Highways or boulevards? Car parks or plazas? The future of Wellington is only constrained by our imaginations, writes Jonathan Manns.

Cities exist to attract and retain people. Every street, park and piazza is shared by hundreds, thousands and sometimes millions of us. Whether inside or out, within buildings or between them, the experiences and connections of day-to-day life are all grounded in a sense of place.

All around us, our built environment is awash with opportunities and constraints. As an urbanism and real estate professional, these become easy to spot. Through practice, you learn the art of the possible. That doesn’t mean, however, that everyone will agree on how the form or function of this place or that should be adapted. Cities are negotiated spaces.

It is often the inability to imagine what places might look like in the future which causes people the greatest anxiety. Any form of change in our lives can feel difficult and daunting. It’s new and unknown. Where one person might see a transformative opportunity, another may perceive risk or loss. The way we perceive the world around us is highly personal and subjective. That’s why communicating change can be so difficult, but also why it’s so important.

For much of history, when we wanted to help ordinary people understand how a space could be improved, somebody would simply illustrate what a project might look like once it was complete. This is helpful, but can also be inaccurate and time-consuming. There was a big step forward in the early 2000s when CGI became more widely accessible. Images could be produced that were much more accurate and, eventually, almost photo-realistic. 

Challenges have nonetheless remained. Producing detailed CGIs is costly and specialised work. For this reason, they have tended to be done at quite a late stage in the design process. By the time you see a visualisation, key decisions will have already been made.

Today, as we make our cities fit for the 21st century, we have a new tool at our disposal, which could change everything: generative AI. With standard software, anyone can quickly and cheaply generate views of buildings, streets and places. They’re imperfect and you still need a human touch to get the last 20% right, but the software is only getting better. It can’t replicate the expertise and experience of professionals, but it can help us start conversations and democratise the process of building cities. Non-experts have a new way to engage with architecture, planning and design.

My team and I at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) used generative AI to reimagine the streets of Wellington. Here’s what we created with nothing more than an iPhone, the AI capabilities of Adobe Photoshop and Firefly, and a spare afternoon.

Lambton Quay

Wellington’s premium shopping street is home to a wide range of national and international brands and has recently seen a spate of new openings. There is also a good deal of space given over to vehicles. If cars, vans and buses were redirected, could it take inspiration from the world’s great walking streets?

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Te Aro Park

Courtenay Place and Te Aro Park have been the centre of Wellington’s entertainment district for decades, but it’s no secret that the area has struggled in recent years. What might investment into a clean, safe and high-quality public realm look like?

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Customhouse Quay

Thousands of cars travel along Customhouse Quay every day, but the six-lane highway dissects the capital’s central shopping and employment area from its greatest asset: the waterfront. Bars and museums are cut off from shops and offices. What if that traffic was tunneled, redirected or reduced, and the space was given over to a grand linear park?

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Shed 1

A few decades ago, Wellington’s waterfront was a giant carpark and an industrial wasteland. That changed with the redevelopment in the late 1980s, but little has happened since the development of Clyde Quay Wharf in 2014. Shed 1 stands today as a former warehouse turned indoor sports facility. What might the site offer if redeveloped, for example, as serviced apartments?

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Jonathan Manns is head of strategic advisory, government and public sector at global real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and an internationally recognised expert on urban planning and real estate development. All images are for illustrative purposes only.