A photograph of a truck delivering soil for a beach garden in New Brighton.
A photograph of volunteers creating a garden area on the former site of Piko Wholefoods.
A photograph of a garden area on Colombo Street.
A photograph of a garden area on the former site of Piko Wholefoods.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Gap Filler Chess set on Colombo Street, Sydenham".
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Gap Filler Chess set on Colombo Street, Sydenham".
A photograph of Wayne Youle's mural 'I Seem to Have Temporarily Misplaced My Sense of Humour' (2012). The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Art installation at an empty site on Colombo Street, Sydenham".
Outdoor seating and garden beside the Triton Dairy, Colombo Street. The garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
Outdoor seating and garden beside the Triton Dairy, Colombo Street. The garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
The Coffee Zone garden beside the Coffee kiosk on Colombo Street. The garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
Cascade of hanging baskets outside the Coffee Zone kiosk. The kiosk shares a garden with a project initiated by Greening the Rubble.
Outdoor seating and the garden outside the Coffee Zone kiosk in Sydenham. This garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
The garden and seating area outside the Coffee Zone shack on Colombo Street. This was put together by the Greening the Rubble community project.
The Triton Dairy has been operating out of a metal shipping container on Colombo Street. The garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
Plant beds made out of corrugated iron, greening the empty building sites along Colombo Street. These were placed here by Greening the Rubble, a community project in Christchurch to create temporary public parks and gardens on the sites of demolished buildings.
Within four weeks of the September 4 2010 Canterbury Earthquake a new, loosely-knit community group appeared in Christchurch under the banner of “Greening the Rubble.” The general aim of those who attended the first few meetings was to do something to help plug the holes that had already appeared or were likely to appear over the coming weeks in the city fabric with some temporary landscaping and planting projects. This article charts the first eighteen months of Greening the Rubble and places the initiative in a broader context to argue that although seismic events in Christchurch acted as a “call to palms,” so to speak, the city was already in need of some remedial greening. It concludes with a reflection on lessons learned to date by GTR and commentary on the likely issues ahead for this new mini-social-environmental movement in the context of a quake-affected and still quake-prone major New Zealand city. One of the key lessons for GTR and all of those involved in Christchurch recovery activities to date is that the city is still very much in the middle of the event and is to some extent a laboratory for seismic and agency management studies alike.
A bed of sunflowers growing in the garden surrounding the Coffee Zone kiosk, with some sweet peas behind. The garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
A bed of sunflowers growing in the garden surrounding the Coffee Zone kiosk, with some sweet peas behind. The garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
A bed of sunflowers growing in the garden surrounding the Coffee Zone kiosk, with some sweet peas behind. The garden was a project supported by Greening the Rubble.
The seating and garden area outside the Coffee Zone shack on Colombo Street. This is a Gap Filler space and the garden has been put together by Greening the Rubble.
Detail of a garden project initiated by Greening the Rubble in a vacant lot on Colombo Street. A branch is adorned with crocheted leaves and spiders.
Detail of a garden project by Greening the Rubble, with plants decorated with crocheted leaves and spiders. This was in a vacant lot on Colombo Street.