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Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

This poster presents preliminary results of ongoing experimental campaigns at the Universities of Auckland and Canterbury, aiming at investigating the seismic residual capacity of damaged reinforced concrete plastic hinges, as well as the effectiveness of epoxy injection techniques for restoring their stiffness, energy dissipation, and deformation capacity characteristics. This work is part of wider research project which started in 2012 at the University of Canterbury entitled “Residual Capacity and Repairing Options for Reinforced Concrete Buildings”, funded by the Natural Hazards Research Platform (NHRP). This research project aims at gaining a better understanding and providing the main end-users and stakeholders (practitioner engineers, owners, local and government authorities, insurers, and regulatory agencies) with comprehensive evidence-based information and practical guidelines to assess the residual capacity of damaged reinforced concrete buildings, as well as to evaluate the feasibility of repairing and thus support their delicate decision-making process of repair vs. demolition or replacement.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes, approximately 60% of multi-story buildings with reinforced concrete walls required demolition. Both practitioners and researchers have increasingly realized that low-damage structural systems could be an alternative to improve the seismic behaviour of concrete buildings and to reduce the economic and social impact of structural damage in future earthquakes. To verify the seismic response of a low-damage concrete wall building representing state-of-art design practice, a shake table test on a two-story concrete building was recently conducted as part of an ILEE-QuakeCoRE collaborative research program. The building utilized flexible wall-to-floor connections in the long span direction and isolating wall-to-floor devices in the short span direction to provide a comparison of their respective behaviour. Additionally, the wall-to-floor interaction such as effects of wall uplift on the link slab, and force transfer mechanism from floor to the wall will be discussed in this paper.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Another house has gone from Seabreeze Close, Pacific Park, Bexley, leaving just the concrete base, a few floor tiles and the smashed toilet (throne). Houses are being demolished (85%) or deconstructed/shifted (15%) as a result of land damage in the major earthquakes of 4th September 2010, 22nd February 2011, 13th June 2011 and 23rd December 2...

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Shows a postman who has just put an 'Earthquake bill' for '$8.5 billion' into the government's letterbox. Context - The New Zealand government will spend about 8.5 billion NZ dollars (6.6 billion U.S. dollars) over the next few years rebuilding Christchurch. New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English said on Tuesday that the Treasury has estimated the direct cost of the two earthquakes is about 5.5 billion NZ dollars), which will be fully provided for in the Budget in May. He said about 3 billion NZ dollars of that relates to thegovernment's share of local government infrastructure, roads, insurance excesses on schools and housing, land remediation from the September quake, demolition, Accidents Compensation Corporation scheme and the business support package. (Xinhuanet 12 April 2011) Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

In the foreground PM John Key drives a bulldozer over Christchurch; in the background two engineers read a newspaper report that says 'P.M. gives false demolition number, PM gives false World Cup hope' and one of them says 'Now I know why those things are called BULLdozers..' Context - Prime Minister John Key is sticking to a government estimate that 10,000 Christchurch homes will need to be razed despite criticism that he should wait for official figures; he also stated that 100,000 homes may need repairs, despite Civil Defence saying it has only checked 70,000 homes so far. John Key was also insisting that there was a chance of keeping World Cup rugby games in Christchurch but an official announcement on 16 March dashed those hopes. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Minister for Christchurch Recovery, Gerry Brownlee drives a huge tractor among debris that spells out 'Due Process' and says 'In order to get Christchurch back on its feet again we have to bring parliament to its knees. Context - The minister says he is happy with the speed of the work being done, as he wants tomake sure those involved in the rebuild portion of the recovery effort are well prepared. The bill establishes the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) and empowers it to lead reconstruction efforts in Christchurch. It gives Cera specific powers to get information from any source, to requisition and build on land and to carry out demolitions. It can also take over local authorities if they are not working effectively on recovery work. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Depicts huge elderly woman with 'CERA' on her dress scolding smaller adult dressed as schoolboy near bustop with sign 'CBD red zone tours' Text reads 'And don't talk to strangers and don't cross the road and remember to eat your lunch..' Context: After the 22 Feburary 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, the central business district (CBD) was marked as a red zone. Red zone areas were deemed unsuitable for habitation due to significant damage and at high risk of further damage from low levels of earth shaking. CERA (Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority) ran public bus tours of the Christchurch CBD from November to December 2011. For safety reasons the public was not allowed off the buses as it was a dangerous and active demolition site. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

The Canterbury earthquakes, which involved widespread damage in the February 2011 event and ongoing aftershocks near the Christchurch central business district (CBD), presented decision-makers with many recovery challenges. This paper identifies major government decisions, challenges, and lessons in the early recovery of Christchurch based on 23 key-informant interviews conducted 15 months after the February 2011 earthquake. It then focuses on one of the most important decisions – maintaining the cordon around the heavily damaged CBD – and investigates its impacts. The cordon displaced 50,000 central city jobs, raised questions about (and provided new opportunities for) the long-term viability of downtown, influenced the number and practice of building demolitions, and affected debris management; despite being associated with substantial losses, the cordon was commonly viewed as necessary, and provided some benefits in facilitating recovery. Management of the cordon poses important lessons for planning for catastrophic urban earthquakes around the world.

Research Papers, Lincoln University

The Building Act 2004 now requires Territorial Authorities (TAs) to have in place a policy setting out how they intend making existing buildings that would be unable to withstand a moderate earthquake safe for their occupiers. Many of the resultant policies developed by TAs have put in place mandatory upgrade requirements that will force owners to expend large amounts of capital on seismic upgrading of their buildings. The challenge for the property owners and TAs alike is to make such development work economic or the result will be wide scale demolition of old buildings. This has serious implications for both heritage conservation and inner city revitalisation plans that are based on existing heritage buildings. This paper sets out the issues and challenges for the seismic upgrading of buildings in New Zealand and puts forward some potential solutions

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

In the aftermath of the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand, the residual capacity and reparability of damaged reinforced concrete (RC) structures was an issue pertinent to building owners, insurers, and structural engineers. Three precast RC moment-resisting frame specimens were extracted during the demolition of the Clarendon Tower in Christchurch after sustaining earthquake damage. These specimens were subjected to quasi-static cyclic testing as part of a research program to determine the reparability of the building. It was concluded that the precast RC frames were able to be repaired and retrofitted to an enhanced strength capacity with no observed reduction in displacement capacity, although the frames with “shear-ductile” detailing exhibited less displacement ductility capacity and energy dissipation capacity than the more conventionally detailed RC frames. Furthermore, the cyclic test results from the earthquake-damaged RC frames were used to verify the predicted inelastic demands applied to the specimens during the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes. https://www.concrete.org/publications/acistructuraljournal.aspx

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

Two days after the 22 February 2011 M6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, three of the authors conducted a transect of the central city, with the goal of deriving an estimate of building damage levels. Although smaller in magnitude than the M7.1 4 September 2010 Darfield earthquake, the ground accelerations, ground deformation and damage levels in Christchurch central city were more severe in February 2011, and the central city was closed down to the general public. Written and photographic notes of 295 buildings were taken, including construction type, damage level, and whether the building would likely need to be demolished. The results of the transect compared favourably to Civil Defence rapid assessments made over the following month. Now, more than one year and two major aftershocks after the February 2011 earthquake these initial estimates are compared to the current demolition status to provide an updated understanding of the state of central Christchurch.

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

The 2011, 6.3 magnitude Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand caused considerable structural damage. It is believed that this event has now resulted in demolition of about 65-70% of the building stock in the Central Business District (CBD), significantly crippling economic activities in the city of Christchurch. A major concern raised from this event was adequacy of the current seismic design practice adopted for reinforced concrete walls due to their poor performance in modern buildings. The relatively short-duration earthquake motion implied that the observed wall damage occurred in a brittle manner despite adopting a ductile design philosophy. This paper presents the lessons learned from the observed wall damage in the context of current state of knowledge in the following areas: concentrating longitudinal reinforcement in wall end regions; determining wall thickness to prevent out-of-plane wall buckling; avoiding lap splices in plastic hinge zones; and quantifying minimum vertical reinforcement. http://www.2eceesistanbul.org/

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

Between September 4, 2010 and December 23, 2011, a series of earthquakes struck the South Island of New Zealand including the city of Christchurch producing heavy damage. During the strongest shaking, the unreinforced masonry (URM) building stock in Christchurch was subjected to seismic loading equal to approximately 150-200% of code values. Post-earthquake reconnaissance suggested numerous failures of adhesive anchors used for retrofit connection of roof and floor diaphragms to masonry walls. A team of researchers from the Universities of Auckland (NZ) and Minnesota (USA) conducted a field investigation on the performance of new adhesive anchors installed in existing masonry walls. Variables included adhesive type, anchor diameter, embedment length, anchor inclination, and masonry quality. Buildings were selected that had been slated for demolition but which featured exterior walls that had not been damaged. A summary of the deformation response measured during the field tests are presented. AM - Accepted Manuscript

Research Papers, Lincoln University

The 2010 and 2011 earthquakes have had a devastating impact on the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The level of destruction has been especially evident in the central business district where it has been estimated over 1000 buildings have already been or will eventually require demolition. Although, contrary to expectations, most of the fatalities were in relatively modern buildings, the Victorian and Edwardian era building stock was especially hard hit in terms of property damage. Unfortunately this era and style of building were also the focus of the most successful inner city revitalisation projects to date. A major research project is now underway examining the impact on the earthquakes on one of these revitalisation areas. The first step is to examine the international literature on similar inner city revitalisation or gentrification areas and in particular the characteristics of owners and occupiers attracted to this type of environment. This is the focus of this paper.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

The cartoon shows Prime Minister John Key as a surgeon in a blood-spattered white coat; he has just created a Frankenstein monster which has resulted in the Minister for Earthquake Recovery Gerry Brownlee and Mayor of Christchurch Bob Parker joined together in a single body named 'CERA". Gerry Brownlee clutches a huge spiked mallet and Bob Parker a paintbrush. Context - a new bill is being rushed through parliament to establish the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera); it empowers it to lead reconstruction efforts in Christchurch. It gives Cera specific powers to get information from any source, to requisition and build on land and to carry out demolitions. It can also take over local authorities if they are not working effectively on recovery work. The monster suggests distinctly differing philosophies on how the work of rebuilding Christchurch should proceed. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

Reinforced concrete buildings that satisfied modern seismic design criteria generally behaved as expected during the recent Canterbury and Kaikoura earthquakes in New Zealand, forming plastic hinges in intended locations. While this meant that life-safety performance objectives were met, widespread demolition and heavy economic losses took place in the aftermath of the earthquakes.The Christchurch central business district was particularly hard hit, with over 60% of the multistorey reinforced concrete buildings being demolished. A lack of knowledge on the post-earthquake residual capacity of reinforced concrete buildings was a contributing factor to the mass demolition.Many aspects related to the assessment of earthquake-damaged reinforced concrete buildings require further research. This thesis focusses on improving the state of knowledge on the post earthquakeresidual capacity and reparability of moderately damaged plastic hinges, with an emphasis on plastic hinges typical of modern moment frame structures. The repair method focussed on is epoxy injection of cracks and patching of spalled concrete. A targeted test program on seventeen nominally identical large-scale ductile reinforced concrete beams, three of which were repaired by epoxy injection following initial damaging loadings, was conducted to support these objectives. Test variables included the loading protocol, the loading rate, and the level of restraint to axial elongation.The information that can be gleaned from post-earthquake damage surveys is investigated. It is shown that residual crack widths are dependent on residual deformations, and are not necessarily indicative of the maximum rotation demands or the plastic hinge residual capacity. The implications of various other types of damage typical of beam and column plastic hinges are also discussed.Experimental data are used to demonstrate that the strength and deformation capacity of plastic hinges with modern seismic detailing are often unreduced as a result of moderate earthquake induced damage, albeit with certain exceptions. Special attention is given to the effects of prior yielding of the longitudinal reinforcement, accounting for the low-cycle fatigue and strain ageing phenomena. A material-level testing program on the low-cycle fatigue behaviour of grade 300E reinforcing steel was conducted to supplement the data available in the literature.A reduction in stiffness, relative to the initial secant stiffness to yield, occurs due to moderate plastic hinging damage. This reduction in stiffness is shown to be correlated with the ductility demand,and a proposed model gives a conservative lower-bound estimate of the residual stiffness following an arbitrary earthquake-type loading. Repair by epoxy injection is shown to be effective in restoring the majority of stiffness to plastic hinges in beams. Epoxy injection is also shown to have implications for the residual strength and elongation characteristics of repaired plastic hinges.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Refers to the controversy over the decision to demolish the Christchurch Cathedral which was severely damaged in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The Anglican Bishop of Christchurch Victoria Mathews says the decision to demolish the cathedral was reached through prayer, great deliberation and with the utmost concern for safety. The Bishop says a number of options were considered before deciding to bring the walls down but the turning point was 23 December 2011, when a series of strong quakes rocked the city. At that stage the Canterbury Earthquake Authority approached the church. "CERA told us that our plans for making safe and retrieving, and then stepping back and making further decisions were no longer adequate." Christchurch City council announced their support on Twitter this afternoon (17 May 2012) - tweeting an endorsement to an immediate pause on demolition of the Cathedral to enable deeper and more open consideration of options. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

The Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010-2011 wrought ruptures in not only the physical landscape of Canterbury and Christchurch’s material form, but also in its social, economic, and political fabrics and the lives of Christchurch inhabitants. In the years that followed, the widespread demolition of the CBD that followed the earthquakes produced a bleak landscape of grey rubble punctuated by damaged, abandoned buildings. It was into this post-earthquake landscape that Gap Filler and other ‘transitional’ organisations inserted playful, creative, experimental projects to bring life and energy back into the CBD. This thesis examines those interventions and the development of the ‘Transitional Movement’ between July 2013 and June 2015 via the methods of walking interviews and participant observation. This critical period in Christchurch’s recovery serves as an example of what happens when do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism is done at scale across the CBD and what urban experimentation can offer city-making. Through an understanding of space as produced, informed by Lefebvre’s thinking, I explore how these creative urban interventions manifested a different temporality to orthodox planning and demonstrate how the ‘soft’ politics of these interventions contain the potential for gentrification and also a more radical politics of the city, by creating an opening space for difference.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Deconstruction, at the end of the useful life of a building, produces a considerable amount of materials which must be disposed of, or be recycled / reused. At present, in New Zealand, most timber construction and demolition (C&D) material, particularly treated timber, is simply waste and is placed in landfills. For both technical and economic reasons (and despite the increasing cost of landfills), this position is unlikely to change in the next 10 – 15 years unless legislation dictates otherwise. Careful deconstruction, as opposed to demolition, can provide some timber materials which can be immediately re-used (eg. doors and windows), or further processed into other components (eg. beams or walls) or recycled (‘cascaded’) into other timber or composite products (e.g. fibre-board). This reusing / recycling of materials is being driven slowly in NZ by legislation, the ‘greening’ of the construction industry and public pressure. However, the recovery of useful material can be expensive and uneconomic (as opposed to land-filling). In NZ, there are few facilities which are able to sort and separate timber materials from other waste, although the soon-to-be commissioned Burwood Resource Recovery Park in Christchurch will attempt to deal with significant quantities of demolition waste from the recent earthquakes. The success (or otherwise) of this operation should provide good information as to how future C&D waste will be managed in NZ. In NZ, there are only a few, small scale facilities which are able to burn waste wood for energy recovery (e.g. timber mills), and none are known to be able to handle large quantities of treated timber. Such facilities, with constantly improving technology, are being commissioned in Europe (often with Government subsidies) and this indicates that similar bio-energy (co)generation will be established in NZ in the future. However, at present, the NZ Government provides little assistance to the bio-energy industry and the emergence worldwide of shale-gas reserves is likely to push the economic viability of bio-energy further into the future. The behaviour of timber materials placed in landfills is complex and poorly understood. Degrading timber in landfills has the potential to generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas, which can escape to the atmosphere and cancel out the significant benefits of carbon sequestration during tree growth. Improving security of landfills and more effective and efficient collection and utilisation of methane from landfills in NZ will significantly reduce the potential for leakage of methane to the atmosphere, acting as an offset to the continuing use of underground fossil fuels. Life cycle assessment (LCA), an increasingly important methodology for quantifying the environmental impacts of building materials (particularly energy, and global warming potential (GWP)), will soon be incorporated into the NZ Green Building Council Greenstar rating tools. Such LCA studies must provide a level playing field for all building materials and consider the whole life cycle. Whilst the end-of-life treatment of timber by LCA may establish a present-day base scenario, any analysis must also present a realistic end-of-life scenario for the future deconstruction of any 6 new building, as any building built today will be deconstructed many years in the future, when very different technologies will be available to deal with construction waste. At present, LCA practitioners in NZ and Australia place much value on a single research document on the degradation of timber in landfills (Ximenes et al., 2008). This leads to an end-of-life base scenario for timber which many in the industry consider to be an overestimation of the potential negative effects of methane generation. In Europe, the base scenario for wood disposal is cascading timber products and then burning for energy recovery, which normally significantly reduces any negative effects of the end-of-life for timber. LCA studies in NZ should always provide a sensitivity analysis for the end-of-life of timber and strongly and confidently argue that alternative future scenarios are realistic disposal options for buildings deconstructed in the future. Data-sets for environmental impacts (such as GWP) of building materials in NZ are limited and based on few research studies. The compilation of comprehensive data-sets with country-specific information for all building materials is considered a priority, preferably accounting for end-of-life options. The NZ timber industry should continue to ‘champion’ the environmental credentials of timber, over and above those of the other major building materials (concrete and steel). End-of-life should not be considered the ‘Achilles heel’ of the timber story.

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

High demolition rates were observed in New Zealand after the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence despite the success of modern seismic design standards to achieve required performance objectives such as life safety and collapse prevention. Approximately 60% of the multi-storey reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in the Christchurch Central Business District were demolished after these earthquakes, even when only minor structural damage was present. Several factors influenced the decision of demolition instead of repair, one of them being the uncertainty of the seismic capacity of a damaged structure. To provide more insight into this topic, the investigation conducted in this thesis evaluated the residual capacity of moderately damaged RC walls and the effectiveness of repair techniques to restore the seismic performance of heavily damaged RC walls. The research outcome provided insights for developing guidelines for post-earthquake assessment of earthquake-damaged RC structures. The methodology used to conduct the investigation was through an experimental program divided into two phases. During the first phase, two walls were subjected to different types of pre-cyclic loading to represent the damaged condition from a prior earthquake, and a third wall represented a repair scenario with the damaged wall being repaired using epoxy injection and repair mortar after the pre-cyclic loading. Comparisons of these test walls to a control undamaged wall identified significant reductions in the stiffness of the damaged walls and a partial recovery in the wall stiffness achieved following epoxy injection. Visual damage that included distributed horizontal and diagonal cracks and spalling of the cover concrete did not affect the residual strength or displacement capacity of the walls. However, evidence of buckling of the longitudinal reinforcement during the pre-cyclic loading resulted in a slight reduction in strength recovery and a significant reduction in the displacement capacity of the damaged walls. Additional experimental programs from the literature were used to provide recommendations for modelling the response of moderately damaged RC walls and to identify a threshold that represented a potential reduction in the residual strength and displacement capacity of damaged RC walls in future earthquakes. The second phase of the experimental program conducted in this thesis addressed the replacement of concrete and reinforcing steel as repair techniques for heavily damaged RC walls. Two walls were repaired by replacing the damaged concrete and using welded connections to connect new reinforcing bars with existing bars. Different locations of the welded connections were investigated in the repaired walls to study the impact of these discontinuities at the critical section. No significant changes were observed in the stiffness, strength, and displacement capacity of the repaired walls compared to the benchmark undamaged wall. Differences in the local behaviour at the critical section were observed in one of the walls but did not impact the global response. The results of these two repaired walls were combined with other experimental programs found in the literature to assemble a database of repaired RC walls. Qualitative and quantitative analyses identified trends across various parameters, including wall types, damage before repair, and repair techniques implemented. The primary outcome of the database analysis was recommendations for concrete and reinforcing steel replacement to restore the strength and displacement capacity of heavily damaged RC walls.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

The cartoon shows Christchurch obscured by ash. Text reads 'Christchurch recovery package' and below are the words 'Cash cloud'. Context - Beginning on the 6th of June the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano has been erupting for more than a week. Drifting ash clouds have been interupting flights. On Thursday 23 June Prime Minister John Key, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and representatives from engineering consultants Tonkin & Taylor announced the first part of the Government's long-awaited land report that revealed the fate of up to 5000 quake-damaged homes. These homes were in the 'red zone'. But 10,500 owners in the orange zone were left in limbo, with their properties requiring further assessment. One of the options presented to residents in the red zone, ideal for people with replacement policies, was the government bought your land, and you dealt directly with your insurers about your house. However they got a shock when insurers told them they won't replace their homes, they'll only repair them, even though they're earmarked for certain demolition. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Prime Minister John Key drives a tractor to which is attached a crane and a huge demolition ball in the shape of MP Gerry Brownlee's head; the ball smashes against a historic building bringing stone pediments down. Context - Gerry Brownlee, who is Earthquake Recovery Minister, has caused a stir by suggesting that if he had his way some of Christchurch's older buildings would be "down tomorrow". He also said the price of saving some historic buildings badly damaged in the February 22 earthquake was too high. People had died in the quake because of attempts to save historic buildings badly damaged in the September 4 quake. Brownlee said he had no regrets despite the stir his comments caused - but he was annoyed by suggestions the Cathedral and Riccarton House were among buildings he thought should be bowled. He believed those buildings should be saved, and they would be. "I'm not a philistine; I was chairman of the trust that actually saved Riccarton House from the bulldozers in 1990. "I understand conservation architecture very well and I do have an appreciation of heritage buildings." Original cartoon held at A-474-048 Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Post-earthquake cordons have been used after seismic events around the world. However, there is limited understanding of cordons and how contextual information of place such as geography, socio-cultural characteristics, economy, institutional and governance structure etc. affect decisions, operational procedures as well as spatial and temporal attributes of cordon establishment. This research aims to fill that gap through a qualitative comparative case study of two cities: Christchurch, New Zealand (Mw 6.2 earthquake, February 2011) and L’Aquila, Italy (Mw 6.3 earthquake, 2009). Both cities suffered comprehensive damage to its city centre and had cordons established for extended period. Data collection was done through purposive and snowball sampling methods whereby 23 key informants were interviewed in total. The interviewee varied in their roles and responsibilities i.e. council members, emergency managers, politicians, business/insurance representatives etc. We found that cordons were established to ensure safety of people and to maintain security of place in both the sites. In both cities, the extended cordon was met with resistance and protests. The extent and duration of establishment of cordon was affected by recovery approach taken in the two cities i.e. in Christchurch demolition was widely done to support recovery allowing for faster removal of cordons where as in L’Aquila, due to its historical importance, the approach to recovery was based on saving all the buildings which extended the duration of cordon. Thus, cordons are affected by site specific needs. It should be removed as soon as practicable which could be made easier with preplanning of cordons.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

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.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

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.

Research papers, Victoria University of Wellington

The demand for a new approach to safeguarding New Zealand’s endangered historic buildings was identified as a result of the recent increase in building code and strengthening requirements following the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010-2011. The Wellington City Council identified 266 heritage buildings in the city that must be either strengthened or demolished to address these increased requirements. This thesis explores this threat as an opportunity for researching how contemporary design interventions can be challenged to both strengthen and become active participants in the ongoing history of New Zealand’s potentially endangered historic buildings. This thesis challenges the current approach of completely ‘restoring’ 19th-20th century historic buildings in New Zealand, to develop techniques that structurally reinforce historic buildings while inviting the progressive weathering of a building to remain as a testament to its history. This thesis proposes a structural intervention that is responsive to the progressive history of historic buildings, simultaneously introducing a contemporary structural intervention that both participates in and compliments the progressive historic transformations of the vehicle. This thesis argues that current historic buildings in semi-decayed states in fact enable visitors to witness multiple stages in the life of a building, while fully restored buildings only enable visitors to witness the original form of the building. This thesis proposes a model for contemporary intervention within historic buildings that draws a design intervention from seismic strengthening.The notion of layering is explored as a design approach to incorporate the contemporary with the historic as an additional layer of exposed on-going history, thereby further exposing the layers of history evident within New Zealand’s historic buildings. This thesis combines layering theories of architects Louis Kahn and Carlo Scarpa with related theories of installation artist Mary Miss. The theoretical imperatives of Scarpa and Kahn are explored as a tool of engagement for the junction between the contemporary and historic building materials, and the work of Marry Miss is explored as a design approach for developing a contemporary intervention that references the layered historic building while inviting new means of occupancy between layers. The selected vehicle for the design research investigation is the Albemarle Hotel on Ghuznee Street in Wellington. The techniques proposed in this thesis to strengthen the Albemarle Hotel suggest an approach that might be applied to New Zealand’s wider body of historic buildings that constitute New Zealand’s heritage fabric, ultimately protecting them from demolition while preserving additional layers of their historic narratives. Over all the design research experiments suggest that contemporary interventions derived from structural strengthening may be a viable and cost-effective method of re-inhabiting New Zealand’s endangered heritage buildings, avoiding demolition and securing New Zealand’s heritage for future generations. Research Questions: This thesis challenges the current economically unsustainable approach of laterally reinforcing and completely ‘restoring’ 19th-20th century historic buildings in New Zealand. This thesis argues that current historic buildings in semi-decayed states in fact enable visitors to witness multiple stages in the on-going life of a building. Can the weathered state of New Zealand's heritage buildings be proactively retained and celebrated as witnesses to their history? Can new lateral reinforcing requirements be conceived as active participants in revealing the on-going history of New Zealand's historic buildings?

Research papers, The University of Auckland Library

The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes, which involved widespread damage during the February 2011 event and ongoing aftershocks near the Christchurch Central Business District, left this community with more than $NZD 40 billion in losses (~20 % GDP), demolition of approximately 60 % of multi-storey concrete buildings (3 storeys and up), and closure of the core business district for over 2 years. The aftermath of the earthquake sequence has revealed unique issues and complexities for the owners of commercial and multi-storey residential buildings in relation to unexpected technical, legal, and financial challenges when making decisions regarding the future of their buildings impacted by the earthquakes. The paper presents a framework to understand the factors influencing post-earthquake decisions (repair or demolish) on multi-storey concrete buildings in Christchurch. The study, conducted in 2014, includes in-depth investigations on 15 case-study buildings using 27 semi-structured interviews with various property owners, property managers, insurers, engineers, and government authorities in New Zealand. The interviews revealed insights regarding the multitude of factors influencing post-earthquake decisions and losses. As expected, the level of damage and repairability (cost to repair) generally dictated the course of action. There is strong evidence, however, that other variables have significantly influenced the decision on a number of buildings, such as insurance, business strategies, perception of risks, building regulations (and compliance costs), and government decisions. The decision-making process for each building is complex and unique, not solely driven by structural damage. Furthermore, the findings have put the spotlight on insurance policy wordings and the paradoxical effect of insurance on the recovery of Christchurch, leading to other challenges and issues going forward.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

In recent Canterbury earthquakes, structures have performed well in terms of life safety but the estimated total cost of the rebuild was as high as $40 billion. The major contributors to this cost are repair/demolition/rebuild cost, the resulting downtime and business interruption. For this reason, the authors are exploring alternate building systems that can minimize the downtime and business interruption due to building damage in an earthquake; thereby greatly reducing the financial implications of seismic events. In this paper, a sustainable and demountable precast reinforced concrete (RC) frame system in which the precast members are connected via steel tubes/plates or steel angles/plates and high strength friction grip (HSFG) bolts is introduced. In the proposed system, damaged structural elements in seismic frames can be easily replaced with new ones; thereby making it an easily and quickly repairable and a low-loss system. The column to foundation connection in the proposed system can be designed either as fixed or pinned depending on the requirement of strength and stiffness. In a fixed base frame system, ground storey columns will also be damaged along with beams in seismic events, which are to be replaced after seismic events; whereas in a pin base frame only beams (which are easy to replace) will be damaged. Low to medium rise (3-6 storey) precast RC frame buildings with fixed and pin bases are analyzed in this paper; and their lateral capacity, lateral stiffness and natural period are scrutinized to better understand the pros and cons of the demountable precast frame system with fixed and pin base connections.

Images, Alexander Turnbull Library

Photographs of central Christchurch after the 2010-2012 earthquakes taken 25 February 2012 by Sean McMahon. Locations are chiefly Manchester, Saint Asaph, Cashel, Columbo and Lichfield Streets, and the Bridge of Remembrance. Images show fencing around areas closed to the public, damaged and collapsed commercial buildings, cleared sites, re-opened Cashel Street area with shops and a cafe. Source of title - Title supplied by Library Quantity: 34 digital photograph(s).

Research papers, Victoria University of Wellington

This topic was chosen in response to the devastation caused to Cathedral Square, Christchurch, New Zealand following earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Working amongst the demolition bought to attention questions about how to re-conceive the square within the rebuilt city. In particular, it raised questions as to how a central square could be better integrated and experienced as a contemporary addition to Christchurch city. This thesis seeks to investigate the ways in which central squares can be better integrated with the contemporary city and how New Urbanist design principles can contribute toward this union. The research principally focuses on the physical and spatial integration of the square with the contemporary city. A drawing-based analysis of select precedent case studies helped to determine early on that overall integration of the contemporary square could be attributed to several interdependent criteria. The detailed studies are supplemented further with literature-based research that narrowed the criteria to five integrative properties. These are: identity, scale and proportion, use, connectivity and natural landscape. These were synthesised, in part, from the integrative New Urbanist movement and the emerging integrative side of the more contemporary Post Urbanist movement. The literature-based research revealed that a more inclusive approach toward New Urbanist and Post Urbanist design methodologies may also produce a more integrated and contemporary square. Three design case studies, using the redesign of Cathedral Square, were undertaken to test this hypothesis. The case studies found that overall, integration was reliant on a harmonious balance between the five integrative properties, concluding that squares can be better integrated with the contemporary city. Further testing of the third concept, which embraced an allied New Urbanist / Post Urbanist approach to design, found that New Urbanism was limited in its contribution toward the integration of the square.