A photograph of an 'All Rightie' wearing a 'Visionarium' t-shirt. The Visionarium was a mobile hub in a shipping container for visitors to come and learn about the recovery and rebuild of Christchurch. All Right? posted the photograph on their Facebook page on 9 January 2015 at 11:07am.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled Influx, which was created by students from Unitec, in partnership with RAD Bikes. Influx was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A poster created by Empowered Christchurch to advertise their submission to the CERA Draft Transition Recovery Plan on social media.The poster reads, "Submission, CERA Draft Transition Recovery Plan. Future Insurability. In an article in the New Zealand Herald of 5 November 2014, the CEO of IAG refers to cooperation with the NZ Government on a strategic intent in 2011 to avoid depopulation of Christchurch. Now that the ICNZ has signalled its intention to withdraw from high-risk areas and the CCC also plans to redefine the boundaries of the city so as to exclude properties below the Mean High Water Springs. We ask whether a 'recovery' involves abandoning people once the insurance and bank sectors have managed a retreat? We need a city that is driven by the people that live in it, and enabled by a bureaucracy that accepts and mitigates risks, rather than transferring them to the most vulnerable of its residents".
The Canterbury earthquake and a stuttering national economy mean the Reserve Bank is likely to leave the Official Cash Rate unchanged this morning.
Graphs showing people's expectations for the future.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled CHCH2061, which was created by students from the University of Auckland, in partnership with DJ Lab. CHCH2161 was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled Aurora, which was created by students from Unitec, in partnership with Black Betty cafe. Aurora was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A decision on the future of Christchurch's red zoned land could be made within a year. That's the hope of the man at the helm of Regenerate Christchurch, one of two organisations charged with taking over the city's rebuild from the Earthquake Recovery Authority, which shuts its doors in just three days.
A photograph of Barnaby Bennett stretching with a cricket bat in hand, before CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a tug-of-war contest at CityUps. CityUps was a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A video of a presentation by Roger Fairclough of the National Infrastructure Unit on "New Zealand resilient infrastructures: interdependency issues when planning for the future". The presentation was delivered at the learning forum on Interdependencies of Lifeline Systems as part of the University of Canterbury's Lifeline Week.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled Orbis, which was created by students from the University of Auckland, in partnership with Twisted Hop. Orbis was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a temporary structure titled Synthesis, which was created by students from CPIT, in partnership with Dance Hall and Soda Bar. Synthesis was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled Orbis, which was created by students from the University of Auckland, in partnership with Twisted Hop. Orbis was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
In the last century, seismic design has undergone significant advancements. Starting from the initial concept of designing structures to perform elastically during an earthquake, the modern seismic design philosophy allows structures to respond to ground excitations in an inelastic manner, thereby allowing damage in earthquakes that are significantly less intense than the largest possible ground motion at the site of the structure. Current performance-based multi-objective seismic design methods aim to ensure life-safety in large and rare earthquakes, and to limit structural damage in frequent and moderate earthquakes. As a result, not many recently built buildings have collapsed and very few people have been killed in 21st century buildings even in large earthquakes. Nevertheless, the financial losses to the community arising from damage and downtime in these earthquakes have been unacceptably high (for example; reported to be in excess of 40 billion dollars in the recent Canterbury earthquakes). In the aftermath of the huge financial losses incurred in recent earthquakes, public has unabashedly shown their dissatisfaction over the seismic performance of the built infrastructure. As the current capacity design based seismic design approach relies on inelastic response (i.e. ductility) in pre-identified plastic hinges, it encourages structures to damage (and inadvertently to incur loss in the form of repair and downtime). It has now been widely accepted that while designing ductile structural systems according to the modern seismic design concept can largely ensure life-safety during earthquakes, this also causes buildings to undergo substantial damage (and significant financial loss) in moderate earthquakes. In a quest to match the seismic design objectives with public expectations, researchers are exploring how financial loss can be brought into the decision making process of seismic design. This has facilitated conceptual development of loss optimisation seismic design (LOSD), which involves estimating likely financial losses in design level earthquakes and comparing against acceptable levels of loss to make design decisions (Dhakal 2010a). Adoption of loss based approach in seismic design standards will be a big paradigm shift in earthquake engineering, but it is still a long term dream as the quantification of the interrelationships between earthquake intensity, engineering demand parameters, damage measures, and different forms of losses for different types of buildings (and more importantly the simplification of the interrelationship into design friendly forms) will require a long time. Dissecting the cost of modern buildings suggests that the structural components constitute only a minor portion of the total building cost (Taghavi and Miranda 2003). Moreover, recent research on seismic loss assessment has shown that the damage to non-structural elements and building contents contribute dominantly to the total building loss (Bradley et. al. 2009). In an earthquake, buildings can incur losses of three different forms (damage, downtime, and death/injury commonly referred as 3Ds); but all three forms of seismic loss can be expressed in terms of dollars. It is also obvious that the latter two loss forms (i.e. downtime and death/injury) are related to the extent of damage; which, in a building, will not just be constrained to the load bearing (i.e. structural) elements. As observed in recent earthquakes, even the secondary building components (such as ceilings, partitions, facades, windows parapets, chimneys, canopies) and contents can undergo substantial damage, which can lead to all three forms of loss (Dhakal 2010b). Hence, if financial losses are to be minimised during earthquakes, not only the structural systems, but also the non-structural elements (such as partitions, ceilings, glazing, windows etc.) should be designed for earthquake resistance, and valuable contents should be protected against damage during earthquakes. Several innovative building technologies have been (and are being) developed to reduce building damage during earthquakes (Buchanan et. al. 2011). Most of these developments are aimed at reducing damage to the buildings’ structural systems without due attention to their effects on non-structural systems and building contents. For example, the PRESSS system or Damage Avoidance Design concept aims to enable a building’s structural system to meet the required displacement demand by rocking without the structural elements having to deform inelastically; thereby avoiding damage to these elements. However, as this concept does not necessarily reduce the interstory drift or floor acceleration demands, the damage to non-structural elements and contents can still be high. Similarly, the concept of externally bracing/damping building frames reduces the drift demand (and consequently reduces the structural damage and drift sensitive non-structural damage). Nevertheless, the acceleration sensitive non-structural elements and contents will still be very vulnerable to damage as the floor accelerations are not reduced (arguably increased). Therefore, these concepts may not be able to substantially reduce the total financial losses in all types of buildings. Among the emerging building technologies, base isolation looks very promising as it seems to reduce both inter-storey drifts and floor accelerations, thereby reducing the damage to the structural/non-structural components of a building and its contents. Undoubtedly, a base isolated building will incur substantially reduced loss of all three forms (dollars, downtime, death/injury), even during severe earthquakes. However, base isolating a building or applying any other beneficial technology may incur additional initial costs. In order to provide incentives for builders/owners to adopt these loss-minimising technologies, real-estate and insurance industries will have to acknowledge the reduced risk posed by (and enhanced resilience of) such buildings in setting their rental/sale prices and insurance premiums.
The construction of government buildings have long attracted opinion and criticism and the Italian Renaissance style Government Buildings on the corner of Worcester street and Cathedral Square were…
A page banner promoting an article about New Brighton's future.
A photograph of a temporary, inflatable structure, titled Upload, being installed for CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014. Upload was created by students from the University of Auckland, in partnership with Chirney Coffee.
A photograph of a temporary, inflatable structure titled Upload, which was created by students from the University of Auckland, in partnership with Chirney Coffee. Upload was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a temporary, inflatable structure titled Upload, which was created by students from the University of Auckland, in partnership with Chirney Coffee. Upload was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a temporary, inflatable structure, titled Upload, being installed for CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014. Upload was created by students from the University of Auckland, in partnership with Chirney Coffee.
A photograph of a poster above the staircase at The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery on New Regent Street. The poster is advertising the Sound Sky exhibition. The exhibition was part of FESTA 2014, and presented layers of stories, sounds and speculative futures for Christchurch.
A photograph of two people at The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery on New Regent Street, during the Sound Sky exhibition. The exhibition was part of FESTA 2014, and presented layers of stories, sounds and speculative futures for Christchurch.
A photograph of two people at The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery on New Regent Street, during the Sound Sky exhibition. The exhibition was part of FESTA 2014, and presented layers of stories, sounds and speculative futures for Christchurch.
A photograph of a temporary structure titled GlowCity being installed for CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014. GlowCity was created by students from Unitec, in partnership with Games Hall street games.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled GlowCity, which was created by students from Unitec, in partnership with Games Hall street games. GlowCity was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled GlowCity, which was created by students from Unitec, in partnership with Games Hall street games. GlowCity was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a temporary installation titled GlowCity, which was created by students from Unitec, in partnership with Games Hall street games. GlowCity was part of CityUps - a 'city of the future for one night only', and the main event of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of a blackboard outside The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery on New Regent Street, advertising the opening of an exhibition of stories, sounds and speculative futures for Christchurch. The exhibition was presented by Sound Sky - a geo-located audioscape and mobile phone app - as part of FESTA 2014.
A photograph of The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery before the opening of an exhibition of stories, sounds and speculative futures for Christchurch. The exhibition was presented by Sound Sky - a geo-located audioscape and mobile phone app - as part of FESTA 2014.