
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 19 December 2011 entitled, "Another Quilt Finished for 2011.... A Wedding Present for Jo and Tahu...".
In the first of two frames which represents 'now' is a row of houses in the bay; two old-style character villas flank a modern house built to look like a boat and someone inside the modern house says proudly that they 'built here because of the character of the bays'. In the second frame which represents 'soon' all of the houses have taken on the character of the modern house and someone from the original modern house can't put their finger on why they feel that 'It's not the same somehow'. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
A photograph of people on Gloucester Street during LUXCITY.
A man cutting up lengths of rebar from demolished buildings for Gap Filler's Playtime project.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's Blog for 06 February 2014 entitled, "Losing Luneys".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 20 May 2012 entitled, "Cloven Clocktower".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 11 April 2013 entitled, "April Ecclesiastical Update".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 28 May 2011 entitled, "Childhood Churches".
Coats hanging on the wire coat stands in Gap Filler's temporary cinema, 'The Night Club'.
The Crepe Makers, a stall selling crepes outside Gap Filler's temporary cinema, 'The Night Club'.
Recycled wire bent to create coat stands at Gap Filler's temporary cinema, 'The Night Club'.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's Blog for 25 June 2014 entitled, "Ecclesiastical Enhancement".
Pre-February Earthquake
Queenstown and Christchurch are twin poles of New Zealand's landscape of risk. As the country's 'adventure capital', Queenstown is a spectacular landscape in which risk is a commodity. Christchurch's landscape is also risky, ruptured by earthquakes, tentatively rebuilding. As a far-flung group of tiny islands in a vast ocean, New Zealand is the poster-child of the sublime. Queenstown and Christchurch tell two different, yet complementary, stories about the sublime. Christchurch and Queenstown are vehicles for exploring the 21st-century sublime, for reflecting on its expansive influence on shaping cultural landscapes. Christchurch and Queenstown stretch and challenge the sublime's influence on the designed landscape. Circling the paradoxes of risk and safety, suffering and pleasure, the sublime feeds an infinite appetite for fear as entertainment, and at the same time calls for an empathetic caring for a broken landscape and its residents.
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?
A photograph of a DJ next to the LUXCITY installation titled Kloud.
A story submitted by Jo Reid to the QuakeStories website.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 16 December 2011 entitled, "Mother's Milestone".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 30 July 2011 entitled, "Lost Landmarks".
A story submitted by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman to the QuakeStories website.
A photograph of a planning meeting for the Info Gap temporary outdoor display space.
Members of the community wait for the film to begin in Gap Filler's temporary cinema, 'The Night Club'.
Members of the public watch Jacques Tati's movie 'Play Time' at Gap Filler's temporary cinema, 'The Night Club'.
Coralie Winn, director of Gap Filler, introduces 'The Night Club' temporary cinema to members of the public.
Members of the community wait for the film to begin in Gap Filler's temporary cinema, 'The Night Club'.
An entry from Roz Johnson's blog for 2 August 2011 entitled, "New Light".
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A map showing the location of sites for a design competition to be judged by Prince Charles.
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 27 July 2014 entitled, "(Re) Openings".
A photograph of people gathered at the Pallet Pavilion for a public talk, during FESTA 2013.