Photos taken in Richmond on March 25 following the February 22 earthquake. File reference: CCL-2011-03-25-Richmond-After-The-Earthquake-IMG_0394 From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries
House being re-built on the corner of Hercules Street and Quinns Road, Shirley, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-10-Around-Shirley-May-2012 DSC_02847.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
House being re-built on the corner of Hercules Street and Quinns Road, Shirley, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-10-Around-Shirley-May-2012 DSC_02848.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
This thesis revisits the topic of earthquake recovery in Christchurch City more than a decade after the Canterbury earthquakes. Despite promising visions of a community reconnected and a sustainable and liveable city, significant portions of the city’s core – the Red Zone – remain dilapidated and “eerily empty”. At the same time, new developments in other areas have proven to be alienated or underutilised. Currently, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority’s plans for the rebuilding highlight the delivery of more residential housing to re-populate the city centre. However, prevalent approaches to housing development in Christchurch are ineffective for building an inclusive and active community. Hence, the central inquiry of the thesis is how the development of housing complexes can revitalise the Red Zone within the Christchurch city centre. The inquiry has been carried out through a research-through-design methodology, recognising the importance of an in-depth investigation that is contextualised and combined with the intuition and embodied knowledge of the designer. The investigation focuses on a neglected site in the Red Zone in the heart of Christchurch city, with significant Victorian and Edwardian Baroque heritage buildings, including Odeon Theatre, Lawrie & Wilson Auctioneers, and Sol Square, owned by The Regional Council Environment Canterbury. The design inquiry argues, develops, and is carried through a place-assemblage lens to housing development for city recovery, which recognizes the significance of socially responsive architecture that explores urban renewal by forging connections within the social network. Therefore, place-assemblage criteria and methods for developing socially active and meaningful housing developments are identified. Firstly, this thesis argues that co-living housing models are more focused on people relations and collective identity than the dominant developer-driven housing rebuilds, as they prioritise conduits for interaction and shared social meaning and practices. Secondly, the adaptive reuse of derelict heritage structures is proposed to reinvigorate the urban fabric, as heritage is seen to be conceived as and from a social assemblage of people. The design is realised by the principles outlined in the ICOMOS charter, which involves incorporating the material histories of existing structures and preserving the intangible heritage of the site by ensuring the continuity of cultural practices. Lastly, design processes and methods are also vital for place-sensitive results, which pay attention to the site’s unique characteristics to engage with local stakeholders and communities. The research explores place-assemblage methods of photographic extraction, the drawing of story maps, precedent studies, assemblage maps, bricolages, and paper models, which show an assembly of layers that piece together the existing heritage, social conduits, urban commons and housing to conceptualise the social network within its place.
A paper published in the Management, Procurement and Law Journal Volume 168 Issue MP3, which describes a different form of alliancing.
An example of the five year rebuild schedule map created as part of the prioritisation process detailing where and when construction would start. The data behind this map was updated every quarter.
A diagram created in 2011, showing the communication structure across rebuild agencies.
A plan which defines the strategy underlying the SCIRT rebuild programme.
A document which describes SCIRT's approach to creating business systems to aid the rebuild of horizontal infrastructure.
A document which describes the formation of SCIRT.
A video of a presentation by Ian Campbell, Executive General Manager of the Stronger Christchurch Rebuild Team (SCIRT), during the third plenary of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. The presentation is titled, "Putting People at the Heart of the Rebuild".The abstract for this presentation reads: On the face of it, the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT) is an organisation created to engineer and carry out approximately $2B of repairs to physical infrastructure over a 5-year period. Our workforce consists primarily of engineers and constructors who came from far and wide after the earthquakes to 'help fix Christchurch'. But it was not the technical challenges that drew them all here. It was the desire and ambition expressed in the SCIRT 'what we are here for' statement: 'to create resilient infrastructure that gives people security and confidence in the future of Christchurch'. For the team at SCIRT, people are at the heart of our rebuild programme. This is recognised in the intentional approach SCIRT takes to all aspects of its work. The presentation will touch upon how SCIRT communicated with communities affected by our work and how we planned and coordinated the programme to minimise the impacts, while maximising the value for both the affected communities and the taxpayers of New Zealand and rate payers of Christchurch funding it. The presentation will outline SCIRT's very intentional approach to supporting, developing, connecting, and enabling our people to perform, individually, and collectively, in the service of providing the best outcome for the people of Christchurch and New Zealand.
What I found on a walk around the city Christchurch November 20, 2013 New Zealand. www.isaactheatreroyal.co.nz/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 7 May 2013 entitled, "My Thoughts on the Rebuild of Christchurch".
Knox Church Rebuild/ repair on a walk around the neighbourhood May 17, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand.
A diagram illustrating how the rebuild of the three waters and roading infrastructure was to be managed and coordinated with other programmes of work in the central city.
A pdf copy of a spreadsheet tool used by designers to undertake a whole of life evaluation of rebuild options.
A copy of a letter from Empowered Christchurch to Peter Sparrow, Director of Building Control and Rebuild at the Christchurch City Council, sent on 23 October 2014. The letter is a response to another letter sent by Peter Sparrow to Empowered Christchurch regarding existing use rights and exemptions from a building consent. In this letter, Empowered Christchurch requests furthur clarification from the Christchurch Building Consent Authority about these concepts.
A map showing the actual construction start dates.
A best practice traffic management guideline, produced in February 2014, which helps traffic management team members manage cyclists through road work sites safely.
An authority granted by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, providing the authority to carry out earthquake repair work that may affect archaeological sites within the Christchurch City area.
A design guideline which provides guidance to designers on how to carry out a whole of life evaluation of rebuild options.
A paper which outlines SCIRT's approach to asset assessment, design and repair of damaged retaining walls, and presents a case study of a retaining wall rebuild, on Cunningham Terrace, Lyttelton.
A report created by BRANZ, the University of Auckland and Constructing Excellence New Zealand which was commissioned by the Productivity Partnership. It examines the use of KPIs by a number of rebuild organisations.
An article that explains the innovative work of SCIRT in a post-disaster environment.
A paper prepared for the Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 44, no. 4, December 2011.
The level of destruction from the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes led to changes in the New Zealand seismic building code. The destruction showed that the NZ building codes did not fully performed to expectation and needed Improvement to ensure that impact of future earthquakes would be minimised. The building codes have been amended to improve buildings resilience to earthquake and other related extreme loading conditions. Rebuilding Christchurch with the new modifications in the seismic building code comes with its own unique challenges to the entire system. This project investigates the impact of rebuilding Christchurch with the new seismic Building codes in terms of how the new changes affected the building industry and the management of construction.
A presentation given at the New Zealand Geospatial Research Conference 2015.
A report which details the archaeological investigations carried out during the course of SCIRT project 11232, wastewater renewal work in Sorensens Place.
A pdf copy of a PowerPoint presentation made for the Water Services Association of Australia conference, about SCIRT's approach to asset investigation after the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.
A guideline which provided clarity to designers, asset owners and others on the meaning of terminology to describe the type of roading works proposed/undertaken.