Ben Ross

Included are some hand-rendered spatial plan designs from 2020 for Manukau City Centre. I have many more examples, especially from my work in Human Experience Engineering, focusing on human behaviour and wayfinding, including projects like the defunct iREX.

I continue to use my A3 Butter Pads and Sketch Books, along with my graphics gear, all of which I have kept since my university days (2006-2010).

Manukau City Centre Spatial Renderings 2020

Manukau City Centre Spatial Renderings 2020

Manukau City Centre Spatial Renderings 2020

The Lost Art of Spatial Planning and Urban Design - by hand?

In an era dominated by digital tools and AI/VI, I still find value in starting my Spatial Plans and Urban Designs with hand-rendering. This approach allows for a unique perspective before transitioning to digital formats.

YouTube video by JR東日本公式チャンネル 山手線環状運転100周年記念動画（90秒）

Happy 100th birthday to the Yamanote Line!

The Yamanote Line is Tokyo’s equivalent of the Underground’s Circle Line, but carries far, far more passengers. It’s been heavily engineered to maximise capacity, and carries 5 million passengers every day.

youtu.be/wuhCtUo74jQ

Medium Density in Cities are your Friend We have nothing to be scared of with medium density developments When you are use to low density urban geographies, going to medium density can seem scary while high density might be just complete …

Not necessarily as what is demonstrated in the blog post out of Germany is the same as the top picture in my Human Experience tweet

voakl.net/2025/07/22/m...

I’m in Paris right now and have noticed “school street” mentioned as a desirable feature in real estate ads. No cars = higher property value, it seems

Time for a trip to HAMMER BARN (Bunnings)

The ABC's of Urban Resilience Source: UN

The ABC's of Urban Resilience

Source: UN

💯

So Say We All

Human urban eco systems Lots of little things = eco system One or two big things = Monoculture

Human Experience Engineering. It is a thing, if you want to avoid physical soulless monoliths devoid of human interaction!

One of these places is considered holy ground and untouchable THAT MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS and only discussed with the utmost reverence! The other is a church cc @tomflood.bsky.social

One of these places is considered holy ground and untouchable THAT MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS and only discussed with the utmost reverence!

The other is a church 👇

cc @tomflood.bsky.social

The hidden cost of pretty zoning

So which one is it team?
Lawns
or
People

Struggling to speak England tonight

Odd indeed

So they wrote the updates in Wingdings?

Go go agrivoltacis on the roof
Solar and plants :)

Smallest company looks to build biggest dammed hydro lake NZ has seen

Ex-minister David Parker, electricity sector leader Keith Turner and acting Reserve Bank chair Rodger Finlay go where the Govt feared to tread: they want to finance and fast-track the multi-billion-dollar Lake Onslow pumped hydro project. Jonathan Milne reports.

Pots and Green Roofs

The claim that bike lanes slow down first responders is the biggest lie anti-bike people tell.

bike lanes are not only useful to cyclists, they’re are also useful to emergency vehicles.

This feels worth sharing—the event I spoke at this past weekend, #UtopianHours in Torino Italy, was great because it was so different. Different design, energy, tone, speakers, audience etc. We need LOT MORE like it. A FESTIVAL of bold city-making, filled with city-lovers on stage & in the audience.

Health authorities recommend doing 'absolute minimum' to fix Auckland City Hospital Documents show the decision could lead to critical assets failing, resulting in patient harm.

Nelson Hospital's generator failed this week for an hour. Simeon Brown labelled it "unacceptable".

This is the same Simeon who instructed authorities to do "absolute minimum" in works - even though he knows risks incl. equipment failure #nzpol

Finance and Development

💯
Fast track the royal inquiry, send info to the anti-corruption squads & improve our corruption laws, including:

* Ending the revolving door
* Making anti-corruption agencies better able to deal with corruption in real time and immune from direct political interference.
www.imf.org/external/pub...

YouTube video by Palpatine001 1960s Modernism? + GO FISH | Pacifica City | Part 5.2 | #citiesskylines | #series

Time to go retro, aka 1960s retro complete with BIKE LANES 😮 🚲
Also GO FISH!


1960s Modernism? + GO FISH | Pacifica City | Part 5.2 | #citiesskylines | #series
youtu.be/u_o3lhGJySI

Bishop is doing the same in NZ

hmmmm

Understandable given room availability
Yeah us townies are confined to the roof :(

Like most "tough" guys these days. Take away their guns and big trucks and they're left as naked as the emperor without clothes. A bunch of insecure wannabe tough guy posers.

This is where your Benefit Cost Ratio of 300:1 ($300 of benefits to every $1 spent/invested) kicked in

LONDON

And the cycling investment has worked beyond expectations time and time again!