As part of Auckland Architecture Week 09, a one-day invited design charette was held in a public venue in the Britomart Quarter. The charette was intended to show people what architects do, and to generate concepts for the Auckland City Council's intended redevelopment of the Wynyard Quarter. Teams were briefed at 8:30am, with the final presentation at 5:30pm. The brief called for open public space, retail, community facilities, offices, apartments, and a 'Big Idea' to activate the site. We proposed a non-destructive evolution of the existing fabric, beginning with some 'quick-and-dirty' temporary interventions to begin building community on the site. A layered canopy would be progressively built over the site for monolithic programmatic elements, with ground-level development maintaining a smaller urban grain to keep the existing working character of the site.