Taken during a scenic flight over Christchurch, New Zealand, 3 months after the deadly earthquake of 22 February, 2011. Much of the inner city CBD is still cordoned off and will be for some time. About 900 buildings are set for demolition. Taken aboard the Southern DC3 www.so...
Woolston Community Library, 1871-2011, was one of the earliest suburban libraries to open in Christchurch. Almost from the beginning, the library’s committees have fought a never-ending battle against failing finances, falling membership, unsuitable and disintegrating buildings, and threats of closure from the City Council, but somehow, the volu...
Taken during a scenic flight over Christchurch, New Zealand, 3 months after the deadly earthquake of 22 February, 2011. Much of the inner city CBD is still cordoned off and will be for some time. About 900 buildings are set for demolition. Taken aboard the Southern DC3 www.so...
Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings after the 6.3 magnitude quake hit Christchurch 22 Feburary 2011. This small cluster of historic buildings in central Christchurch are treasured by the city, both for their historical importance and their beauty. Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings (1858 to 1865) were designed by Benjamin Mountfort, C...
It was so nearly lost. As the Christ Church Anglican Cathedral is being rebuilt, historian Edmund Bohan is releasing a history of the distinctive Gothic building. It shows it was controversial even before work started on designing it, let alone building in. From the laying of the foundations to the official opening, it took 40 years, after squabbles over pretty much every aspect of its construction - not to mention the huge problems raising the money to build it in the City Centre. In Heart of the City: The Story of Christchurch's Controversial Cathedral, Edmund is critical of the former Anglican Bishop Victoria Matthews' determination to demolish the badly-damaged cathedral after the Canterbury earthquakes, to replace it with a modern church. And he tells Lynn Freeman he's very much looking forward to seeing the Cathedral restored to its former glory after a lengthy and pricey rebuild. But first he sets the scene. Back in the 1860s, there was controversy over where the cathedral should go, its design, whether it should be in stone or timber - even if there should be a cathedral built at all! Heart of the City: The Story of Christchurch's Controversial Cathedral, by Edmund Bohan is published by Quentin Wilson Publishing.
A graphic illustrating the findings of the Royal Commission enquiry into the CTV building collapse.
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 26 February 2011.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 28 February 2011.
Urban forager and food writer, Liv Sisson finds all sorts of tasty treats in the Otautahi city centre.With some of the housing and buildings destroyed in the earthquakes, a rewilding has taken place providing a range of edible plants. Liv Sisson gathers produce thriving on berms and near the Avon River.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Work to restore and earthquake-strengthen the badly damaged historic St Paul's Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church on Cashel Street has begun after resource consents were granted by the Christchurch City Council, and a preferred contractor was selected recently. Site manager Mike McKee inspects the domes to be restored".
Katy Gosset meets one of Christchurch's top tailors. Mark van Roosmalen may have lost his premises in the earthquake but he's busier than ever, turning out bespoke garments for the city's style-conscious. Katy finds that amidst the high-viz vests of Christchurch there's still plenty of room for a sharp suit.
We join Deb, Vincy and the rest of the Ballantynes crew on a coach trip south from Christchurch to its Timaru store. Its flagship store on City Mall has been shut since the February earthquake, so twice a week a convoy of coaches full of loyal customers does the 350km round trip.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. Teams of building inspectors gathered at the Linwood Service Centre before heading into the eastern suburbs en masse. Gary Marshall, left, building inspector from Napier, and Kent Wilson, City Council planner work at a property on Dallington Terrace".
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 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 about the Red Zone in the Christchurch Central City after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The video includes footage of damaged buildings and cars, the New Zealand Police and Army patrolling the streets, and an interview with Michael Harvey, a squad leader in the New Zealand Urban Search and Rescue.
A video of Charlie Gates investigating the Christchurch City Council's plan to rejuvenate New Brighton mall. Gates interviews Sherry Dhamija, owner of Penguin House Dairy, Kate Thomas, manager of New Brighton Florist, and Colleen Biggs of Pegasus Tattoo about how business is going and what they think the area needs to be revitalised.
A video of a tour through the Christchurch central city Red Zone. The video includes footage of the cordon checkpoint on Armagh Street, Oxford Terrace, Colombo Street, the Edmond's Band Rotunda, Manchester Street, Gloucester Street, Worcester Street, the Octagon Live restaurant, Hereford Street, Bedford Row, the Hotel Grand Chancellor, and High Street.
A National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) report to the Christchurch City Council. The report was written by Liz Gordon, Rosemary Du Plessis, Judith Sutherland, and Helen Gibson from the Women's Voices Research Committee. It is titled, From Stories to Action: the policy implications of the NCWNZ Women's Voices Project.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. Teams of building inspectors gathered at the Linwood Service Centre before heading into the eastern suburbs en masse. Gary Marshall, left, building inspector from Napier, and Kent Wilson, City Council planner work at a property on Dallington Terrace".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "The Canterbury Earthquake Business Benefit Dinner hosted by the Prime Minister, was held tonight at Sky City in Auckland. Shown at the dinner is Frank Bunce signalling the winning bid for the Fairfax Media lot of $100,000 worth of national advertising. The winning bidders were McDonalds".
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.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the earthquake in Christchurch where the cleanup has begun. Teams of building inspectors gathered at the Linwood Service Centre before heading into the eastern suburbs en masse. Gary Marshall, left, building inspector from Napier, and Kent Wilson, City Council planner work at a property on Dallington Terrace".
This winter-eve is warm, Humid the air! leafless, yet soft as spring, The tender purple spray on copse and briers! And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty's heightening, Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night!— From "Thyrsis: A Monody" by Matthew Arnold 1822–1888
20161112_9961_7D2-70 The future face of Christchurch? Cultivate Christchurch is operating this urban farm in the city, about 5-10 minutes walk to Cathedral Square. Many of the buildings in this area were demolished after the earhquakes, and in the background is a new building on Kilmore Street.
In the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake, a state of polycentric urbanity was thrust upon New Zealand’s second largest city. As the city-centre lay in disrepair, smaller centres started to materialise elsewhere, out of necessity. Transforming former urban peripheries and within existing suburbs into a collective, dispersed alternative to the city centre, these sub-centres prompted a range of morphological, socio-cultural and political transformations, and begged multiple questions: how to imbue these new sub-centres with gravity? How to render them a genuine alternative to the CBD? How do they operate within the wider city? How to cope with the physical and cultural transformations of this shifting urbanscape and prevent them occurring ad lib? Indeed, the success and functioning of the larger urban structure hinges upon a critical, informed response to these sub-centre urban contexts. Yet, with an unrelenting focus on the CBD rebuild - effectively a polycentric denial - little such attention has been granted. Taking this urban condition as its premise and its provocation, this thesis investigates architecture’s role in the emergent sub-centre. It asks: what can architecture do in these urban contexts; how can architecture act upon the emergent sub-centre in a critical, catalytic fashion? Identifying this volatile condition as both an opportunity for architectural experimentation and a need for critical architectural engagement, this thesis seeks to explore the sub-centre (as an idea and actual urban context) as architecture’s project: its raison d’etre, impetus and aspiration. These inquiries are tested through design-led research: an initial design question provoking further, broader discursive research (and indeed, seeking broader implications). The first section is a site-specific, design for Sumner, Christchurch. Titled ‘An Agora Anew’; this project - both in conception and outcome - is a speculative response to a specific sub-centre condition. The second section ‘The Sub-centre as Architecture’s Project’ explores the ideas provoked by the design project within a discursive framework. Firstly it identifies the sub-centre as a context in desperate need of architectural attention (why architecture?); secondly, it negotiates a possible agenda for architecture in this context through terms of engagement that are formal, critical and opportunistic (how architecture?): enabling it to take a position on and in the sub-centre. Lastly, a critical exegesis positions the design in regards to the broader discursive debate: critiquing it an architectural project predicated upon the idea of the sub-centre. The implications of this design-led thesis are twofold: firstly, for architecture’s role in the sub-centre (especially to Christchurch); secondly for the possibilities of architecture’s productive engagement with the city (largely through architectural form), more generally. In a century where radical, new urban contexts (of which the sub-centre is just one) are commonplace, this type of thinking – what can architecture do in the city? - is imperative.
Monday's 10 year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that took the lives of 185 people in Christchurch, will be marked with a special service near the city's earthquake memorial. Large crowds are expected from half past twelve this afternoon on the lawn just across the river from the memorial wall. Among those speaking is the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. A message from former mayor, Sir Bob Parker, will be read out. Sir Bob, who led the city through one of its most challenging periods, recently suffered a major stroke and heart attack. The names of the 185 who died will be read before a minute's silence at twelve fifty one, the exact moment the quake struck. Flowers will then be laid at the memorial wall.
A video of an interview with Julia Morison, a Christchurch-based artist, about her sculptures in a vacant site on the Christchurch central city. The artwork, titled 'Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers', took over a year to make and will act as a centrepiece for the Scape Public Art festival, which begins on 27 September 2013. The sculpture was designed to provide a playground for children and a shady spot for workers on their lunch breaks. Morison also talks about how the sculpture was designed to be relocated and reconfigured so that it can be moved to a new location when construction begins on the vacant site.
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.
It's hoped a new art installation in Ōtautahi Christchurch can help people talk their worries away through a series of telephones by the riverside. Twelve telephones have popped up across sites commemorating the city's devastating 2011 earthquakes. The group behind the project is Flourish Kia Puawai. Its associate director Sharon Torstonson spoke to Corin Dann.