Akaroa - Tianyu Zhang

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Akaroa is a small French style town on Bank Peninsula in South Island of New Zealand. It is located within the Akaroa harbour, and is 84m from Christchurch city by the State Highway 75. The name Akaroa is Ka Tahu Maori for 'Long Harbour', which would be spelt Whangaroa in standard Maori. Akaroa has a distinct and incredibily interesting history of human connection. It contents a long Maori history, special European colonial history, especially the French history, and recent New Zealand own history. Due to this special history, Akaroa has a number of heritages and the town itself is an important heritage for New Zealand. This special history, culture and heritage value is also the main attraction for visitors. Tourism is the most important industry for Akaroa. As a result of damage to Lyttelton Port suffered during the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes, the vast majority of cruise ships arrivals in Canterbury have been relocated to Akaroa Harbour. It brings more than 140000 passengers to visit Akaroa every year. In addition, Akaroa has a very special township structure. The town centre is separated into two parts - North Town Centre and South Town, and they are only connected by the beach road.

Design Vision: Akaroa will showcase a viable and tranquil community that supply products and services to cater the increase of tourist numbers without compromising the value of Akaroa's heritage, streetscape, community and natural landscape. The town will be improved into a sustainable tourism and holiday town that can mitigate and adapt to climate change over the next 100 years.

Goals: 
1. To protect the key functional and historic elements from climate change.
2. To develop additional commercial land and infra'structure in Akaroa to meet the requirement of tourism development.
3. To develop additional affordable accommodations for attracting workforce.
4. To improve the coastal edge habitat of Akaora.
5. To improve the walking connectivity between attractions in Akaroa

Design Intent: The design creates the coastal landscape zone in Akaroa and upgrades the seawall to protect. Akaroa town ship. It improves the walking condition and experience, and develops 2 new attraction points along the coastal line. The design enhances the connectivity between attractions and encourages more people, both visitors and locals, to walk. The new design of north town centre and the waterfront can attract more people stay in here and ease the pressure and congestion in south town centre. The main concept for dealing the climate change is to upgrade existing seawall and create pump station to solve the issue of inundation.