Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, right, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, left, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. The tour party watches the fire".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, left, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, centre, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. The tour party watches the fire".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, centre, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, at right, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. MP John Carter, front left".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. Shoreham Courts, City Council owned flats on Admirals Way in New Brighton are an island of isolation with no water or sewerage although all around them have. Lorraine Burrows, left, her son, Jamie, 8, right, and Charllisa Sutton-Taylor, centre".
Text reads 'Dalai Lama visits Christchurch ostensibly to sympathise with quake-hit residents'. The cartoon shows the Dalai Lama bestowing blessings on a large crowd. In an insert he is seen sitting cross-legged on top of Mount Cook saying 'But off the record I came to look for a quiet spot to retire to!' Context - The Dalai Lama visited the quake-hit city for two days in early June. He also sent a letter of condolence to Prime Minister John Key after the February 22 earthquake. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
This thesis is about many things, not least of all the September 4th 2010 and February 22nd 2011 earthquakes that shook Christchurch, New Zealand. A city was shaken, events which worked to lay open the normally invisible yet vital objects, processes and technologies which are the focus of inquiry: the sewers, pipes, pumps, the digital technologies, the land and politics which constitute the Christchurch wastewater networks. The thesis is an eclectic mix drawing together methods and concepts from Bruno Latour, John Law, Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Nigel Thrift, Donna Haraway and Patrick Joyce. It is an exploration of how the technologies and objects of sanitation perform the city, and how such things which are normally hidden and obscured, are made visible. The question of visibility is also turned toward the research itself: how does one observe, and describe? How are sociological visibilities constructed? Through the research, the encountering of objects in the field, the processes of method, the pedagogy of concepts, and the construction of risk, the thesis comes to be understood as a particular kind of social scientific artefact which assembles four different accounts: the first regards the construction of visibility; the second explores Christchurch city from the control room where the urban sanitary infrastructures are monitored; the third chapter looks at the formatted and embodied practices which emerge with the correlation of the city and sanitation; the fourth looks at the changing politics of a city grappling with severely damaged essential services, land and structures. The final chapter considers how the differences between romantic and baroque sensibilities mean that these four accounts elicit knowing not through smoothness or uniformity, but in partiality and non-coherence. This thesis is about pipes, pump stations, and treatment plants; about the effluent of a city; about the messiness of social science when confronted by the equally messy world of wastewater.
Christchurch was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on the 22 February 2011. The quake devastated the city, taking lives and causing widespread damage to the inner city and suburban homes. The central city lost over half its buildings and over 7000 homes were condemned throughout Christchurch. The loss of such a great number of homes has created the requirement for new housing to replace those that were lost. Many of which were located in the eastern, less affluent, suburbs. The response to the housing shortage is the planned creation of large scale subdivisions on the outskirts of the city. Whilst this provides the required housing it creates additional sprawl to a city that does not need it. The extension of Christchurch’s existing suburban sprawl puts pressure on roading and pushes residents further out of the city, creating a disconnection between them. Christchurch’s central city had a very small residential population prior to the earthquakes with very few options for dense inner city living. The proposed rebuild of the inner city calls for a new ‘dense, vibrant and diverse central hub’. Proposing the introduction of new residential units within the central city. However the placement of the low-rise housing in a key attribute of the rebuild, the eastern green ‘Frame’, diminishes its value as open green space. The proposed housing will also be restrictive in its target market and therefore the idea of a ‘vibrant’ inner city is difficult to achieve. This thesis acts as response to the planned rebuild of inner Christchurch. Proposing the creation of a model for inner city housing which provides an alternative option to the proposed housing and existing and ongoing suburban sprawl. The design options were explored through a design-led process were the options were critiqued and developed. The ‘final’ proposal is comprises of three tall towers, aptly named the Triple Towers, which condense the proposed low-rise housing from an 11000 square metre footprint to combined footprint of 1500 square metres. The result is an expansion of the publicly available green space along the proposed eastern frame of the city. The height of the project challenges the height restrictions and is provocative in its proposal and placement. The design explores the relationships between the occupants, the building, the ‘Frame’ and the central city. The project is discussed through an exploration of the architecture of Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano and Oscar Niemeyer. Rather than their architecture being taken as a direct influence on which the design is based the discussion revolves around how and why each piece of comparative architecture is relevant to the designs desired outcome.
A video of a tour through the Christchurch central city Red Zone in July 2011. The video includes footage of Colombo Street, Gloucester Street, the ChristChurch Cathedral, Worcester Street, the Press Building, the Whitcoulls Building, Cashel Mall, and High Street. It also includes an interview with Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee.
A video of the Christchurch central city covered in snow. The video includes footage of the ChristChurch Cathedral, Gloucester Street, New Regent Street, Manchester Street, Latimer Square, Centennial Pool, Armagh Street, McLeans Mansion, Hagley Park, Rolleston Avenue, Worcester Street, the Peacock Fountain in the Botanic Gardens, and Dyers Pass Road.
The September 2010 Canterbury and February 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and associated aftershocks have shown that the isolator displacement in Christchurch Women's Hospital (Christchurch City's only base-isolated structure) was significantly less than expected. Occupant accounts of the events have also indicated that the accelerations within the hospital superstructure were larger than would usually be expected within a base-isolated structure and that residual low-level shaking lasts for a longer period of time following the strong-motion of an event than for non-isolated structures.
A video of journalist Charlie Gates introducing the 2014 World Buskers Festival. Gates visits former festival venues in the Christchurch central city and the new performance venues for the 2014 festival, to show how the city has changed since the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister is giving the Christchurch City Council until this morning to approve a major land development plan otherwise he'll force it through himself.
Two years after the Christchurch earthquakes, the city council has only finished detailed assessments of about half its community facilities, and nasty surprises are still cropping up.
Kathmandu has announced plans to build its new national distribution centre in the Christchurch suburb of Woolston, in a vote of confidence for the earthquake-damaged city.
The Royal Commission hearings into the Canterbury earthquake begin in Christchurch today to examine why some of the newer buildings in the city's CBD failed so badly.
Animal sculpture made out of grass in Re:Start mall in Re:Start mall. This was one of the sculptures presented by the Christchurch Garden City Trust.
The Odeon Theatre and next to it is the Pink Pussy Cat Building formerly Lawrie & Wilson Auctioneers and used by the Parking Unit of Christchurch City Council.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, right, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, at front left, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. The tour party watches the fire".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, right, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker, at front left, took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. The tour party watches the fire".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. Shoreham Courts, City Council owned flats on Admirals Way in New Brighton are an island of isolation with no water or sewerage although all around them have. Lorraine Burrows, centre left, her son, Jamie, 8, left, Charllisa Sutton-Taylor and Oceana Rawiri at right".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key, centre, visited Christchurch after its 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 04:35 Saturday morning. Mayor Bob Parker took him on a tour of the city which was punctuated by a fire breaking out in a building on Worcester Street. MP John Carter, and Key look at the damage".
A video of an address by Nick Hunt, Managing Director of Lichfield Holdings Ltd, at the 2015 Seismics and the City forum. This talk focuses on commercial development progress, and opportunities and issues in Central Christchurch and beyond.
Christchurch has its own social superhero and he's gone cap in hand to the council for funding. The self-styled lycra-clad superhero, known only at 'Flat Man', has been dropping care packages to people since the 2011 Canterbury earthquake. He also wants to be able to help schoolkids and anxious and stressed residents through their troubles. And to do this, he's now asking the Christchurch City Council for funding. He joins us now, and says "a cape is a must".
Site of Anglican Diocese of Christchurch. Includes news and information on the diocese, its schools and churches, diocesan events, social and social justice issues, and the cathedral rebuild process.
A video about the Christchurch central city in the days after the 4 September 2010 earthquake. The video includes footage of empty streets, and New Zealand Police and Army members guarding the cordons. It also includes footage of engineers checking the safety of buildings.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key visits CPIT. First-year design students embrace the idea of a high vis city. From left: Prime Minister John Key, first-year design students Ellen Gray and Rory Grant".
A Transitional Imaginary: Space, Network and Memory in Christchurch is the outcome and the record of a particular event: the coming together of eight artists and writers in Ōtautahi Christchurch in November 2015, with the ambitious aim to write a book collaboratively over five days. The collaborative process followed the generative ‘book sprint’ method founded by our facilitator for the event, Adam Hyde, who has long been immersed in digital practices in Aotearoa. A book sprint prioritises the collective voice of the participants and reflects the ideas and understandings that are produced at the time in which the book was written, in a plurality of perspectives. Over one hundred books have been completed using the sprint methodology, covering subjects from software documentation to reflections on collaboration and fiction. We chose to approach writing about Ōtautahi Christchurch through this collaborative process in order to reflect the complexity of the post-quake city and the multiple paths to understanding it. The city has itself been a space of intensive collaboration in the post-disaster period. A Transitional Imaginary is a raw and immediate record, as much felt expression as argued thesis. In many ways the process of writing had the character of endurance performance art. The process worked by honouring the different backgrounds of the participants, allowing that dialogue and intensity could be generative of different forms of text, creating a knowledge that eschews a position of authority, working instead to activate whatever anecdotes, opinions, resources and experiences are brought into discussion. This method enables a dynamic of voices that merge here, separate there and interrupt elsewhere again. As in the contested process of rebuilding and reimagining Christchurch itself, the dissonance and counterpoint of writing reflects the form of conversation itself. This book incorporates conflict, agreement and the activation of new ideas through cross-fertilisation to produce a new reading of the city and its transition. The transitional has been given a specific meaning in Christchurch. It is a product of local theorising that encompasses the need for new modes of action in a city that has been substantially demolished (Bennett & Parker, 2012). Transitional projects, such as those created by Gap Filler, take advantage of the physical and social spaces created by the earthquake through activating these as propositions for new ways of being in the city. The transitional is in motion, looking towards the future. A Transitional Imaginary explores the transitional as a way of thinking and how we understand the city through art practices, including the digital and in writing.
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.
New Zealand is one of the most highly urbanised countries in the world with well over 87 per cent of us living in 138 recognised urban centres, yet the number of people residing in inner city areas is proportionally very low. Householders have been exercising their preference for suburban or rural areas by opting for low density suburban environments. It is widely agreed that productivity and sustainability increase when people aggregate in the inner city, however there is a perceived trade-off between the density and liveability of an area. Achieving liveability in the inner city is concerned with reducing the pressures which emerge from higher population densities. Promoting inclusive societies, revitalising underutilised cityscapes, ensuring accessibility and fostering sense of place, are all elements essential to achieving liveable communities. The rebuild following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes provides Christchurch with an opportunity to shape a more environmentally sustainable, economically vibrant and liveable city. This research involves undertaking a case study of current inner city liveability measures and those provided for through the rebuild. A cross-case analysis with two of the world’s most liveable cities, Melbourne and Vancouver, exposes Christchurch’s potential shortcomings and reveals practical measures the city could implement in order to promote liveability.
20140522_8951_EOS M-22 Demolition Of what many in Christchurch know as the Millers building, but for many recent years was the home to the Christchurch City Council, till just a week or two before the first earthquake of 2010. Now, in mid-2014 it is finally being demolished after nearly 45 months empty. A bus is leaving the new (temporary) bu...