A photograph of volunteers constructing the Life in Vacant Spaces headquarters.
A photograph of volunteers constructing the Life in Vacant Spaces headquarters.
A photograph of volunteers constructing the Life in Vacant Spaces headquarters.
A photograph of a volunteer laying a foundation for the Life in Vacant Spaces headquarters.
A photograph of the Life in Vacant Spaces headquarters, an off-grid, sub-consent office building.
A photograph of the Life in Vacant Spaces headquarters, an off-grid, sub-consent office building.
LVS acts as site brokers for a creative Christchurch, finding short and medium-term uses for the many vacant sites and buildings of Christchurch.
A PDF copy of pages 64-65 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Life in Vacant Spaces HQ'. Photos: Tim Bishop and LiVS
A photograph of the Telogis Concept Christchurch project on the corner of Tuam Street and Madras Street. The project was organised by the Student Volunteer Army and Life in Vacant Spaces.
A photograph of the Telogis Concept Christchurch project on the corner of Tuam Street and Madras Street. The project was organised by the Student Volunteer Army and Life in Vacant Spaces.
A photograph of a barbeque brunch and public talk opposite the former Christchurch City Council offices on Tuam Street. The design team from Sustainable Habitat Challenge discussed the build of a sub-consent, off-grid office for Life in Vacant Spaces Trust. The event was part of FESTA 2012.
Looking towards the corner of Armagh and Montreal Street at the vacant space where the Cranmer Centre once was.
A digitally manipulated photograph of the Gap Filler logo.
A photograph of the east side of Colombo Street near Peterborough Street. On the corner, a green space has been set up on a vacant site.
A photograph of a man playing mini-golf on Gap Filler's Gap Golf course.
A photograph of a child playing mini-golf on Gap Filler's Gap Golf course.
A PDF copy of pages 180-181 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Gap Golf'. Photos: Gap Filler
A photograph of the 'Arcades Project' on the corner of Kilmore and Durham Streets. The public sculpture was a collaboration between FESTA, Andrew Just, Ryan Reynolds and Life in Vacant Spaces.
A photograph of a vacant site on Gloucester Street next to Cathedral Junction. The site is to be the location for 'Sound Cone', a performance space which is part of LUXCITY.
The aisle of 'The Night Club', Gap Filler's temporary cinema, painted onto the gravel of the vacant space. Currently it is white, but it will be painted red before opening time.
A photograph of a man and a child preparing the ground for one of the holes of Gap Filler's Gap Golf course.
A photograph of an installation titled 'Halo', which is part of the LUXCITY event.
In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
A photograph of the first hole of Gap Filler's Gap Golf course. Written on the wooden framing around the hole is, "Gap golf! Hole 1: Skinny Limits par 2, 6.1 m".
An artist's impression of the installation 'Altitude', created as part of the LUXCITY event. Tutors: David Turner, Lester Mismash
An artist's impression of the installation 'Altitude', created as part of the LUXCITY event. Tutors: David Turner, Lester Mismash
A photograph of an installation titled 'Murmur'. The installation is part of the LUXCITY event. Tutor: Craig Moller
An artist's impression of the installation 'Archrobatics', created as part of the LUXCITY event. Tutors: David Turner, Lester Mismash
An artist's impression of the installation 'Archrobatics', created as part of the LUXCITY event. Tutors: David Turner, Lester Mismash