made about delivery!. Ideas were as fanciful or as practical as people chose although not all of them passed the team of officials. Some of the ideas that did survive became distorted as they passed through the various rigours and rules around planning. The public were also invited to create a small clay self portrait that was placed within the city rebuild.

The city and its avatars were built out of local wild clay that facilitated fast and flexible building while also celebrating the historic importance of the red clay bricks used in many of the beautiful historic buildings in Dunedin.

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