The 48hr Design Challenge, run by the Christchurch City Council and held at Lincoln University, provided an opportunity for Council to gain inspiration from the design and architecture industry, while testing the draft Central City Plan currently being developed. The Challenge was a response to the recent earthquakes in Christchurch and brought together local and international talent. A total of 15 teams took part in the Challenge, with seven people in each including engineers, planners, urban designers, architects and landscape architects, as well as one student on each team. The four sites within the Red Zone included the Cathedral Square and BNZ Building; 160 Gloucester Street; the Orion NZ Building at 203 Gloucester Street; and 90 Armagh Street, including the Avon River and Victoria Square. The fifth site, which sits outside the Red Zone, is the former Christchurch Women’s Hospital at 885 Colombo Street. This is team SoLA's entry for 160 Gloucester Street.
A photographs of volunteers preparing the site for the Gap Filler office.
A PDF copy of pages 174-175 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Gap Filler Office'. Photos: Gap Filler
A photograph of children's play equipment on the site of the Gap Filler office. In the background, a mural reads, "The things which I have seen I now can see no more".
A photograph of builders preparing framing for Gap Filler's office.
A photograph of the empty site on Colombo Street where the Gap Filler office will be constructed.
Christchurch earthquake events have raised questions on the adequacy of performance-based provisions in the current national building code. At present, in the building code the performance objectives are expressed in terms of safety and health criteria that could affect building occupants. In general, under the high intensity Christchurch events, buildings performed well in terms of life-safety (with a few exceptions) and it proved that the design practices adopted for those buildings could meet the performance objectives set by the building code. However, the damage incurred in those buildings resulted in unacceptably high economic loss. It is timely and necessary to revisit the objectives towards building performance in the building code and to include provisions for reducing economic implications in addition to the current requirements. Based on the observed performance of some buildings, a few specific issues in the current design practices that could have contributed to extensive damage have been identified and recommended for further research leading towards improved performance of structures. In particular, efforts towards innovative design/construction solutions with low-damage concepts are encouraged. New Zealand has been one of the leading countries in developing many innovative technologies. However, such technically advanced research findings usually face challenges towards implementation. Some of the reasons include: (i) lack of policy requirements; (iii) absence of demonstrated performance of new innovations to convince stakeholders; and (iv) non-existence of design guidelines. Such barriers significantly affect implementation of low damage construction and possible strategies to overcome those issues are discussed in this paper.
A PDF copy of pages 122-123 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'We Love Pop Up'. Photo with permission: SHAC
A paper describing the procedure and challenges associated with installing anchors through gabion baskets.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Challenges with retaining walls in Dublin Street, Lyttelton".
Description: Observations of RC building performance in recent earthquakes with a special focus on the devastating events in Christchurch, New Zealand. These events have highlighted the complexity of post-earthquake decisions for damaged buildings and the impacts on communities. The presentation will reflect on factors influencing demolition decisions and emerging challenges for the earthquake engineering community. http://atc-sei.org/
The front page graphic for the Mainlander section of The Press. The main headline reads, "University challenge".
A PDF copy of pages 324-325 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Scaffold Pavilion'.
Liquefaction silt in the forecourt of the Challenge petrol station on the corner of Creswell Avenue and New Brighton Road.
The Insurance Council is mounting a legal challenge against the Christchurch City Council over its rules regarding earthquake-prone buildings.
Dealing with the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes is a challenge unlike any New Zealand has faced in its history.
American social-psychologist Tara Powell on the challenges of building confidence in children who have been traumatised by a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina or the Christchurch earthquake.
an advocacy network that aims to highlight injustices and issues affecting residents following the Canterbury earthquakes, and challenge decisions, policies and practices that disadvantage recovery.
Detail of street art, reading 'Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a dream, realise it. Life is a game, play it. Life is love, share it'.
A paper presented at the New Zealand Concrete Industry Conference 2015 about the design and construction challenges faced when strengthening the Memorial Arch.
A document which describes how SCIRT's governance structure was set up and developed in response to the many challenges of the horizontal infrastructure rebuild.
The increase began after Christchurch's 2011 earthquakes, but the District Health Board is expecting to face even more challenges following effects of the Port Hills fires and last year's earthquake in Kaikoura.
The Gap Hunt booklet put together by Gap Filler in collaboration with KidsFest for the school holidays. The booklet challenged school children to find and enjoy Gap Filler projects around the central city.
In-Spiired Challenge', a Gap Golf course on a the site of a demolished building. It has been built by Gap Filler out of wooden planks and green felt.
In-Spiired Challenge', a Gap Golf course on a the site of a demolished building. It has been built by Gap Filler out of wooden planks and green felt.
In-Spiired Challenge', a Gap Golf course on a the site of a demolished building. It has been built by Gap Filler out of wooden planks and green felt.
The challenge for this week’s blog was to consider class and buildings – more specifically: houses. When I decided to write this post, I thought it’d be relatively straightforward – I have a really interesting house to tell you about, … Continue reading →
“The degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” – Fyodor Dostoevsky One of the challenges faced by any new colony is what to do with the non-conformists, renegades, and criminals. The ideal, of course, … Continue reading →
Secret to Pacific growth is in its increasing working age population; CNMI school group is to challenge court gun ruling; Norfolk Islanders are seeking UN oversight, and; Lessons from the Christchurch earthquakes are being applied in Fiji to help heal.
A video of the keynote-presentation by Dr Jeanne LeBlanc, Registered Psychologist, during the second plenary of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. LeBlanc is a Registered Psychologist, specialising in Clinical Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation. She is the British Columbia Psychological Association (BCPA) Representative for the American Psychological Associate State, Territorial and Provincial Disaster Response Network, and has also been appointed as the Behavioural Health Liaison to the American Board of Disaster Medicine. The presentation is titled, "Machetes and Breadfruit: Medical disaster response challenges in unstable settings".The abstract for this presentation reads as follows: The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti resulted in a massive response to a setting which was already fraught with danger, causing a number of personal, logistical, and safety challenges to responding medical teams. This presentation will provide a first-person account of this experience from the perspective of a behavioural health professional, whose responsibility was both the overall emotional wellbeing of the medical responders, as well as those impacted by the quake. Unique 'lessons learned' by these response teams will be highlighted, and recommendations will be provided for responders considering deploying to future events in highly unstable areas.