Kobus Mentz – Director
Director of Urbanismplus, Kobus is one of the leading sustainability-based urban designers in Australasia. He has significantly contributed to change in urban development practices in the region, leading the field through his delivery of demonstration projects, publications, professional training, regeneration strategies and some of the first spatially-based sub-regional plans. Trained as an architect with post graduate qualifications from the Joint Centre for Urban Design, Oxford, he draws from considerable international experience that reaches across the UK, Australia, Ireland, China and Africa. Kobus is adjunct professor of the University of Auckland’s Master of Urban Design. He has also delivered extensive urban design training for professionals and council staff. Urbanismplus has received numerous national awards for its growth planning, professional training, regeneration projects, transport specific urban design and design guidelines.
Career highlights:
- Founding signatory of the Urban Design Protocol for which he delivered the National Urban Design Training Curriculum.
- Co author of People + Places + Spaces, New Zealand’s first guide to sustainable urbanism and forerunner to the NZ UD Protocol.
- CABE’s only international growth strategy case study – Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy – was led and delivered by Urbanismplus.
- Melbourne 2030 Growth Strategy – the most complex growth strategy undertaken in Australasia. The inquiry by design process and strategy formulation was led and delivered by Urbanismplus.
- Numerous action-based regeneration projects for town and city centres such as the Heart of Nelson Strategy.