A document which describes the establishment of the SCIRT Women in Construction (SWIC) group and its achievements.
The CTV collapse is the worst and most devastating, from what I saw of the CBD yesterday.
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.
Christchurch "New Zealand" architecture building "Demolition of old Millers building" demolition detail rubbleDemolition started on the old Millers building on a walk around Christchurch May 6, 2013 New Zealand. The building was originally designed in 1935 by G. A. Hart for the retail store, factory and warehouse Millers and was completed in 19...
he 2016 Building (Earthquake Prone Building) Amendment Act aims to improve the system for managing earthquake-prone buildings. The proposed changes to the Act were precipitated by the Canterbury earthquakes, and the need to improve the seismic safety of New Zealand’s building stock. However, the Act has significant ramifications for territorial authorities, organisations and individuals in small New Zealand towns, since assessing and repairing heritage buildings poses a major cost to districts with low populations and poor rental returns on commercial buildings.
Earthquake damaged building on a Walk around the city, May 1, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. Demolition work on Christchurch's "distinctive" former civic building is under way. The category-2 heritage building was designed by G A J Hart and opened in 1939 as the Miller's department store. It featured the South Island's first escalator, which...
Earthquake damaged building on a Walk around the city, May 1, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. Demolition work on Christchurch's "distinctive" former civic building is under way. The category-2 heritage building was designed by G A J Hart and opened in 1939 as the Miller's department store. It featured the South Island's first escalator, which...
The damaged Ozone Hotel on Marine Parade. Fallen bricks lie on the ground in front of the building, which is surrounded by security fencing. The photographer comments, "A bike ride to New Brighton and the beach 3 weeks after the Feb 22 quake. Roads were still very rough and under reconstruction. Some buildings are still standing. but don't look too healthy".
Demolition of the old Millers building is just about complemented. On my walk around the city in the rain.. thought it may have stopped.. but didn't so I just kept walking! June 12, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand.
A view of the ICTS building at the University of Canterbury, seen from level 7 of the James Hight building. The photographer comments, "First looks at our new temporary (maybe) office space. Our group will stay here until April or May 2011, then will move to another floor in the Central Library. We look down on the IT Building, which is doomed. The ugly draughty IT building is going to be demolished in the next campus revamp. The 'Butterfly Building' behind, originally the mainframe computer centre, will remain, as it's architecturally significant, apparently".
Demolition work on Christchurch's "distinctive" former civic building and the Front Runner store. On a walk around Christchurch May 9, 2013 New Zealand. Demolition work on Christchurch's "distinctive" former civic building is under way. The category-2 heritage building was designed by G A J Hart and opened in 1939 as the Miller's department s...
This paper presents the preliminary conclusions of the first stage of Wellington Case Study project (Regulating For Resilience in an Earthquake Vulnerable City) being undertaken by the Disaster Law Research Group at the University of Canterbury Law School. This research aims to map the current regulatory environment around improving the seismic resilience of the urban built environment. This work provides the basis for the second stage of the project which will map the regulatory tools onto the reality of the current building stock in Wellington. Using a socio-legal methodology, the current research examines the regulatory framework around seismic resilience for existing buildings in New Zealand, with a particularly focus on multi-storey in the Wellington CBD. The work focusses both on the operation and impact of the formal seismic regulatory tools open to public regulators (under the amended Building Act) as other non-seismic regulatory tools. As well as examining the formal regulatory frame, the work also provides an assessment of the interactions between other non-building acts (such as Health and Safety at Work Act 2015) on the requirements of seismic resilience. Other soft-law developments (particularly around informal building standards) are also examined. The final output of this work will presents this regulatory map in a clear and easily accessible manner and provide an assessment of the suitability of this at times confusing and patchy legal environment as Wellington moves towards becoming a resilient city. The final conclusion of this work will be used to specifically examine the ability of Wellington to make this transition under the current regulatory environment as phase two of the Wellington Case Study project.
On a walk around the city to catch up on what is happening May 29, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. Demolition work on Christchurch's "distinctive" former civic building is under way. The category-2 heritage building was designed by G A J Hart and opened in 1939 as the Miller's department store. It featured the South Island's first escalator, w...
A view of the UBS building at the University of Canterbury, seen from level 7 of the James Hight building. The photographer comments, "First looks at our new temporary (maybe) office space. Our group will stay here until April or May 2011, then will move to another floor in the Central Library. The University Book Shop building".
A desk in the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team's new office in the James Hight building.
A desk in the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team's new office in the James Hight building.
Members of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their new office in the James Hight building.
Members of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their new office in the James Hight building.
The former Government Life building in Christchurch's Cathedral Square will be demolished. On my walk around the city May 21, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christch...
A member of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their new office in the James Hight building.
A member of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their new office in the James Hight building.
A member of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their new office in the James Hight building.
A member of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their new office in the James Hight building.
A paper delivered at Building a Better New Zealand (BBNZ 2014) Conference. The paper examines the relationship between innovation and productivity improvement in the construction industry.
A member of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team, Jessica Hollis, in their new office in the James Hight building. The photographer comments, " Jess Hollis settles in to her new workspace".
Abstract This study provides a simplified methodology for pre-event data collection to support a faster and more accurate seismic loss estimation. Existing pre-event data collection frameworks are reviewed. Data gathered after the Canterbury earthquake sequences are analysed to evaluate the relative importance of different sources of building damage. Conclusions drawns are used to explore new approaches to conduct pre-event building assessment.
The earthquake re-pair work has started on the Knox Church on Bealey Avenue, August 14, 2013 Christchurch New Zealand. While building after building is torn down in Christchurch, plans are in place to ensure as much of a 131-year-old church is retained as possible. Knox Church on Bealey Avenue suffered major damage in the February 22 earthquak...
Buildings subject to earthquake shaking will tend to move not only horizontally but also rotate in plan. In-plan rotation is known as “building torsion” and it may occur for a variety of reasons, including stiffness and strength eccentricity and/or torsional effects from ground motions. Methods to consider torsion in structural design standards generally involve analysis of the structure in its elastic state. This is despite the fact that the structural elements can yield, thereby significantly altering the building response and the structural element demands. If demands become too large, the structure may collapse. While a number of studies have been conducted into the behavior of structures considering inelastic building torsion, there appears to be no consensus that one method is better than another and as a result, provisions within current design standards have not adopted recent proposals in the literature. However, the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission recently made the recommendation that provisions to account for inelastic torsional response of buildings be introduced within New Zealand building standards. Consequently, this study examines how and to what extent the torsional response due to system eccentricity may affect the seismic performance of a building and considers what a simple design method should account for. It is concluded that new methods should be simple, be applicable to both the elastic and inelastic range of response, consider bidirectional excitation and include guidance for multi-story systems.
In the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes, one of the biggest threats to our heritage buildings is the risk of earthquakes and the associated drive to strengthen or demolish buildings. Can Small Town NZ balance the requirements of the EQPB legislation and economic realities of their places? The government’s priority is on safety of building occupants and citizens in the streets. However, maintaining and strengthening privately-owned heritage buildings is often cost prohibitive. Hence, heritage regulation has frequently been perceived as interfering with private property rights, especially when heritage buildings occupy a special place in the community becoming an important place for people (i.e. public benefits are larger than private). We investigate several case studies where building owners have been given green light to demolish heritage listed buildings to make way for modern developments. In two of the case studies developers provided evidence of unaffordable strengthening costs. A new trend that has emerged is a voluntary offer of contributing to an incentive fund to assist with heritage preservation of other buildings. This is a unique example where private owners offer incentives (via council controlled organisations) instead of it being purely the domain of the central or local governments.
A pdf copy of a presentation delivered at Building a Better New Zealand (BBNZ 2014) Conference. The presentation examines the relationship between innovation and productivity improvement in the construction industry.