In the year 2050, a new chapter unfolds in the architectural landscape of Tāmaki Makaurau. Almost three decades after AUT’s accreditation, the time has come for the city’s fourth school of architecture to emerge.

The year is 2040. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland has been ravaged by sea level changes and mega storms hit the city every other week, turning it from a sunny utopia into a waterlogged wasteland. Supreme Leader of the Republic, Jacinda Ardern, is commissioning a new city on the storm-ravaged remnants of Auckland.

Oh, and did we mention you have to cohabitate with aliens?

It was July 1969 when the world watched a grainy black and white image on TV that said “live from the moon”. With such an achievement, the sky was no longer the limit. Visions of moon colonies and interplanetary space exploration were on the horizon…

The powerful and glorious mayor Phil Goff has deployed an army of teachers, nurses and law enforcement officers whose wages mean they cannot make ends meet any longer. He has commanded them to take the quaint Waikato town of Huntly by force, and appoints the North Waikato Development Corporation (NWDC) to develop a brand new city to serve as Aucklands newest commuter paradise.

Going back in time, your team has been elected to help a government party develop an infrastructure project for a past post war election. You have the opportunity to distort the reality in which we now live. Your solution must incorporate a 40-60 year plan that brings you to the present day. But there is a twist...

Auckland’s pretty screwed. The year is 2032. The Auckland Unitary plan has been exhausted and has breached capacity. Auckland is now the world’s most dense, un-liveable city. Suburbia has relentlessly persisted, sprawling out of control, making the daily commute unrealistic for suburbanites to sustain the work/life balance. Hoculus Sift, a Virtual Technology company, backs themselves to answer to the city’s crisis. Their proposition is a radical way of living where users can work and socialise remotely using Hoculus Sift headsets. Hoculus Sift require architects to brainstorm and present creative solutions embracing this technology…