A worker constructing the wall of a temporary classroom on the Ilam Oval.
The inside of a temporary classroom in the Kirkwood Oval, ready for students.
Sign for the Parkside Meeting Room, temporary office for the Student Mentoring service.
A PDF copy of pages 46-47 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Central Station: Temporary Bus Exchange'. Photo: Tim Church. With permission: Christchurch City Council.
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.
The inside of one the temporary classrooms, still being constructed, in the Oval Village.
Workers photographed infront of one of temporary buildings being built on the Ilam Oval.
Workers building the floor of one of the temporary classrooms on the Ilam Oval.
Workers laying the floor on one of the temporary classrooms in the Ilam Oval.
Workers pouring concrete into the foundations for the temporary classrooms on the Ilam Oval.
Workers pouring concrete into the foundations for the temporary classrooms on the Ilam Oval.
A crane lifting the roof of one of the temporary buildings off the ground.
The inside of a temporary classroom on the Ilam Oval, almost ready for students.
A photograph of a planning meeting for the Info Gap temporary outdoor display space.
Staff at work in temporary office space in the Central Library after the earthquake.
Staff at work in temporary office space in the Central Library after the earthquake.
Staff at work in temporary office space in the Central Library after the earthquake.
Staff at work in temporary office space in the Central Library after the earthquake.
The inside of one of the temporary classrooms in the Oval Village, almost finished.
KG 6 and KG 7, temporary classrooms in the Kirkwood Oval, ready for students.
A PDF copy of pages 40-41 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Temporary City Libraries'. Photo: Tim Church. With permission: Christchurch City Council.
A crane lowers the roof onto one of the temporary classrooms on the Ilam Oval.
Dovedale Village, recently completed but yet to be occupied as temporary office and lecture spaces.
A worker on the roof of one of the temporary classrooms in the Oval Village.
Members of the Senior Management Team survey the temporary building work on the Ilam Oval.
A crane placing the roof onto one of the temporary building in the Ilam Oval.
A crane placing the roof onto one of the temporary building in the Ilam Oval.
A crane placing the roof onto one of the temporary building in the Ilam Oval.
Dovedale Village, recently completed but yet to be occupied as temporary office and lecture spaces.