A photograph of a model city at the Rebuild Central office on Lichfield Street. The model was created by members of the public as part of the Christchurch City Council's Transitional City consultation project.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's artwork, 'Government Life Suspension', on the side of the former Chancery Arcade.
A photograph of an architecture student making adjustments to the installation titled Halo at LUXCITY.
A photograph of a man and a child laying concrete at the site of the Gap Filler Community Chess project.
A photograph of people watching a musician perform at the Lyttelton Petanque Club.
A photograph of students setting up the Pavilions & Lighting Devices market for LUXCITY.
A photograph of a sign for Rawhiti Village Grove.
A photograph of Mike Hewson's installation 'View from the Studio' in Re:Start Mall.
A photograph of visitors sitting on the She Chocolat bus near the Team Tensile installation during LUXCITY.
A photograph of a paste-up depicting Roger Sutton, the CEO of CERA, with a band-aid over his mouth; Warwick Isaacs, the Deputy Chief Executive of CERA, with hearing protection over his ears; and Jerry Brownlee, Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, with a blindfold over his eyes. The paste-up has been stuck on a bus stop timetable.
A photograph of members of the Kaiapoi Menzshed group standing in front of the stands they have built for an outdoor art gallery.
A photograph of a performer in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Square.
A photograph of performers in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Square.
A photograph of performers in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Church.
A photograph of performers in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Church.
A photograph of part of the Orzeit/Local Time exhibition. The photographs in the exhibition are displayed on the wall of a building.
A photograph of the Orzeit/Local Time exhibition. The photographs in the exhibition are displayed on the wall of a building.
A photograph of a paste-up depicting Roger Sutton, the CEO of CERA, with a band-aid over his mouth; Warwick Isaacs, the Deputy Chief Executive of CERA, with hearing protection over his ears; and Jerry Brownlee, Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, with a blindfold over his eyes. The paste-up has been stuck on a wall.
A photograph of a line of shipping containers protecting Main Road from rockfall. Two of the containers have covers printed with artworks. The remains of a house are suspended above the collapsed cliff.
A photograph of students of St Bede's College standing at the entrance to the school. A sign directs visitors to the St Bede's College Office and the Marian College Office.
A photograph of Gap Filler's Dino-Sauna, on an empty site in Lyttelton. In front of the sauna is a sign giving safety information.
A photograph of students and staff of Cashmere High School and Linwood College standing at the entrance to Cashmere High School. A sign reads, "Cashmere High School welcomes Linwood College".
A photograph of a paste-up depicting Roger Sutton, the CEO of CERA, with a band-aid over his mouth; Warwick Isaacs, the Deputy Chief Executive of CERA, with hearing protection over his ears; and Jerry Brownlee, Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, with a blindfold over his eyes. The paste-up has been stuck on a sign board attached to a cordon fence.
A photograph of performers in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Church.
A photograph of the opening of the Think Differently Book Exchange. In the centre of the photograph, two people are browsing the books in the fridge, and to the left people are sitting at a picnic table reading.
A photograph of performers in the Free Theatre performance of 'The Earthquake in Chile'. The performance is taking place in St Mary's Square.
In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.
A photograph of a large-scale sculpture titled Altitude being set up for LUXCITY.
A photograph of a large-scale sculpture titled Altitude being set up for LUXCITY.