The twisted and broken Medway Street bridge, over a flooded and silt-laden Avon River.
The twisted and broken Medway Street bridge. The photographer comments, "The twisted footbridge at the Medway St corner".
Damage to the Music Centre of Christchurch. Leadlight windows are warped and broken, and bricks have fallen from the wall.
Damage to Catholic Cathedral College. Stones and bricks have fallen from the parapets and gable ends of buildings, and windows are broken.
The twisted and broken Medway Street bridge, cordoned off with emergency tape. The photographer comments, "The twisted footbridge at the Medway St corner".
The twisted and broken Medway Street bridge, cordoned off with emergency tape. The photographer comments, "The twisted footbridge at the Medway St corner".
The twisted and broken Medway Street bridge, cordoned off with emergency tape. The photographer comments, "The twisted footbridge at the Medway St corner".
Damage to a house in Richmond. There are large cracks in the stucco below the chimney. The photographer comments, "Our neighbours' broken fireplace and chimney".
A photograph of the declinator axle and counterweight from the Townsend Telescope. The axle broken off from the weight during the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Damage to a house in Richmond. Part of a concrete patio has slumped, leaving large cracks. The photographer comments, "The concrete patio is broken into big slabs".
Damage to a house in Richmond. Stucco cladding is badly cracked around the foundation. The photographer comments, "Stucco cladding was broken around the bay window, next to the foundations".
A broken window in the Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Window above Janes Bar".
A broken window in the Henry Africa's building. The photographer comments, "A building housing a restaurant and a great little neighbourhood bar is finally coming down because of earthquake damage. Window above Janes Bar".
Damage to a house in Richmond. The foundation is cracked, and a gap is visible between the foundation and the house. The photographer comments, "A bike ride around the CBD. Broken foundations, River Rd".
A power pole on River Road is on a lean, stretching the power lines taut. Two lines have broken and are hanging from the pole. The photographer comments, "Power poles stretched wires to breaking point".
Damage to a house in Richmond. A large crack runs through a concrete patio. The photographer comments, "The concrete patio is broken into big slabs. Over the following week this subsided even further".
Damage to a house in Richmond. Part of a concrete patio has slumped, leaving large cracks, and a gap has opened up between the house and the patio. The photographer comments, "The concrete patio is broken into big slabs".
Internal damage to a house in Richmond. Wallboard has broken away in the upper corner of a room, exposing the brickwork. The photographer comments, "Cracks in the wall of the sunroom. A lot of the plaster has subsequently fallen off the bricks".
A damaged driveway bridge over a stream has visibly moved, scraping up some of the driveway. The photographer comments, "Our neighbour Pam Shadbolt's house, immediately behind our house, on the bank of Dudley Creek. The bridge has broken free from its foundations".
Damage to a house in Richmond. Part of the brick wall has slumped to one side, leaving a visible gap between the wall and a windowframe. Broken wooden framing can be seen in the gap. The photographer comments, "Cracking in the external brickwork".
Damage to a house in Richmond. The brick wall is badly cracked and twisted, and some bricks have fallen, exposing the lining paper and framing below. The photographer comments, "These photos show our old house in River Rd and recovery work around Richmond and St Albans. I think it's broken".
A large crack in the road surface at the intersection of Medway Street and River Road, where River Road has slumped towards the river. The photographer comments, "Medway Street is a buckled mess of broken seal and liquefaction. 79 Medway St is on the right - taken at the corner of Medway St and River Rd".
A damaged driveway bridge over Dudley Creek has been blocked off with warning tape. The sides of the bridge have slumped, and the driveway surface has buckled and cracked. In the background, the gates to the property are misaligned. The photographer comments, "The bridge into the mansion in Banks Avenue is as broken as the mansion itself".
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The top two storeys of the tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake and the rubble spilled into the courtyard in front. A digger was used to clear the rubble away from the building. A tarpaulin has been draped over the top of the broken tower and the roof behind.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The top two storeys of the tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake and the rubble spilled into the courtyard in front. A digger was used to clear the rubble away from the building. A tarpaulin has been draped over the top of the broken tower and the roof behind.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The top two storeys of the tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake and the rubble spilled into the courtyard in front. A digger was used to clear the rubble away from the building. A tarpaulin has been draped over the top of the broken tower and the roof behind.
A photograph of the earthquake-damaged Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The photograph was taken using a cellphone camera. The top of the tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The rubble from the tower has been cleared and a tarpaulin has been placed over the top of the broken tower. Tyres have been placed on the tarpaulin to hold it down. A temporary roof has also been constructed over the tower to keep out the rain.
Damage to a house in Richmond. The foundation is all that remains of one room, and the exposed interior wall has been covered with builders' paper for protection. Weeds grow between cracks in the concrete patio. The photographer comments, "Revisiting our abandoned house. Cracked patio. The wooden floor is all that remains of a sunny living space with bifold doors, opening the house to the garden. This was so broken on 4/9/10 that it was immediately demolished".
A photograph of the earthquake-damaged Observatory tower at the Christchurch Arts Centre. The photograph was taken using a cellphone camera. The top of the tower collapsed during the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The rubble from the tower has been cleared and a tarpaulin has been placed over the top of the broken tower. Tyres have been placed on the tarpaulin to hold it down. A temporary roof has also been constructed over the tower to keep out the rain. Two vehicles are parked in front.
The suburb of New Brighton in Christchurch Aotearoa was once a booming retail sector until the end of its exclusivity to Saturday shopping in 1980 and the aftermath of the devastating 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The suburb of New Brighton was hit particularly hard and fell into economic collapse, partly brought on by the nature of its economic structure. This implosion created an urban crisis where people and businesses abandoned the suburb and its once-booming commercial economy. As a result, New Brighton has been left with the residue of abandoned infrastructure and commercial propaganda such as billboards, ATM machines, commercial facades, and shopping trolleys that as abandoned fragments, no longer contribute to culture, society and the economy. This design-led research investigation proposes to repurpose the broken objects that were left behind. By strategically selecting objects that are symbols of the root cause of the economic devastation, the repurposed and re-contextualised fragments will seek to allegorically expose the city’s destructive economic narrative, while providing a renewed sense of place identity for the people. This design-led thesis investigation argues that the seemingly innocuous icons of commercial industry, such as billboards, ATM machines, commercial facades, and shopping trolleys, are intended to act as lures to encourage people to spend money; ultimately, these urban and architectural lures can contribute to economic devastation. The aim of this investigation is to repurpose abandoned fragments of capitalist infrastructure in ways that can help to unveil new possibilities for a disrupted community and enhance their awareness of what led to the urban disruption. The thesis proposes to achieve this research aim by exploring three principal research objectives: 1) to assimilate and re-contextualise disconnected urban fragments into new architectural interventions; 2) to anthropomorphise these new interventions so that they are recognisable as architectural ‘inhabitants’, the storytellers of the urban context; and 3) to curate these new architectural interventions in ways that enable a community-scale allegorical and didactic experience to be recognised.