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After my visit at the hospital for physiotherapy on my hand I took a walk around the city on my way home. Demolition of the Victoria Square apartments February 12, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. www.s...
A photograph of stencilled street art on a fence beside the St Martins Road roundabout. The stencil, created by Kerry Parnell, depicts daleks and space invaders, and reads, "Now panic and freak out".
War and natural disasters share many features including great loss of life, traumatised populations and haunting memories. The Christchurch earthquakes were the third most costly event of 2011 with total costs of up to $NZ30 billion. Many homes, communities, families and an established way of life have gone for ever. The paper comes from the Women’s Voices project that documents women’s narratives of earthquake trauma and loss and examines their profiles of emotional expression associated with coping. For these women in Christchurch, solace is not about talking experiences of suffering but by doing practical things that inform and are shaped by existing personal narratives. As they relayed this common arc, they also entered into national (and gendered) narrative themes of being practical, stoic, independent and resourceful in the face of tragedy and loss and so embody communal aspects of coping with loss and grief particular to the New Zealand even ‘the South Island settler’ identity narrative. These narratives suggest it useful to rethink key concepts that inform our understanding of coping with disaster and loss.
Pages 2 and 3 of a Christmas in the Park lift-out guide in the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 29 November 2014.
Pages 1 and 4 of a Christmas in the Park lift-out guide in the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 29 November 2014.
A pdf copy of a post from the One Voice Te Reo Kotahi blog. The post is titled, "One Voice Te Reo Kotahi Sector Forum: 'Questions regarding CERA transitioning out in 2016'".
A Christchurch couple fighting their insurer and the Earthquake Commission in court say accepting EQC's offer would leave them massively out of pocket.
An example of a public flyer promoting good driver behaviour, handed out in areas of traffic detours or delays.
Thousands of residents living in homes made vulnerable to flooding and liquefaction by the Christchurch earthquakes will find out today how they'll be compensated.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister says Christchurch City Council must take responsibility for the city's flooding problems as it's not the government's problem to sort out.
Peter Marshall is managing director of architectural firm Warren and Mahoney, part of the team selected to carry out the task of the redesign of Christchurch after the earthquakes.
So, that message in a bottle? Well, it turns out it wasn’t the only interesting thing about the site it came from. A fellmongery, German Danes, shoes… read on! First up, the bottle came from under a house built in … Continue reading →
Peter Marshall is managing director of architectural firm Warren and Mahoney, part of the team selected to carry out the task of the redesign of Christchurch after the earthquakes. (This version of the audio does not include music)
Working in archaeology here in New Zealand we most often encounter the material remains of Māori settlement and colonisation by the British Empire in the 19th century. Groups such as the New Zealand Company and the Canterbury Association laid out … Continue reading →
Christchurch and its surrounding towns are slowly starting to be rebuilt after the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. Our political editor Brent Edwards has been in Christchurch to find out whether the rebuild debate will dominate the election campaign in the city.
A brochure created for Beca Heritage Week 2014, outlining SCIRT's repair work on heritage structures in the Central City. It was handed out to members of the public at SCIRT's walk and talk tours.
The Christchurch Art Gallery is on track to reopen late next year, almost five years after the most devastating of the city's earthquakes put it out of commission. One of the key players in this important next step is Dr Lara Strongman who is the gallery's new senior curator.
A video of a dug-out soil pit on a farm near River Road in Lincoln. There is a thick layer of saturated sand between the topsoil and the subsoil where the grass roots end. The saturated soil is collapsing as a result of contractor Tony Fisher, of Fisher Agriculture Ltd, jumping lightly up and down on the edge of the pit.
Working at getting things out of the Victoria Square before it is demolished. www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-20... What I found on my walk around the city January 15, 2014 Ch...
A video of a dug-out soil pit on a farm near River Road in Lincoln. There is a thick layer of saturated sand between the topsoil and the subsoil where the grass roots end. The saturated soil is collapsing as a result of contractor Tony Fisher, of Fisher Agriculture Ltd, having jumped lightly up and down on the edge of the pit.
A video of contractor Tony Fisher, of Fisher Agricultural Ltd, jumping lightly up and down on the edge of a dug-out soil pit on a farm near River Road in Lincoln. There is a thick layer of saturated sand between the topsoil and the subsoil where the grass roots end. The saturated soil starts to collapse as a result of the movement.
Victoria Apartments demolition is under way on a walk around the city to find out what is happening in the city. Feb 17, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. "soft-stripped", which means that any remaining belongings will be removed, as well as furnishings and internal walls.
On a walk around the city to find out of the Demolition work on the Victoria Sq Apartments. Taking up a digger it took some times to manmover it up there! Feb 17, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand. www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/ne...
External stairs on the Forsyth Barr building in Christchurch. Portions of the internal stairwell collapsed during the earthquake of February 22nd 2011, necessitating use of various means of getting people out of the building. Was the fourth highest building in the city pre earthquakes, but it's future is uncertain. Was for sale "as is, where ...
Topics - A new two million dollar fund has been launched to urgently help community groups to meet increased demand after Canterbury's earthquakes. The Need Help Now Fund is part of a special 25 million dollar earthquake allocation set up (last year) by the Canterbury Community Trust. The Mana Party leader Hone Harawira is prepared to lose senior party figures such as founding member Sue Bradford over a proposed link with Kim Dotcom's Internet Party. And what about Gareth Morgan's idea of a Universal basic income? John Minto is proposing a universal basic income paid to every New Zealander, out of government tax revenue.
As a result of the Christchurch Earthquake that occurred on 22nd February 2011 and the resultant loss of life and widespread damage, a Royal Commission of Enquiry was convened in April 2011. The Royal Commission recommended a number of significant changes to the regulation of earthquake prone building in New Zealand. Earthquake prone buildings are buildings that are deemed to be of insufficient strength to perform adequately in a moderate earthquake. In response to the Royal Commission recommendations the New Zealand Government carried out a consultative process before announcing proposed changes to the building regulations in August 2013. One of the most significant changes is the imposition of mandatory strengthening requirements for earthquake prone buildings on a national basis. This will have a significant impact on the urban fabric of most New Zealand towns and cities. The type of traditional cost benefit study carried out to date fails to measure these impacts and this paper proposes an alternative methodology based on the analysis of land use data and rating valuations. This methodology was developed and applied to a small provincial town in the form of a case study. The results of this case study and the methodology used are discussed in this paper.
Topics - scientists are wondering how the light gets out. Maybe there is a cosmic crack in everything, because in the Journal Astrophysical Letters it is noted that there is a huge deficit of light in the universe. Owners of heritage apartments in Auckland face becoming "impoverished" according to a high-profile real estate figure, because of new laws around earthquake strengthening. Martin Dunn of City Sales says the Building Amendment Bill is "overkill". He says those trying to sell heritage apartments are having a difficult time because of the new rules. Jim Anderton, has again raised the issue of whether the Christchurch Cathedral has to come down.
Christchurch's historic Theatre Royal will reopen for business in November, with bookings about to open for the first show, the Royal New Zealand Ballet season of "A Christmas Carol" The 106-year old theatre has been closed for almost four years because of earthquake damage in the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. The $40million rebuild and restoration project will be completed over the next five months and on 17 November 2014, the 'Grand Old Lady' of New Zealand theatre will reopen her doors for performances. With so few venues for performance left in the city, including the Town Hall out of commission indefinitely, the rebuild of the Theatre Royal is very good news for Christchurch audiences Chief executive Neil Cox explains the process of getting oldest Edwardian theatre in the country back in use and mounting the large scale theatrical productions it has been famous for.
In most design codes, infill walls are considered as non-structural elements and thus are typically neglected in the design process. The observations made after major earthquakes (Duzce 1999, L’Aquila 2009, Christchurch 2011) have shown that even though infill walls are considered to be non-structural elements, they interact with the structural system during seismic actions. In the case of heavy infill walls (i.e. clay brick infill walls), the whole behaviour of the structure may be affected by this interaction (i.e. local or global structural failures such as soft storey mechanism). In the case of light infill walls (i.e. non-structural drywalls), this may cause significant economical losses. To consider the interaction of the structural system with the ‘non-structural ’infill walls at design stage may not be a practical approach due to the complexity of the infill wall behaviour. Therefore, the purpose of the reported research is to develop innovative technological solutions and design recommendations for low damage non-structural wall systems for seismic actions by making use of alternative approaches. Light (steel/timber framed drywalls) and heavy (unreinforced clay brick) non-structural infill wall systems were studied by following an experimental/numerical research programme. Quasi-static reverse cyclic tests were carried out by utilizing a specially designed full scale reinforced concrete frame, which can be used as a re-usable bare frame. In this frame, two RC beams and two RC columns were connected by two un-bonded post tensioning bars, emulating a jointed ductile frame system (PRESSS technology). Due to the rocking behaviour at the beam-column joint interfaces, this frame was typically a low damage structural solution, with the post-tensioning guaranteeing a linear elastic behaviour. Therefore, this frame could be repeatedly used in all of the tests carried out by changing only the infill walls within this frame. Due to the linear elastic behaviour of this structural bare frame, it was possible to extract the exact behaviour of the infill walls from the global results. In other words, the only parameter that affected the global results was given by the infill walls. For the test specimens, the existing practice of construction (as built) for both light and heavy non-structural walls was implemented. In the light of the observations taken during these tests, modified low damage construction practices were proposed and tested. In total, seven tests were carried out: 1) Bare frame , in order to confirm its linear elastic behaviour. 2) As built steel framed drywall specimen FIF1-STFD (Light) 3) As built timber framed drywall specimen FIF2-TBFD (Light) 4) As built unreinforced clay brick infill wall specimen FIF3-UCBI (Heavy) 5) Low damage steel framed drywall specimen MIF1-STFD (Light) 6) Low damage timber framed drywall specimen MIF2-TBFD (Light) 7) Low damage unreinforced clay brick infill wall specimen MIF5-UCBI (Heavy) The tests of the as built practices showed that both drywalls and unreinforced clay brick infill walls have a low serviceability inter-storey drift limit (0.2-0.3%). Based on the observations, simple modifications and details were proposed for the low damage specimens. The details proved to be working effectively in lowering the damage and increasing the serviceability drift limits. For drywalls, the proposed low damage solutions do not introduce additional cost, material or labour and they are easily applicable in real buildings. For unreinforced clay brick infill walls, a light steel sub-frame system was suggested that divides the infill panel zone into smaller individual panels, which requires additional labour and some cost. However, both systems can be engineered for seismic actions and their behaviour can be controlled by implementing the proposed details. The performance of the developed details were also confirmed by the numerical case study analyses carried out using Ruaumoko 2D on a reinforced concrete building model designed according to the NZ codes/standards. The results have confirmed that the implementation of the proposed low damage solutions is expected to significantly reduce the non-structural infill wall damage throughout a building.
On February 22, 2011, Christchurch-based journalists were jolted out of their normal work routine by a large 6.3 magnitude earthquake that killed 185 people, wrecked the city and forced reporters to reappraise their journalism. This study considers how the earthquake affected journalists’ relationship to the community, their use of sources and news selection. A theory of collective trauma is used to explain the changes that journalists made to their reporting practice. Specifically, Christchurch journalists had a greater identification and attachment to their audience post-earthquake. Journalists viewed themselves as part of the earthquake story, which prompted them to view sources differently, use those sources differently and see advocacy as a keystone of their news work after the disaster. This study adds to a growing scholarship about journalists and trauma, but focuses on what the event meant for local reporters’ choice of sources and news selection rather than measuring rates of psychological distress.