Our Story
Crafting common ground
Common Ground was founded on a simple but enduring belief: that the quality of our environments shapes the quality of our lives.
The first iteration of Common Ground was established in 1990 by founding partner James Lunday as a specialist urban design consultancy. Arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand after an extensive career across the United Kingdom and Australia, James brought with him deep experience in urban regeneration, landscape planning, architectural design, and strategic planning — as well as a conviction that cities and towns must be designed as places for people first.
Today, Common Ground has evolved into a multi-disciplinary design practice with a continued passion for the built environment and the role it plays in shaping social, cultural, and ecological outcomes. While the scale and context of projects have changed, the core ethos has remained consistent:to design places that are resilient, meaningful, and grounded in stewardship of people, place, and planet.







