The beloved Christchurch Arts Centre - built in the 1870s - has slowly been reopening after repairs and restoration. An open day last weekend saw the public getting their first look into the complex's school of art building since the earthquakes. One beneficiary has been singer-songwriter Bic Runga, who has kick-started the Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora's revived Creative Residencies programme. She tells Mark Amery she's been trying out all sorts of new things. Applications for Bic's song-writing workshop in Christchurch in early July close on Friday 31 May.
Fear and humour increasingly drive the TV news. What was the most radical thing you did at school? Some Rangitoto College year 13 girls are upset they're being told to dress more modestly.Students and parents are accusing the school of encouraging "rape culture".A senior staff member from the school is said to have told Year 13 girls that what they're wearing is proving a distraction to their male teachers. Western Springs College which is also in Auckland has been mufti since the 1980s their principal Ivan Davis talks about their attitude to dress code. Displaced residents of Merivale Retirement village in Christchurch were told that they need to move out by April 1. A new facility that has replaced the earthquake damaged one won't have enough beds for everyone. The CEO of Age Concern Canterbury Simon Templeton talks about what measures are in place to look after these vulnerable elderly people. Thirty-six per cent of 16-24 year-olds in full-time education in the UK are not touching booze. They're joining teetotal clubs and opting for alcohol-free accomodation. High levels of debt and the pressure to do well means that students are going out less. Will alchol go completely out of fashion one day? The Nest security alarm system has a microphone in it. Although you probably wouldn't know that because it's not stated on the gadget's specifications. It's a Google product and the company says it never meant to keep the listening devices a secret. UK privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch says it's deceptive and it's normalising the disturbing notion of tech giants constant listening within the privacy of our homes.
Wellington is located on a fault line which will inevitably, one day be impacted by a big earthquake. Due to where this fault line geographically sits, the central city and southern suburbs may be cut off from the rest of the region, effectively making these areas an ‘island’. This issue has absorbed a lot of attention, in particular at a large scale by many different fields: civil engineering, architecture, infrastructure planning & design, policymaking. Due to heightened awareness, and evolved school of practice, contemporary landscape architects deal with post-disaster design – Christchurch, NZ has seen this. A number of landscape architects work with nature, following increased application of ecological urbanism, and natural systems thinking, most notably at larger scales. To create parks that are designed to flood, or implement projects to protect shorelines. A form of resilience less often considered is how design for the small scale - people’s 1:1 relationship with their immediate context in exterior space - can be influential in forming a resilient response to the catastrophe of a major earthquake. This thesis intends to provide a response to address the shift of scales, as a paradigm for preparation and recovery. After a large-scale earthquake, state and civic policies and agencies may or subsequentially not go into action. The most important thinking and acting will be what happens in the minds, and the immediate needs, of each and every person; and how they act communally. This is considered in general social terms in state and civic education programmes of civil defence, for example, but much less considered in how the physical design of the actual spaces we inhabit day-to-day can educate us to be mentally prepared to help each other survive a catastrophe. Specifically, the identification of design of typologies can provide these educative functions. Typology inherently a physical form or manipulation of a generic and substantial prototype applicable in contexts is something that exists in the mind. Working with the physical and social appearance and experience of typologies can also/will change people’s minds. Socially, and economically driven, the community-building power of community gardening is well-proven and documented, and a noticeably large part of contemporary landscape architecture. The designs of this thesis will focus on community gardening specifically to form typologies of resilience preparation and response to disaster. The foundation will remain at the small scale of the local community. The specific question this thesis poses: Can we design local typologies in landscape architecture to integrate community gardens, with public space by preparing for and acting as recovery from a disaster?
