Black-and-white photograph of a brick building, with staff and horse-drawn carriages from the Fire Brigade of Christchurch in the foreground. Photograph taken c1906.
Christchurch artist Mike Beer creates miniature models of Christchurch buildings that were lost in the Canterbury earthquakes. Through these tiny models Mike hopes to remind people of the buildings that once shaped the city - and bring back the feelings and memories associated with them. Mike, who goes by the name Ghostcat, says It's all about the connections people have with a time, and place. His models are to be displayed at Fiksate Gallery in Christchuch from April 9.
An image used in email invitations to a seminar featuring international speaker Charles Montgomery. Montgomery is well known for his book on sustainable and wellbeing-centric urbanism, Happy City, which was the theme of his talk. The invitation provides information about the speaker and the event.
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.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch Earthquake. A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city. Marsha Witehira had the bricks from the wall of her house fall onto her bed where she was sleeping. Both sides of her house have collapsed".
A photograph of signs on the side of the Christchurch Art Gallery. The art gallery served as the temporary headquarters for Civil Defence after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The signs read, "Media Info, Christchurch Earthquake Response" and "Media Briefings, every day 10:30 and 17:30 hours in auditorium". There is also a map showing access points into the central city.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch Earthquake. A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city. Members of the Blackwells family watch as their Kaiapoi landmark store is pulled down after the earthquake - the store was deemed too dangerous and demolition started immediately".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch Earthquake. A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city. Marsha Witehira had the bricks from the wall of her house fall onto her bed where she was sleeping. Both sides of her house have collapsed".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch Earthquake. A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city. Anna Lipsham begins the clean up at Ashton, Wheelans and Hegan in Kaiapoi. Lipsham empties dirt from the building into a large fissure in the road".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch Earthquake. A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city. Anna Lipsham begins the clean up at Ashton, Wheelans and Hegan in Kaiapoi. Lipsham empties dirt from the building into a large fissure in the road".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Christchurch Earthquake. A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city. Warren Lipsham begins the clean up at Ashton, Wheelans and Hegan in Kaiapoi. Lipsham empties dirt from the building into a large fissure in the road".
It's hoped a new art installation in Ōtautahi Christchurch can help people talk their worries away through a series of telephones by the riverside. Twelve telephones have popped up across sites commemorating the city's devastating 2011 earthquakes. The group behind the project is Flourish Kia Puawai. Its associate director Sharon Torstonson spoke to Corin Dann.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, right, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, left, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. The tour party watches the fire".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, left, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, centre, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. The tour party watches the fire".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, centre, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, at right, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. MP John Carter, front left".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. Shoreham Courts, City Council owned flats on Admirals Way in New Brighton are an island of isolation with no water or sewerage although all around them have. Lorraine Burrows, left, her son, Jamie, 8, right, and Charllisa Sutton-Taylor, centre".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. Shoreham Courts, City Council owned flats on Admirals Way in New Brighton are on an island of isolation with no water or sewerage although those around them are unaffected".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Cathedral Square - front of the Christchurch Cathedral".
Text reads 'Dalai Lama visits Christchurch ostensibly to sympathise with quake-hit residents'. The cartoon shows the Dalai Lama bestowing blessings on a large crowd. In an insert he is seen sitting cross-legged on top of Mount Cook saying 'But off the record I came to look for a quiet spot to retire to!' Context - The Dalai Lama visited the quake-hit city for two days in early June. He also sent a letter of condolence to Prime Minister John Key after the February 22 earthquake. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
This thesis is about many things, not least of all the September 4th 2010 and February 22nd 2011 earthquakes that shook Christchurch, New Zealand. A city was shaken, events which worked to lay open the normally invisible yet vital objects, processes and technologies which are the focus of inquiry: the sewers, pipes, pumps, the digital technologies, the land and politics which constitute the Christchurch wastewater networks. The thesis is an eclectic mix drawing together methods and concepts from Bruno Latour, John Law, Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Nigel Thrift, Donna Haraway and Patrick Joyce. It is an exploration of how the technologies and objects of sanitation perform the city, and how such things which are normally hidden and obscured, are made visible. The question of visibility is also turned toward the research itself: how does one observe, and describe? How are sociological visibilities constructed? Through the research, the encountering of objects in the field, the processes of method, the pedagogy of concepts, and the construction of risk, the thesis comes to be understood as a particular kind of social scientific artefact which assembles four different accounts: the first regards the construction of visibility; the second explores Christchurch city from the control room where the urban sanitary infrastructures are monitored; the third chapter looks at the formatted and embodied practices which emerge with the correlation of the city and sanitation; the fourth looks at the changing politics of a city grappling with severely damaged essential services, land and structures. The final chapter considers how the differences between romantic and baroque sensibilities mean that these four accounts elicit knowing not through smoothness or uniformity, but in partiality and non-coherence. This thesis is about pipes, pump stations, and treatment plants; about the effluent of a city; about the messiness of social science when confronted by the equally messy world of wastewater.
The September 2010 Canterbury and February 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and associated aftershocks have shown that the isolator displacement in Christchurch Women's Hospital (Christchurch City's only base-isolated structure) was significantly less than expected. Occupant accounts of the events have also indicated that the accelerations within the hospital superstructure were larger than would usually be expected within a base-isolated structure and that residual low-level shaking lasts for a longer period of time following the strong-motion of an event than for non-isolated structures.
A Transitional Imaginary: Space, Network and Memory in Christchurch is the outcome and the record of a particular event: the coming together of eight artists and writers in Ōtautahi Christchurch in November 2015, with the ambitious aim to write a book collaboratively over five days. The collaborative process followed the generative ‘book sprint’ method founded by our facilitator for the event, Adam Hyde, who has long been immersed in digital practices in Aotearoa. A book sprint prioritises the collective voice of the participants and reflects the ideas and understandings that are produced at the time in which the book was written, in a plurality of perspectives. Over one hundred books have been completed using the sprint methodology, covering subjects from software documentation to reflections on collaboration and fiction. We chose to approach writing about Ōtautahi Christchurch through this collaborative process in order to reflect the complexity of the post-quake city and the multiple paths to understanding it. The city has itself been a space of intensive collaboration in the post-disaster period. A Transitional Imaginary is a raw and immediate record, as much felt expression as argued thesis. In many ways the process of writing had the character of endurance performance art. The process worked by honouring the different backgrounds of the participants, allowing that dialogue and intensity could be generative of different forms of text, creating a knowledge that eschews a position of authority, working instead to activate whatever anecdotes, opinions, resources and experiences are brought into discussion. This method enables a dynamic of voices that merge here, separate there and interrupt elsewhere again. As in the contested process of rebuilding and reimagining Christchurch itself, the dissonance and counterpoint of writing reflects the form of conversation itself. This book incorporates conflict, agreement and the activation of new ideas through cross-fertilisation to produce a new reading of the city and its transition. The transitional has been given a specific meaning in Christchurch. It is a product of local theorising that encompasses the need for new modes of action in a city that has been substantially demolished (Bennett & Parker, 2012). Transitional projects, such as those created by Gap Filler, take advantage of the physical and social spaces created by the earthquake through activating these as propositions for new ways of being in the city. The transitional is in motion, looking towards the future. A Transitional Imaginary explores the transitional as a way of thinking and how we understand the city through art practices, including the digital and in writing.
A photograph of Umut Akguzel with a collection of concrete stairs salvaged from a building and placed in a car park in the Christchurch central city.
A year and a half after the February Earthquake, economics has ensured much of the waste material coming out of Christchurch's central city has been recycled.
Some Christchurch building owners say a bulldozer's the best option, despite the city council calling for government help to rebuild heritage buildings damaged by the earthquake.
Christchurch residents who've finally been allowed in to the earthquake ravaged inner-city redzone say the devastation was far worse than they had ever imagined.
A photograph of volunteers from the Wellington Emergency Management Office standing on a pile of bricks from an earthquake-damaged building in the Christchurch central city.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "The plaque listing the mayors of Christchurch on the wall of the old City Council Civic Offices on Manchester Street".
A crane working on a brick building in the Christchurch central city. A sign on the fence reads, "Quake repairs, keep out, for your own safety".
A photograph of an earthquake damaged building in the Christchurch central city. Some of the windows have broken and have been covered with plastic and tape.