Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0114 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0115 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0147 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0119 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0148 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0141 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0150 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0132 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0135 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0123 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0146 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0127 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0128 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0117 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0116 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0120 From the collection of
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-04-15-London-Street-Demolition-IMG_0125 From the collection of
A PDF copy of a bookmark design. The first image reads, "The quietest moments can really change our perspective," and the second reads, "We love our local libraries".
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
Photos taken in Lyttelton on April 15 showing the demolition of the Volcano Cafe, the Lava Bar, Lyttelton Fisheries and the coastal living design store following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
A PDF copy of a bookmark design. The first image reads, "Amazing Adventures can begin when we discover something new," and the second reads, "We love our local libraries".
An image designed for use as a sticker for the All Right? Winter Survival Kit. The image reads, "What makes you feel all right? Reading or exploring your local library".
An image designed for use as a sticker for the All Right? Winter Survival Kit. The image reads, "Get your free Winter Survival Kit today! What makes you feel All Right in Winter? Reading or exploring your local library".
Though generally considered “natural” disasters, cyclones and earthquakes are increasingly being associated with human activities, incubated through urban settlement patterns and the long-term redistribution of natural resources. As society is becoming more urbanized, the risk of human exposure to disasters is also rising. Architecture often reflects the state of society’s health: architectural damage is the first visible sign of emergency, and reconstruction is the final response in the process of recovery. An empirical assessment of architectural projects in post-disaster situations can lead to a deeper understanding of urban societies as they try to rebuild. This thesis offers an alternative perspective on urban disasters by looking at the actions and attitudes of disaster professionals through the lens of architecture, situated in recent events: the 2010 Christchurch earthquake, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. An empirical, multi-hazard, cross-sectional case study methodology was used, employing grounded theory method to build theory, and a critical constructivist strategy to inform the analysis. By taking an interdisciplinary approach to understanding disasters, this thesis positions architecture as a conduit between two divergent approaches to disaster research: the hazards approach, which studies the disaster cycles from a scientific perspective; and the sociological approach, which studies the socially constructed vulnerabilities that result from disasters, and the elements of social change that accompany such events. Few studies to date have attempted to integrate the multi-disciplinary perspectives that can advance our understanding of societal problems in urban disasters. To bridge this gap, this thesis develops what will be referred to as the “Rittelian framework”—based on the work of UC Berkeley’s architecture professor Horst Rittel (1930-1990). The Rittelian framework uses the language of design to transcend the multiple fields of human endeavor to address the “design problems” in disaster research. The processes by which societal problems are addressed following an urban disaster involve input by professionals from multiple fields—including economics, sociology, medicine, and engineering—but the contribution from architecture has been minimal to date. The main impetus for my doctoral thesis has been the assertion that most of the decisions related to reconstruction are made in the early emergency recovery stages where architects are not involved, but architects’ early contribution is vital to the long-term reconstruction of cities. This precipitated in the critical question: “How does the Rittelian framework contribute to the critical design decisions in modern urban disasters?” Comparative research was undertaken in three case studies of recent disasters in New Orleans (2005), Haiti (2010) and Christchurch (2010), by interviewing 51 individuals who were selected on the basis of employing the Rittelian framework in their humanitarian practice. Contextualizing natural disaster research within the robust methodological framework of architecture and the analytical processes of sociology is the basis for evaluating the research proposition that architectural problem solving is of value in addressing the ‘Wicked Problems’ of disasters. This thesis has found that (1) the nuances of the way disaster agents interpret the notion of “building back better” can influence the extent to which architectural professionals contribute in urban disaster recovery, (2) architectural design can be used to facilitate but also impede critical design decisions, and (3) framing disaster research in terms of design decisions can lead to innovation where least expected. This empirical research demonstrates how the Rittelian framework can inform a wider discussion about post-disaster human settlements, and improve our resilience through disaster research.
The research presented in this thesis investigated the environmental impacts of structural design decisions across the life of buildings located in seismic regions. In particular, the impacts of expected earthquake damage were incorporated into a traditional life cycle assessment (LCA) using a probabilistic method, and links between sustainable and resilient design were established for a range of case-study buildings designed for different seismic performance objectives. These links were quantified using a metric herein referred to as the seismic carbon risk, which represents the expected environmental impacts and resource use indicators associated with earthquake damage during buildings’ life. The research was broken into three distinct parts: (1) a city-level evaluation of the environmental impacts of demolitions following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence in New Zealand, (2) the development of a probabilistic framework to incorporate earthquake damage into LCA, and (3) using case-study buildings to establish links between sustainable and resilient design. The first phase of the research focused on the environmental impacts of demolitions in Christchurch, New Zealand following the 2010/2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence. This large case study was used to investigate the environmental impact of the demolition of concrete buildings considering the embodied carbon and waste stream distribution. The embodied carbon was considered here as kilograms of CO2 equivalent that occurs on production, construction, and waste management stage. The results clearly demonstrated the significant environmental impacts that can result from moderate and large earthquakes in urban areas, and the importance of including environmental considerations when making post-earthquake demolition decisions. The next phase of the work introduced a framework for incorporating the impacts of expected earthquake damage based on a probabilistic approach into traditional LCA to allow for a comparison of seismic design decisions using a carbon lens. Here, in addition to initial construction impacts, the seismic carbon risk was quantified, including the impacts of seismic repair activities and total loss scenarios assuming reconstruction in case of non-reparability. A process-based LCA was performed to obtain the environmental consequence functions associated with structural and non-structural repair activities for multiple environmental indicators. In the final phase of the work, multiple case-study buildings were used to investigate the seismic consequences of different structural design decisions for buildings in seismic regions. Here, two case-study buildings were designed to multiple performance objectives, and the upfront carbon costs, and well as the seismic carbon risk across the building life were compared. The buildings were evaluated using the framework established in phase 2, and the results demonstrated that the seismic carbon risk can significantly be reduced with only minimal changes to the upfront carbon for buildings designed for a higher base shear or with seismic protective systems. This provided valuable insight into the links between resilient and sustainable design decisions. Finally, the results and observations from the work across the three phases of research described above were used to inform a discussion on important assumptions and topics that need to be considered when quantifying the environmental impacts of earthquake damage on buildings. These include: selection of a non-repairable threshold (e.g. a value beyond which a building would be demolished rather than repaired), the time value of carbon (e.g. when in the building life the carbon is released), the changing carbon intensity of structural materials over time, and the consideration of deterministic vs. probabilistic results. Each of these topics was explored in some detail to provide a clear pathway for future work in this area.
An image designed to promote the 'Write Now' 2014 young writers workshops. Some of the best pieces from the workshop were published in a chapbook and on posters for the Christchurch 2014 WORD Festival. The workshops were supported by All Right?, Christchurch City Libraries and The School for Young Writers. All Right? posted the image on their Facebook page on 15 July 2014 at 4:31pm.
The Canterbury earthquake series of 2010/2011 has turned the city of Christchurch into a full scale natural laboratory testing the structural and non-structural response of buildings under moderate to very severe earthquake shaking. The lessons learned from this, which have come at great cost socially and economically, are extremely valuable in increasing our understanding of whole building performance in severe earthquakes. Given current initiatives underway on both sides of the Tasman towards developing joint Australasian steel and composite steel/concrete design and construction standards that would span a very wide range of geological conditions and seismic zones, these lessons are relevant to both countries. This paper focusses on the performance of steel framed buildings in Christchurch city, with greatest emphasis on multi-storey buildings, but also covering single storey steel framed buildings and light steel framed housing. It addresses such issues as the magnitude and structural impact of the earthquake series, importance of good detailing, lack of observed column base hinging, the excellent performance of composite floors and it will briefly cover research underway to quantify some of these effects for use in design.
The seismic tremor that shook Christchurch on February 22, 2011, not only shattered buildings but also the spirit of the city’s residents. Amidst the ruins, this design-focused thesis unravels two intertwining narratives, each essential to the city’s resurrection. At its core, this thesis probes the preservation of Christchurch’s memory and character, meticulously chronicling the lost heritage architecture and the subsequent urban metamorphosis. Beyond bricks and mortar, it also confronts the silent aftershocks - the pervasive mental health challenges stemming from personal losses and the disfigured cityscape. As a native of Christchurch, intimately connected to its fabric, my lens reflects not just on the architectural reconstruction but also on the emotional reconstruction. My experience as an autistic individual, a recently discovered facet of my identity, infuses this design journey with a distinct prism through which I perceive and interact with the world. The colourful sketches that drive the design process aren’t mere illustrations but manifestations of my interpretation of spaces and concepts, evoking joy and vitality—a testament to embracing diversity in design. Drawing parallels between healing my own traumas with my colourful and joyful neurodivergent worldview, I’ve woven this concept into proposals aimed at healing the city through whimsy, joy, and vibrant colours. Personal experiences during and post-earthquakes profoundly shape my design proposals. Having navigated the labyrinth of my own mental health amid the altered cityscape, I seek avenues for reconciliation, both personal and communal. The vibrant sketches and designs presented in this thesis encapsulate this vision—a fusion of vivid, unconventional interpretations and a dedication to preserving the essence of the original cityscape while still encouraging movement into the future.