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Audio, Radio New Zealand

Ever wondered what happened to some of the damaged timber from the Lyttelton wharves after the Canterbury earthquakes? The tough ironbark they were made from was too good not to be rescued and Oxford's Steve Evans was just the man for the job, as Mark Leishman discovered.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

As the government eyes an EQC overhaul, Christchurch earthquake insurance specialist Dean Lester wants to see action, not hear more empty words. This after a report yesterday found EQC staff had no confidence in their own data, and the organisation needed to drastically improve its treatment of claimants. The minister in charge of the Earthquake Commission is calling for immediate changes to the organisation.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

This thesis considers the presence and potential readings of graffiti and street art as part of the wider creative public landscape of Christchurch in the wake of the series of earthquakes that significantly disrupted the city physically and socially. While documenting a specific and unprecedented period of time in the city’s history, the prominence of graffiti and street art throughout the constantly changing landscape has also highlighted their popularity as increasingly entrenched additions to urban and suburban settings across the globe. In post-quake Christchurch, graffiti and street art have often displayed established tactics, techniques and styles while exploring and exposing the unique issues confronting this disrupted environment, illustrating both a transposable nature and the entwined relationship with the surrounding landscape evident in the conception of these art forms. The post-quake city has afforded graffiti and street art the opportunity to engage with a range of concepts: from the re-activation and re-population of the empty and abandoned spaces of the city, to commentaries on specific social and political issues, both angry and humorous, and notably the reconsideration of entrenched and evolving traditions, including the distinction between guerrilla and sanctioned work. The examples of graffiti and street art within this work range from the more immediate post-quake appearance of art in a group of affected suburbs, including the increasingly empty residential red-zone, to the use of the undefined spaces sweeping the central city, and even inside the Canterbury Museum, which housed the significant street art exhibition Rise in 2013-2014. These settings expose a number of themes, both distinctive and shared, that relate to both the post-disaster landscape and the concerns of graffiti and street art as art movements unavoidably entangled with public space.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A digitally manipulated image of a damaged wooden wall. The photographer comments, "And the walls came tumbling down".

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

Base isolation is an incredibly effective technology used in seismic regions throughout the world to limit structural damage and maintain building function, even after severe earthquakes. However, it has so far been underutilised in light-frame wood construction due to perceived cost issues and technical problems, such as a susceptibility to movement under strong wind loads. Light-frame wood buildings make up the majority of residential construction in New Zealand and sustained significant damage during the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence, yet the design philosophy has remained largely unchanged for years due to proven life-safety performance. Recently however, with the advent of performance based earthquake engineering, there has been a renewed focus on performance factors such as monetary loss that has driven a want for higher performing residential buildings. This research develops a low-cost approach for the base isolation of light-frame wood buildings using a flat-sliding friction base isolation system, which addresses the perceived cost and technical issues, and verifies the seismic performance through physical testing on the shake table at the University of Canterbury. Results demonstrate excellent seismic performance with no structural damage reported despite a large number of high-intensity earthquake simulations. Numerical models are subsequently developed and calibrated to New Zealand light-frame wood building construction approaches using state-of-the-art wood modelling software, Timber3D. The model is used to accurately predict both superstructure drift and acceleration demand parameters of fixed-base testing undertaken after the base isolation testing programme is completed. The model development allows detailed cost analyses to be undertaken within the performance based earthquake engineering framework that highlights the monetary benefits of using base isolation. Cost assessments indicate the base isolation system is only 6.4% more compared to the traditional fixed-base system. Finally, a design procedure is recommended for base isolated light-frame wood buildings that is founded on the displacement based design (DBD) approach used in the United States and New Zealand. Nonlinear analyses are used to verify the DBD method which indicate its suitability.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the stairwell of the Diabetes Centre on Hagley Avenue. There is a workbench in the foreground and a plank of wood on the right side of the stairs. On the landing the wall has been repaired and is unpainted.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

Building rubble in front of a partially demolished house on Peterborough Street. The photographer comments, "Wood at the front, bricks in the middle and bits of house at the back".