The Commons, Transitioning into the future. by LinneaCJ

The Commons Transitioning into the future

Abstract This final bachelor thesis explores the possibilities of a specific site in the transformative movement of Christchurch, during the rebuild period following a fatal earthquake in 2011. The project seeks to improve the site as a public space through optimising its spatial qualities and its connectivity to the surroundings and the history of the site. In this way, the project aims to improve the current transformative site to let it inform and inspire future city planning of Christchurch.

The project deals with the complexity of being part of a temporary occupation for a quite long time, and the design proposal seeks to solve the most present problems on site by making the most out of what’s there already, and starting the conversation about the permanence of the site by implementing some new elements of less temporary nature. In reflection of the site and host’s iterative design process, the design proposal consists of five individual design steps that can be created individually, emphasizes the function of each other and come together to create a combined design A methodical analysis of the site and its immediate solution for The Commons. surroundings, based on notation, photography and theory on spaces for people, is the base from which the project seeks to identify the sites key problems and potentials of the site.

Bachelor thesis in Landscape Architecture Copenhagen University Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management Linnea Calov Jacobsen, fld779 Internship host: GapFiller Academic advisor at Copenhagen University: Bettina Lamm, Associate Professor Landscape Architecture. Host tutor: Ryan Reynolds, Ph.D ‘Rehumanising Sustainability’ and Chairman of the GapFiller Trust. Independent tutor: Wendy Hoddinott, Senior Landscape Architect, Ph.D Student at Lincoln University and trustee on the board of Greening the Rubble. Title: The Commons, transitioning into the future 1

Contents Abstract Contents

1 3

Intro

Method

Context

The Commons, site analysis

Design proposal

Pictures of transition Motive Research question Goals

6 10 11 11

Working process Movement and Notation Photography Pedestrian studies Model Tea and biscuits

14 16 18 20 22 24

Christchurch and the earthquakes The Transformative Movement Cultural design principles Time-line

The CBD and the commons Rebuild anchor-points Pedestrian sources The block Elements, Kevin Lynch analysis Land zoning after the earthquakes Vegetation The Commons Materials Pedestrian flows Perceived comfort Wind and sun conditions Analysis integrated

38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 56 58 60 62 64

Structure Vision 1 - Create sub-spaces by reorganizing 2 - Define the NE/SW-axis as a real pedestrian access 3 - Encourage new & different uses through furniture 4 - Create voluminous shelter-giving edge to the west 5 - Define a central sub-space Combined Design proposal

69 69 70 76 82 88 94 102

108 110 112

06 Conclusion

28 30 32 34

Conclusion, discussion and perspective References in literature List of figures

01 4

Introduction Projects Broken city Rebuilding city Motive Research Question Goals

1 The Think Differently Book Exchange by GapFiller 2 Vertical garden, a community source #D print project by xCHc 3 Restless Forrest by Greening the Rubble 4 The Dance-o-mat, a coin-powered public dance floor by GapFiller 5 Concrete Propositions 0.2. Street art by Ash Keating with GapFiller and The Art Museum

How Long is it planned to last for?

“Until it’s obscured by buildings”

Opposite Street Art by RONE in Christchurch

Demolition and unknown future

Rebuild and parking space

Motive

Research Question

In July 2015 I packed my essentials and flew to the other side of the world to study one semester as an exchange student at Lincoln University in Canterbury New Zealand. In the months leading up to my departure I had briefly been introduced to Christchurch’s transformative movement. When I arrived in New Zealand it was winter, the mountains were hauntingly close and the city just seemed fragmented and confusing.

In a city where the oldest buildings are disappearing, the temporary nature of the city itself becomes clear. When a temporary occupation of a site has had a longer life than half of the surrounding buildings, and the site is surrounded by temporary buildings structures associated with the rebuild, how do you then continue to identify as the vibrant temporary space? Many vacant spaces are still waiting to be rebuild, and others stand shiny new in contrast to the building rubble. In this process of transformation, it is important not to erase the traces of the past, but instead seek to use them in the building of the new. The city has a need to create a connection between the past, the present and the future city, to utilize the memories and feel of the past Christchurch to rebuild a better one.

to get it right every time, but it also gives an opportunity to explore the possibilities of a space that exist only like that for a limited amount of time. It is a playful approach but sometimes responsibilities grow from the smallest of intentions. GapFiller started out as a one-time event and has now grown into a not so small organization with nine employees, a range of ongoing projects and a bit of political influence. The same kind of responsibility has grown with The Commons, the site where GapFiller’s office is Coming from a school of Landscape Architecture and City currently located. It is a long-term temporary occupation, a Design, and a country with a well developed network based contradiction that informs this project throughout. governance, I was prepared to discover a world of top-down governance, but as I had learned from watching “the Human The Commons is a project in its own, and as a project that Scale” (Dalsgaard 2012), a governance with good intentions combines the forces of many organizations; the Commons about listening to the residents of Christchurch. During is a significant part of the transformative movement in my time at Lincoln University I realized that conventional Christchurch. It is also the most visible spot to those unaware planning and design procedures were to slow to make a of the movement happening. Here an interesting meeting timely difference in a city where a large part of the town happens between those whose whole lifestyle has become is demolished and land lying vacant. I found that in order the fun and quirky rebuild of the city and those who just to make the city welcoming and comfortable in the time want the aftermath of the earthquakes to be over. Kilmore until the large master plans were realized, someone would Street 7, the former site of The Crowne Plaza Hotel and have to engage the city and help the community in the time the current site of The Commons, is a site with roots in a being. These someone were getting directly involved in history where two cultures met and one came out on top of bettering the city today and tomorrow, and thereby filling the other. It is also a site with roots in an important trading the gap between pre-earthquake city and the rebuild city, a route and today in close vicinity to the tourist routes. process that might take 10 years or longer. The site could be a place of outreach and conversation a After spending five moths at Lincoln University learning fun centre for the temporary stuff happening in between about alpine faults, liquefaction and rebuild, and working all the rebuild, but i quickly experiences a feeling of being on 100-year plans, resilience building and planning for irrelevant at both GapFiller and The Commons. This is also a future community, I got the change to take part in the reflected in the falling number of visitors and volunteers. building of community. In late November 2015 I joined There are different ways to approach this problem, several GapFiller as an intern. of which have been discussed at meetings within GapFiller and The Commons Council, and perhaps the solution lies Working with GapFiller opened up many possibilities. somewhere else in the city. I decided to tackle this problem, Their work covers both theoretical thinking, counselling and as a result this project seeks to define and solve the and hands on building and maintaining installations spatial problems on site that might be holding potentials of around the city. Working temporary gives an opportunity The Commons back. to explore the possibilities in of a space without having

Through thorough registration, mapping and analysis of the site, this project will seek to answer the following questions: • How can a temporary occupation of a vacant site influence the future use while maintaining its temporary ambiance? • How can a temporary space stay interesting to the public over a longer period of time? • How can a temporary vacant site connect physically, visually and mentally to the constantly evolving city that surrounds it?

• How can a redesign improve the function of the space The purpose of this project is to define how a temporary as a public square that invites people to hang out? vacant site can improve as a public square during the transformative years of the rebuild of Christchurch, • How can a redesign of the space be build by the through identifying and expressing the character of the site community? and the history of the city. The other purpose is to create a space and a process that supports the participatory and transformative nature of the hosts of The Commons, both through design and implementation.

Goals Make The Commons important to the future Make The Commons interesting to people Connect The Commons to the surrounding city Design for a participatory building process

02 12

Method Process Influential methods

Experience of site and organization

Working process The working process throughout this project was heavily influenced by both mine, and my intern ship host’s continuous presence on site. Being the current location of GapFiller’s head-quarter, it functions both as a frame for the working environment and a space for experiments and ongoing activation-events. Early on, the project grew to more that a design project as the analysis became framework for conversations about other projects, and all aspects of it was affected by the temporary, low-cost and participatory nature of the company. Millimetre preciseness was prioritized very little, and creating the right solution with as little effort as possible influenced all of the design project was a key factor throughout the process. The theory assessed during the project was based on various new books about temporary and transformative city spaces, and as the project became about improving a public space for the people in Christchurch, I quickly found it necessary to assess more classic theory about designing spaces for humans as well as local plant and soil knowledge.

To create a solid starting point, I engaged in an initial site analysis, noting and taking pictures, registering where people walked and what the were doing and felt on myself where the wind, the sun and the surroundings were hardest . The analyses lead to a definition of where to engage in further analysis, and in which direction I would be able to find a solution. The in depth analysis lead to some strong key problems and potentials from where the conceptual solution was easy to find.

Conversations about site and simultaneous projects. Including models

Key problems and potentials defined

General solution

Model testing Conversations about future Specified solution

Transformation and Design Theory

In depth analysis

The conceptual solution was tried through models, specified through several conversations, and defined by theory that was more technical than that in the beginning. The wished outcome of this process was an evidence based design proposal, from which I would make sure to provide GapFiller with something valuable. Even if the design proposal will stagnate after my leave, I will have provided a better understanding of the site and why it works the way it does.

The rest of this chapter looks at the five methods that This project was worked on over nearly three and a half shaped my project; notation, photography, pedestrian months, and heavily influenced by both my other work studies, models and the conversations in GapFiller, often with GapFiller and my initial experience of the site and referred to as inviting people to “Tea and biscuits” organization as a whole. This first experience was the starting point from where I began my project.

Initial site analysis

Technical Theory

Movement and Notation Moving through a space, sensing and experiencing it is a valuable part of understanding any space as a landscape architect. The explorations are difficult to define as a sum and some things might be forgotten if not noted down. While the beginning of the project was based on a phenomenological approach seeking to define the basic qualities and problems on site, my notations are affected by my tendency to quickly qualify things through mapping, and technical noting about things like plants, textures, pavement and scales

All aspects and stages of the project were done partially trough movement and notation. Being on site almost all days allowed me to steps out of the office and see the pedestrian patterns happen or visualize my design proposals. Drawing, writing and noting all things down helped me re-visit elements I might have thought to be done, or simply didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize the importance off at first.

Photography Photographs capture moments in frames. In the transitional city, photographs might help understand the process over longer time. Photography capture moments of the changing city and photography captures moments on the changing project site. It is in the nature of The Commons that the site change on a daily basis, furniture gets moved around for the sun and larger elements like The Grandstandium gets rented out and moved around. Photography is a good tool to understand spacial qualities and to capture moments, lights and elements that wake a curiosity for further development.

Seven months later GapFiller initiated a project on the same street, on the same spot, and I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize until I read the street names. The Commons functions in a similar way, and my analyses and sketches were constantly mismatching on furniture placement. One day the Grandstandium moved permanently, and despite its porous nature, it is one of the largest elements on site, and so the whole spatial situation of that corner on site changed.

Pictures also makes it easy to communicate changes. It makes it easier to understand the difference between During this project, photographs has helped me understand Monday mornings commute and Saturday evenings Latino what it means to live in a changing city. On one of my first Market, and finally it makes it easier to communicate the days in town I joined some locals in watching a building site and project to people who have never experienced it. being demolished, it was fascinating and very alien to me.

1 Grandstandium in the beginning 2 Grandstandium later 3 Demolition on Manchester Street July 15 4 Parking on Manchester Street February 16 Opposite 1 Normal day at The Commons March 16 Opposite 2 Latino Market at The Commons February 16 18

Pedestrian studies Pedestrian studies are crucial in understanding and explaining the functionality of a public site. Submerging yourself in passive observation of the life of the site forces you to see patterns and understand the behaviour of the people you are designing for. Humans have many biologically inherited spatial preferences that might be learned from a book, but culture shapes what is publicly acceptable. Therefore an on-site pedestrian study is the best and easiest way to understand a specific situation.

After five years of rapid changes the daily commuters seek the easiest way of the day, and leave a trail of desire-lines through the rubble. The Commons is obviously affected by the daily stream of commuters and I wanted to explore what the pattern looked like the rest of the time.

With the purpose of creating a diverse and thorough story about the pedestrians at the commons, I mapped and photographed the behaviour on site for several days, with much time being spend on sitting and observing the life on In a transformative city, pedestrian patterns change with the site. Over the course of the project, I engaged in long and spaces. Sometimes roads close off for repair, old landmark short conversations about the site with many tourists, a few buildings disappear and new identical green glass buildings local commuters and some local rebuild workers. pop up to permanently shape the pedestrian experience. Opposite 1 Man crossing The Commons on new axis Opposite 2 Woman on obvious desire-line Below Sketches from pedestrian studies

Model Spatial relations can be investigated through threedimensional recreations that makes it easier to relate to the scale of elements and the spaces created between them. It is a tool for development and trial as much as a tool for communicating the spatial situation to people with all kinds of spatial knowledge or lack thereof. In a time where technology makes it easy to recreate and explore projects in virtual three-dimensions, a physical model makes the observer and builder more free to explore changes in the moment, and is for many still the easiest way to comprehend the spatial context between elements. It also gives the opportunity to explore materials and functions in smallscale before creating the final project. 1 Close-up of moved trees 2 Testing the solutions in combination

with quickly folded arcades, clay houses and elements and a simple plan-print of the site. Later the model developed a bit to explore the spatial qualities of the design proposal.

Investigatory The first 1:100 plan was the base for trying out larger ideas about moving site elements and adding vegetation elements. Some times a specific model to scale is not the purpose of trying out ideas before finalizing them. When exploring the perfect combination of materials for feeling, experience and practicality, simple methods like testing the weavability and character of bicycle inner tubes and old construction banners is specific enough to decide on the design. In the case of building site furniture through a participatory Communicational process, making a scale model before would require a lot Most of the conversations about the site were grounded of work and paid staff hours without providing much more in a working model, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;sketch-versionâ&#x20AC;? of a model in the information of functionality than a simple test would. scale of 1:100. In the beginning the model was sketch-like

3 Placing rain-garden segments Opposite Bicycle inner tubes test-weave

Tea and biscuits GapFiller is a non-profit organization that works closely with other like-minded organizations and often reaches out to those that might not yet know that they are. GapFiller is also only one of many actors on The Commons, and being the largest organization, conversations regarding the site are often held on GapFillerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initiative. The conversations range from official meetings to what was often referred to as Tea and Biscuits, the latter providing an informal setting that invites to an open discussion without any necessary expectations of the involved.

Project, a pavilion design competition. The winning project was much larger than anticipated by the initiators, and in deciding how to fit it in, my site analyses became part of the conversation. Through the many Tea and Biscuitsconversations, the sites problems and potentials became clear to me, and even lead to a further investigation into how The Commons might fit in the new framework of the City. The Commons Shelter Project is on hold for now, and I have therefore decided to exclude it in my design proposal. I see this project as an outcome of my site analysis and the lessons that were learned in the process of not building a In the first few months of the project, I undertook the shelter. The site is constantly changing and sometimes many more or less technical analyses of The Commons, is better to do less than try to solve everything with one and GapFiller found a winner of The Commons Shelter prominent project.

1 Commons Shelter Architects, GapFiller, Te Putahi and GapFiller discussing site changes with the help from a model. Each house on the model is standing on a piece of paper representing the houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s minimal distance to other houses in accordance with fire safety rules. 2 Meeting seen from outside The Common Room

03 Context Christchurch Earthquakes Transitional Recovery Movement Time-line

Christchurch and the earthquakes Pre-earthquake Christchurch housed around 450,000 people and was known as the most conservative city as well as the least multicultural city in New Zealand (Wilson, 2015), having a heavier English cultural heritage than Maori and even advertising itself under names as “The most English place outside of England” and “The Garden City”(Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism 2015). On the fourth of September 2010 at 4:35 am. a magnitude 7.1 earthquake stroke a small town 40 km. from Christchurch City. The earthquake caused extensive damage to the City of Christchurch but due to the timing of the earthquake no one was killed. Five months, and many thousand aftershocks, later, a big magnitude 6.3 aftershock hit the city at lunchtime on the 22 of February 2011, causing much more structural damage and killing 185 people. (Potter, Becker, Johnston and Rossiter, 2015) As a consequence of the damage large parts of the city was Red Zoned and closed down for demolition. The people of Christchurch were forced out of the damaged buildings and many had to relocate far away from their original community, and saw all the places they used to associate with their home and their city being shut off and slowly demolished. The documentary “The Human Scale” investigates the initial loss felt by the people of Christchurch during the time after the earthquakes and comes to the conclusion that: “It’s not just about bricks and mortar. It’s not just the hardware or the pavement or the buildings. It’s the software as well, it is the memories.” David Sim, Gehl Architects The things, spaces and monuments that we surround ourselves with play a role in the memories and emotions that we attach to a place, and so we identify with where we live, with a particular house or the street. Buildings or monuments can survive through time, standing through the different layers of building the city, and will over time become a landmark layered in the communal and individual memory and emotions about a place (Stevenson, 2013) Many heritage buildings, as well as the everyday-

spaces and an estimated 16,000 homes (Peters, 2014) were damaged, causing emotional damage to the individuals and displacement of the communities. The emotional damage has been so widely recognized that the word quake-brain has been developed to define the mental distress people are feeling following the earthquakes (Triegaardt, 2011). So what was being done to address this large-scale emotional crisis? The Government launched several programs including the CERA Mental Health Recovery plan in 2011 (CERA, 2011), which was later followed by Community in Mind, a plan to improve feeling of community. (CERA, 2014). Both plans are part of an ongoing commitment to helping the people of Christchurch through the marathonrecovery. The large redevelopment project Share an Idea was launched “To create an effective redevelopment plan that the government would approve” (Strategy, 2011), and with more than 106,000 ideas, it became a internationally recognized success in public engagement (NV Interactive, 2015). Unfortunately, the end product, The Christchurch Recovery Plan, was suspended by the Government (Gates 2015), which will make a lot of people will feel like they haven’t been heard, and by that the council will have lost all the goodwill that was developed through the successful participation project. Eventually this can potentially develop a feeling of “us – the people who were moved from our homes” and “them – the people in charge”, and creating a lack of trust and feeling safe, which is so important in creating a feeling of community (Montgomery, 2013) Simultaneously with the official initiatives, Christchurch saw a rise in volunteering work and private initiatives, some of which has developed into small-scale companies with goals, budgets and visions. Based on an essay, Memory and Identity in Post-Earthquake Christchurch, by the author in completion of the course The Living City at Lincoln University:

1 - Madras st. Pre-earthquake 2 - Madras st. immediately after the earthquakes 3 - Madras st. now (Feb. 2016) 28

The Transformative Movement “Christchurch’s recovery journey is a time of transition. The Transitional City is important because it’s a chance to trial new ideas and ways of doing things. The Council is supporting this creative and innovative approach in a number of ways through the Transitional City Work Programme.”

After the fatal earthquake in February 2011, the attitude changed, it stopped being so festive as the cultural amenities lost their relevance when people were lacking basic clean water and places to stay. Actually, a lot of the really interesting stuff that happened in the first three or four months was out of necessity, out of communities gathering together. There are some really beautiful installations around: people supplying water out of backyard springs to passers by. A whole lot of necessity drove it for a long while. There was a utopian aspect – everyone got to know their community and neighbours. The government wasn’t able to play a particularly active role because they were preoccupied with trying to deal with what they had. So, with the combination of a few strong leaders and a sense of ‘this as our city’, I think what came out of that time was a spirit of ‘we can do stuff’, we don’t need permission – we’ve proven it to ourselves. Barnaby Bennet (Murray 2014)

Above quote is the beginning words on Christchurch City Councils web-page for the official part of the transitional movement, (Christchurch City Council n.a.) a movement that started with people helping each other out in the aftermath of the earthquakes. Some of the most successful initiatives after the earthquakes have been focusing on involving the people of Christchurch in everything with a more direct volunteer-based approach than traditional public participation. Starting with the 2010 earthquake whose damage had created some “gaps” between the buildings, two groups of people temporarily out of work came together to “fill these gaps”; the people behind at is now GapFiller and Greening the Rubble saw a need for places to come together for the people of Christchurch. Even before “the big one” in February 2011, many of the cities bars, restaurants and venues were closed down for repair or demolition, leaving a lot of people with nowhere to meet up and go out. And because of the miracle of no one dying, the earthquake’s severity wasn’t taken seriously by a lot of people, that were left feeling restless.

Some of the initial projects are still functioning today. GapFiller and Greening the Rubble have developed into respectively a registered charity and community project, both with several big sponsors, and both enabling hundreds of people to take part in rebuilding their city (GapFiller, 2016 and Greening the Rubble, 2016) In 2012 they together created the bureaucratic fighter Live In Vacant Spaces, that is now helping citizens start their own initiatives in Christchurch. The Goodwill and money from the City

Council and other sponsors combined with and outburst of people wanting to participate in rebuilding their city, and making spaces fun with shorter time frame created a growth of the transitional movement in Christchurch. Many other initiatives are now also making Christchurch a fun and interesting place between and on the buildings. Included in these are some initiated by Christchurch City Council such as the Friday Night Food Truck Market and several public artworks.

land that runs under the Arcades on The Commons has been changed since the installation of the Arcades, a community group being funded to design their local street and outsourcing the hosting and maintenance of temporary events and installations to groups like GapFiller. The full effect is yet to be seen, but there is a hope for The Transformative Movement to become a catalyst in a future, and slightly present, paradigm shift in the urban planning of Christchurch (Kiib & Marling 2015)

Christchurch City Councils “Transitional City Work Programme” established temporary uses as an official policy from the Council to make use of the land in between builds. Through the official policy, the transformative movement becomes a mere “stand-in” (Oswalt et al 2013) until the “real” fabrics of the city is being build. There is a possibility that the city hopes to create an identity the empty plots of land, and thereby increasing the value to the land before the surroundings have been build. Some people might wish that the temporary occupations will create an impulse to carry on the existing work on present sites by investors or the Council, or that the uses continues indefinitely by moving to new locations when old ones become unavailable. But as the council’s official policy, it is not intended that the transformative movement should inform the future rebuild.

The Commons is a larger scale temporary occupation of land owned by Christchurch City Council and engaging several actors of the transformative movement. The site is hosting very temporary projects and projects that seem very permanent. The same combination is true for GapFiller that is currently struggling to find the balance between the temporary and the permanent in a long-term temporary occupation. Being the oldest and largest organization in the Transformative Movement, there is now also a responsibility to make a long-term impact on the fabric of the city and the community. This “dream of permanence” is a natural desire after having spend more than five years building a mediumsized organization devoted to improving Christchurch (Bishop & Williams 2012) GapFiller was as pr. printing date still discussing whether to return to short term occupations or grab the responsibility of staying at the Commons. This Contrary to the above stated are the smaller steps towards project investigates a way to claim that responsibility. an acceptance of the influence of the common man on the structure of the city. The land zoning of the strip of Opposite 1 Ash Keating street art with GapFiller Opposite 2 Mobile Big Ball on The Commons by GapFiller Opposite 3 Cultivate Christchurch, urban farming Opposite 4 Captain Cook with traffic cones. Opposite 1 Home in the CBD, a tiny house on vacant space Opposite 2 Vertical pop-up garden Opposite 3 Chchurling workshop with GapFiller

Cultural design principles New Zealand is a land of immigrants from other places. First the ancestors of the Maori arrived on ocean-going wakas (canoes) from the pacific islands around 1300 AD. They settled and explored the extents of New Zealand’s two Islands. Four hundred years later, they were accompanied by European explorers, in 1642 the Dutchman Abel Tasman and subsequently the British explorer James Cook in 1769 (Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal 2015). The European explorations eventually lead to a British settlement on New Zealand, and with the well meaning Treaty of Waitangi, the two settlements agreed to live side by side. Poor translation resulted in a treaty with different meaning in English and Maori, in favour of the English Crown, which gained supremacy of the New Zealand land. (Orange, 2015) Today the relationship between Māori and Pākehā (non-Māori) is frequently discussed as well as being addressed in laws and cultural institutions. Because of the long-term biculturalism, some New Zealanders feel as part of both (Philips 2012). Rugby as the country’s national sport is a good example of a well functioning bicultural daily life element, with players of many different cultures and a tradition of performing the Haka, a Māori war dance or cry, before every match, it is loved by a nation. In 1850 Surveyor Captain Joseph Thomas set out a plan of Christchurch based on a standard rectangular grid of colonial settlement adopted for easing the survey of new land to facilitate land sales (Moller 2014). The grid is laid out with streets running perfectly north to south and west to east, only interrupted by the eccentric Avon River, which was tamed as the swamp-like land was drained. The two trading routed along Victoria Street and Ferry Road slashed through the grid to allow easy access to the logging in Papanui and the harbour in the south east. Before the earthquakes most buildings were of modern or brutalistic style (Schrader 2014), and while many of the buildings faced demolition, most of their replacements are also modernistic

Principle style, predominantly buildings of green sleek tinted glass covering steel structures. The commons is surrounded by two brutalistic buildings, one survived the earthquakes and the other was deemed so important that Christchurch City Council decided to invest in repairing it when it was designated for demolition by the rebuild-engineers. In direct connection to the site is Victoria Square, a park whose design is loosely based on English landscape gardens design principles. It stands as a piece of British nostalgia complete with british-native trees and statues of the British explorer James Cook and the Queen. Victoria Square is a good representation of Christchurch before the earthquakes. In large the city doesn’t reflect the other official culture of the country, although places like the Kakano Café and Cookery School has recently emerged. Traditionally Māori culture didn’t have a written language, and the common knowledge and culture is founded in general principles about all aspects of life. Some of these relate to how we live with each other and nature, with Māori having a much less human centric approach to life than the Europeans. In “Taone Tupu Ora; Indigenous knowledge and sustainable design”, Keriata Stuart and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett investigates how Māori values can be translated into city planning and urban design, and gives an extensive list of 9 key relations. (Stuart & Thompson-Fawcett, 2010) The cultural design values are focused in two directions: The building of community and humans coexistence with nature. The former is daily being approached by organizations such as GapFiller and Greening the Rubble, but the latter requires extensive rehabilitation to work in Christchurch. Smaller actions such as cleaning the waterways and managing all waste-, and storm water locally, as well as a primary use of native plants are mentioned as positive actions towards a better relationship with nature.

Kotahitanga Cohesion and Collaboration

Wairuatanga Embedded Emotion or Spirit

Manaakitanga Hospitality and Security Whanaungatanga Participation and Membership

Kaitiakitanga Guardianship and Stewardship

Rangatiratanga Leadership, Identity and Self-Determination Mauritanga Essence / Life-force

Orangatanga Health and well-being

Matauranga History, genealogy, mythology, and cultural traditions.

New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, performing the traditional Māori war-cry, The Haka 32

Description

Purpose

Design response

Collective cooperative and To encourage community Community centre, effective partnerships and unity and identity amphitheatre, community collaboration with community facilities, parks, reserves, walkways, good access links between spaces Emotional connection with To maintain and preserve the Site orientation to important the environment that links essence of Tangata Whenua landmarks important to people Tangata Whenua, sight lines. environmental restoration projects Acceptance and hospitality To embrace and welcome all Restore and access traditional given toward visitors, and people, especially visitors and medicinal and food resources, protection and security of to provide a safe and secure communal gardens, CPTED community community environment principles Participation and membership To encourage community Communal facilities, in the community and social participation and pride community centre, communal setting through building and laundromat. open reserves, emphasising community parks, communal gardens, identity common and civic spaces reflecting local identity Protection of significant To support the protection On-site mitigation for landscape features important of important environmental three waters, recognition to the local community and cultural features through and protection of spiritual community ownership and guardians, restoration of collective responsibility waterways and natural areas, cluster buildings to maximise communal reserves and the natural environments Community can lead and take To promote self-determination Live and work from home, responsibility for creating and and independence mix use high density living determining their own future environments, clustering of dwellings, heritage markers (pou) Life-force or essence of a To identify and promote the Community monitoring of natural environment maintenance or restoration of natural environment, swale Maori systems for stormwater, rain-tank collection systems, grey-water recycling systems, passive solar design Maintain health and wellbeing To promote environmental Restoration projects, access to of the community protection and a safe resources (flax, eels, waterways community etc), use of indigenous flora, encourage walking and cycling. less traffic, CPTED principles, public transport Understanding of community To encourage community Education promotions, history, identities, character understanding and pride interpretation boards, heritage through shared knowledge markers (pou), heritage trails Table showing Māori urban design principles

Victoria Square

Private building

Earthquake Māori

1500 Waitaha Māori migrates south from the north island and settles in the area of present-day Victoria Square. They later were followed by Ngāi Tahu Māori, who absorbed most of Waitaha settlements. Ngāi Tahu didn’t settle near Victoria Square, but it remained an important Mahinga Kai (food gathering and cultivation area), providing food and medicine from the river and associated vegetation.

1890

2011

The trading area was cleared and developed as a park for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The park was completed in the style of an English landscape garden and includes a statue of Queen Victoria of England and later one of Captain James Cook, the first European to “discover” New Zealand.

The devastating earthquake of the 22nd February causes substantial damage to the controversial Parkroyal Hotel and most of the surrounding neighbours. The entirety of central Christchurch gets closed for repair.

The Commons is owned by CCC, (Christchurch City Council) and is currently for sale as one big plot. The divided zoning (Arcades) could be build over by a private investor as happened with the Parkroyal Hotel.

Private building and

Public square Tussock grassland dominated the area now known as Ōtautahi/Christchurch, and was inhabited by the first human settlers, probably Moa-hunters. Prior to human settlement on Aotearoa/New Zealand, the area was covered in thick forest dominated by Mataī, Tōtara and Kahikatea trees.

With the European Settlement Victoria Square was established as the main trading space, for European and Māori alike, and became surrounded by important public buildings. Victoria Street cut through the square and as a result of heavy traffic, the wooden bridge over Avon River was replaced with a iron-and-stone bridge in 1850, and the areas function as Mahinga Kai was severely compromised.

1850

1000

ParkRoyal

Landscape

The Parkroyal Hotel is erect on the NE-corner of Victoria Square, causing much protest as it cuts of the first part of Victoria Street. Victoria Square redeveloped into an inner city park area.

1988

With The Commons being divided into two triangular plots, the one closest to Town Hall could be developed as a public square once again officially reuniting Victoria Street and Victoria Square. The public square would benefit from the vibrant identity created during the transformative years as The Commons.

2012-2014 After demolition of ParkRoyal Hotel, the charitable trust GapFiller Trust constructed a large pallet pavilion with the help of 250 volunteers. The Pavilion proved a huge success and was retained for an extra year due to crowd funding. Today the site is licensed for temporary community uses by the owner (City Council) under an agreement with Life In vacant Spaces, and temporarily named The Commons.

The City Council can decide to adopt the vibrant identity of The Commons and develop a combined city square with Victoria Square, the space in between and the Commons. This would require a large commitment from the Council and is not the most likely future of The Commons.

European settlement 34

Public square

Transitional

Analysis Future Connections Flows Vegetation Space Pedestrians Materials Feel

The CBD and The Commons Centred around the old Angelican Cathedral, Christchurch Central Business District (CBD) is defined as the area within the four Avenues: Bealey Avenue, Fitzgerald Avenue, Moorhouse Avenue and Deans Avenue (marked in green). The Central Business District was heavily damaged during the earthquakes, and around 70% of the original buildings have had to come down. Today Christchurch stands fragmented between simultaneous demolishing and new build, where multi-story buildings, bars and restaurants have been replaced by quadrants of gravel giving way for cars, and offering strange sight lines through the earthquake city. Those who stayed in Christchurch were pushed to the nearest suburbs, and these have emerged as lively gastronomic and retail hubs. The Commons offers a vibrant community space on a sought-after location that is located close to the upper class suburb along Victoria Street and important central destination. This chapter seeks to find the possibilities, limitations and connections on The Commons in relation to its immediate surroundings.

Christchurch Street Frame, scale 1:15.000

Victoria Street

Rebuild anchor points

Hagley Park Avon River

Museums

EQ Memorial & RIver front

Cathedral

Retail Precint

The Commons is directly connected to the Avon River and Victoria Square, the current surroundings are fragmented and constantly changing. By looking at the planned future of Christchurch, it is clear that the site is central and well connected in the future Christchurch.

The Commons is directly connected to the north-western suburb Merivale, where many high-end retail stores and cafés have located since the earthquakes: thus The Commons provides a potential pedestrian connection between the vacated city centre and the new lively outskirts.

The developments improve the site’s proximity to the recreational green spaces in Christchurch, when the Avon River walk is improved and connected to a future green frame of the city centre. Victoria Square and the EarthQuake Memorial & River front lays as a public breathing hole on the inner side of the new green frame.

All findings prove the site to be very attractive, and can be used as a selling point for a local developer, but keeping the site as a thoroughfare will benefit the public enormously.

The city structure has obviously developed around the NW-SE-axis along Victoria Street, where the main axis “cumulates” in the public green space of Victoria Square. Most central attractions are in walking distance from The It is a strong visual sight line, a historically important Commons, with the latter placed in the north-eastern corner connection and a strong landmark for pedestrians in a of these. The museums, the Cathedral square, punting on fragmented city. the river and the tram are well known tourist attractions, and the two neighbouring buildings, Town Hall and the family-oriented Science Alive will be local attractions once completed.

Bus Interchange

Conclusion: The Victoria Street axis must remain open to the public

Pedestrian sources 1 - Public transport Bus stops acts as a source of pedestrians that need to walk the final part of the journey. Particularly the western bus stop is well connected with many bus lines. Buses in Christchurch are mainly used by residents.

Bus stop

Bus stop River walk

Hagley Park North Botanical Garden

Art Museum River walk Cathedral

The rebuild plan of Christchurch includes initiatives to increase pedestrian and cyclist activity (CERA, 2012), and one way to persuade people to leave their cars behind is to improve the pedestrian thoroughfares and shortcuts, and make them attractive. One such potential short cut emerged 2 - Recreational blue-green spaces at the demolition of the Parkroyal hotel, when the Vistoria The River Walk is part of a well-connected recreational Street access was reopened. walkway through the city, and by cutting through the squared network of blocks, it provides a pleasant short cut The large potential influx of pedestrians to the site, creates for many commuters by foot and by bike. The riverside is a potential for an expanded public space in connection to currently undergoing extensive rebuild and will be an even the Victoria Square. The history and connectivity of the bigger source once completed. On the walk, Victoria Park site creates a base for a potential central tourist destination and The Commons functions as widened recreational that could be representing the new and transformative spaces halfway through the CBD. Christchurch in coexistence with the old and Britishinfluenced attractions present in the city. 3 - Tourist attractions The art museum and the cathedral are two nearby destinations catering both tourists and locals. Their functions are well connected to the artistic and colourful approach of the Commons. 4 - Large central parks Hagley Park North and the Botanical Gardens are large recreational areas within the CBD. The positive effects of a large green space is strengthened by smaller recreational spaces through the city such as Victoria Square and The Commons.

Conclusion:

Potential to develop as a public space, and not just a thoroughfare between buildings

ria

o ct Vi St e re t Kilmore Street

The block

Town Hall

The Commons is located on the north-west corner of an important central city block. The block is separated by the Avon River, that carries the water from the mountains in the west to the sea in the east. The block consists of three significant public spaces and The Commons, that during the rebuild functions as a temporary public space.

The Commons

District Court / Science Museeum Durham Street North

The Town Hall, located on the north-east corner, is another brutalistic building, whose political significance ensured that the building was saved from being demolished. The repair of the Town Hall is expected to last until 2018, and until then, the site is fenced off, making a significant barrier on The Commons. There are no plans of making a significant public space in front of the Town Hall, as the entrance Victoria Square, located south of Avon River, was one of the is located on Kilmore Street to the North, and Victoria only public spaces that survived the 2010-2011 earthquakes Square is perceived as the connected public space, although without any damage, which makes it an important space full the majority is located across the river. of memory. It also makes it one of the first spaces that the public could use after the re-opening of the city centre. Currently The Commons is a public space connected to fragments, rebuild-fences and car parks, with the green The district court is located on the south-west corner, and Victoria Square being the only legitimate connection. Being is one of the few older buildings from the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brutalistic one of the only public spaces, The Commons becomes an period that has survived. As part of the development plan, important public space in defining the transformative times, the court will move to the future â&#x20AC;&#x153;justice precinctâ&#x20AC;?, and a and with that comes the pressure of making that definition family oriented science museum will be developed in the old something good, something more than just after-shakes, building, which will also include rented spaces to creative demolition noise and fences. initiatives.

Victoria Square

Elements, a Kevin Lynch analysis 1 View north on axis, seen through the arches on the commons

Based on the methodology developed by Kevin Lynch (Lynch, 1960: 46-89), the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s elements and spatial experience was analysed by identification of five elements. The elements are further identified in the site-legend and are based on the five elements of the city by Kevin Lynch: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The block is readable as a districts on its own, with The Commons, the court and the town hall, as individual smaller districts, clearly identifiable by strong edges of water or fence. The main NW/SE-axis is strongly reinforced by the existence of several primary landmarks. Landmarks have major influence on our ability to navigate through Paths and flows - paved paths, desire lines a space, and are also important spatial elements in Maori Edges - river edges, rebuild fences, borders and barriers culture. The four main landmarks are of European Districts - areas perceived as connected, often fenced heritage, or reference thereof, while the axis is emphasized off by them, is European in it geometry. It is not representing Nodes - focal points and intersections the duo-cultural history. The block stands as a place with Landmarks - identifiable objects that serve as reference monuments and large buildings in a city without buildings. points when moving through the space.

2 View south on axis, seen through the arches on the commons 3 Statue of Queen Victoria on Victoria Square 4 View south on axis, towards Victoria Square, seen from central node 5 View north on axis, towards The Commons, seen from central node

Conclusion:

The block stands as a navigable space in a fragmented and constantly changing city, emphasized by the visual axis running from the north-west to south-east. 46

Land zoning after the earthquake In a response to the extensive material damage caused by the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, Christchurch City Council bought a large amount of land from private landowners in order to fence off the most dangerous areas. Now, five years after the earthquakes, the council is reselling the pieces of land that after demolition is deemed safe, or safe to rebuild. Grabbing the opportunity of rebuilding a better city, spatially as well as structurally, Christchurch City Council earmarked some of the cleared land to new rebuild projects and precincts. Most of these projects are fully accessible, but a few larger projects such as a large central convention centre and an expensive sport facility will mostly benefit the private investors.

1 Rebuild projects and precincts

Since GapFiller initiated the building of the open arches on The Commons, the council has rezoned the previously private site. The area defined by the NW-SE-axis has become a public recreational rebuild zone (Avon River Precinct), and thereby splitting the site into two triangular areas ready for private development. In spite of the zoning, a private developer will be able to build one big building over the site, as long as the passage through is kept. When the Crowne Plaza decided to build on the site in 1988, the passage was closed, and as the site, including the passage, is yet to be developed, the future passage is not secured. The future of the site might be decided in April, when the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lease with Life In Vacant Spaces is up for renewal.

2 The central red-zone fenced off 3 The transitional commons seen from above, approximately 2013 4 Artists impression of the future Science Alive centre. 5 Pallet pavilion on The Commons

Conclusion:

The zoning of the site is currently preserving the passage along the main axis, but in an ever-changing city, nothing is set in stone. 48

Planting Surroundings The streets near the site are generally lacking street vegetation, but the trees that are present, are a combination of exotics and native trees with a few native bushes as ground-cover.

Exotics: Quercus palustris (Pin Oak), Quercus robur (English Oak), Acer platanoides (Norwegian Maple), Tilia Cordata (Lime), Tilia Platyphyllos (Large leafed Lime) and Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip Tree)

Natives: Cordyline australis (Cabbage tree) and Coprosma propinqua (mingimingi)

The Commons Dominated by movable planting boxes, the vegetation is limited to these, except for the turf on the sport facility. A few exotic trees along the edge, but mainly small native grasses.

Avon River Due to a River restoration program Exotics: Salix babylonica (Weeping (Roper-Lindsay 1993), Avon River has willow) and Aesculus Hippocastanum a riparian buffer of native grasses. The (Horse chestnut) blue/green corridor is also dominated by large sculptural exotic trees.

Natives: Cordyline australis (Cabbage tree), Pseudopanax x crassifolius (Lancewood), Sophora microphylla (Small-leaved Kowhai), Coprosma propinqua (mingimingi), Phormium tenax(Flax), Carex virgata(Segde) and Juncus gregiflorus(Wiwi or Rush)

Victoria Park & Square Largely dominated by exotic trees and matriculate flower beds. Victoria Park and square are designed and planted in an English Garden style, partly as a tribute to Queen Victoria, and partly because it was the preferred style of the settlers. A few indigenous plants have been planted along the Avon River as part of a restoration program.

Exotics: Quercus palustris (Pin Oak), Tilia Cordata (Lime/Linden), Aesculus Hippocastanum (Horse chestnut) and Platanus x acerifolia (London Plane)

Conclusion:

Natives: Lophozonia menziesii (Silver Beech, not native to Canterbury plains), Cordyline australis (Cabbage tree), Pseudopanax x crassifolius (Lancewood) and Coprosma propinqua (mingimingi)

Except for the Avon River area, there is a imbalance between exotics and native plants in the area because of the English style of Victoria Square. The commons is sparely planted compared to the rest of the area, heavily affected by the temporary nature of the site. 50

Info board

RAD Bike Shed

Piano Shelter

Pizza Oven

Greening the Rubble Office

The Commons The Commons is located on a vacant site where the large Crowne Plaza Hotel once stood. Initially included in the Central City Red Zone (Rebuild Christchurch, 2011) where public access was denied during the two years it took to make the streets safe. The site opened to the public slightly earlier than the rest of the centre, and with the build of the Pallet Pavilion became the first central public space after the earthquakes. Today the site is licensed for transitional projects through an agreement between the Christchurch City Council as the landowners and Life in Vacant Spaces (LiVS), one of the core site organizations. Gap Filler is the main site partner and oversee activity day to day on site.

Bathroom

In March 2015 the following organizations and projects were on site: Gap Filler HQ , The Common Room (a co-working space by Greening the Rubble, FESTA and Gap Filler), A cob pizza oven, The Arcades Project, Commons Food Collective, Retro Sports Facility, Grandstandium, Greening the Rubble Office, Two parts of GapGolf, a Piano shelter, Plant Exchange and RAD bike shed. With so many actors on site it is constantly evolving; things gets moved around, new projects get added and new people engage. In the interest of transparency and cohesion, the key stakeholders on site has delegated a group of representatives to evaluate bigger decisions and set the long term goals. This group is called the Commons Council.

Container

GapFiller Office

Plant exchange

Pizza Oven

GapGolf

Arcades

Large umbrella

Small movable umbrellas

Retro Sports Facility

Grandstandium

Food Trucks

Councils rain garden

Info board

1 Pizza oven and table

1 GapFiller’s office

2 Hops on the Arcades, looking south

2 RAD bicycles and the piano shelter

3 Retro Sport Facility and The Commons sign

3 Greening the Rubble’s office

4 Umbrellas and cable drum furniture near food truck area

4 Plant Exchange and bicycles 5 GapFiller’s office and container as seen from NE-corner

Materials Funiture

Structure

Foundation

Commons Colours on wood

Pedestrian flows

Morning rush

Based on the methodology developed by Jan Gehl (Gehl & Svarre, 2013, p.36-38), on how to study public life, the flow of people has been analysed by identifying pedestrian patterns as well as how and where people stop and stay. The two methods of analysis; Tracing and Mapping were undertaken at the same time, and accompanied by an analysis-diary.

Mapping pedestrians on the spot captures a moment to define where and what people were doing on site. The activities were differentiated between the main activities previously identified to happen on site: stand, stand and talk, stand and wait, sit and play. This was done every 10 minutes every half hour, immediately before undertaking the pedestrian analysis.

Tracing pedestrian movement is done by tracing the walking pattern of every person walking through a comprehensible space over a short period of time. This study maps pedestrians for periods of 10 minutes every half hour over a shorter period of the day. This was done to ensure that the results wasn’t obscured by an unusual event.

Conclusion:

Generally both analyses shows a site that is dominated by two strong pedestrian axes, from which pedestrians only rarely venture on to the rest of the site. The site is mainly used as a thoroughfare with very few people sitting on the site, even with freshly bought food.

Movements traced: 73

Stills mapped: 1

Weekday mornings the site functions primarily as a shortcut for people rushing to the office buildings located south of the site. This is believed to be strongly affected by a large free parking space located just north-east of the site. Map shows three notations of 10 minutes pedestrian activity, started at 7:45, 8:15 and 8:45 am. Tuesday the 24th of November 2015 Weather: Early summer morning, around 17°C, starting out fine but wind picking up around lunch.

Lunch hour Movements traced: 67

Stills mapped: 30

Many tourists using the site as a thoroughfare, walking through the arcades and also exploring the site a bit. Locals coming to buy food at the Food Truck Collective, mostly taking the food away instead of enjoying it at site. Map shows three notations of 10 minutes pedestrian activity, started at 12:15, 12:45 and 1:15 pm. Friday the 4th of December 2015. Plan showing total tracing and mapping results at scale 1:500 Movements traced: 204 Stills mapped: 79

Weather: Early summer, around 20°C but windy. Generally fine weather day in a windy period.

Weekend market Movements traced: 64

Stills mapped: 48

During markets people explore the site more, and more families are on site to play on the Retro Sports Facility. The market stalls and the toilet influence where people go, and the arcades provide a sense of direction to the many visitors. Map shows three notations of 10 minutes pedestrian activity, started at 11:00 and 11:30 am. and 12:00 pm. Sunday the 22nd of November 2015. Weather: Early summer, around 25 °C but windy. Generally fine weather day in a windy period.

Perceived comfort The pedestrian analysis showed that despite a high influx of people throughout the day, very few settle and stay for longer than the time it takes to pick up a sandwich, read a info-board or put a golf ball. Peoples activities and use of the furniture on The Commons is summarized on this analysis map. By looking at theories on how people react to space, a few problems in the spatial layout of the commons become apparent. Measuring 56m x 73m, with an area of 4088m2, the site is too large to feel intimate, and with the lack of defining surroundings and edges, the site becomes difficult to navigate through (Gehl, 2010, p.172-177), and

1 Rebuild projects and Construction worker enjoying some cover

uncomfortable to stay in (Gehl, 2010, p.144-157). A persons intimate field of registration is defined at 25m (Gehl, 2010, p. 46), and the lack of central definition on site, makes it difficult for a visitor to define where to go when entering the large central space after exiting the arcades. The site is a public commons, with many activities and plenty of offered seating. Our natural desire for opportunity (prospect) and safety (refuge) (Appleton, 1975) is neglected on most of the provided seating. By comparing the lack of “backs” on seats to the seats that were used during the pedestrian analysis, it is clear that our desire for prospect and refuge partially explains the lack of people settling on site.

2 Offices overlooking space 3 The spectator hill is too low and too exposed to attract spectators to The Retro Sports Facility 4 Even during a busy event, the seats without “backs” gets picked last.

56m.

5 During a sunday market, the central bench without cover is left unused.

Plan 1:500

73m.

Conclusion:

The site is too large and undefined to navigate through. The largeness and the placement of the furniture makes it seem uncomfortable for people to hang out for longer periods of time. 60

Figure: sun path diagram

Figure: wind rose

Wind conditions

Sun conditions

Above wind rose illustrates the average wind strength and direction over the duration of a year in Christchurch (Iowa State University of Science and Technology) With a prevailing north-eastern wind and a secondary southwesterly wind, it can be difficult to create shelters for the wind.

The fragmentation of Christchurch leaves large plots of land open to the sweeping wind. The Commons is very affected by the windy conditions, and the challenge is to create shelter and definition while avoiding worsening the effects of the wind.

The sun path diagram illustrates the path of the sun across the sky from the summer to winter solstice. It also states the time of sunset and sunrise on the longest and the shortest day of the year. Located 43.5300Â° S, 172.6203Â° E, Christchurchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s distance form the Equator is equivalent to that of Cannes on the southern coast of France.

The days are longer during summer than in winter, and the sun is positioned high throughout the year. The city is also heavily effected by the ozone-hole that forms over Antarctica every summer (NASA 2011). The lack of ozone protection causes the sun to burn very intensely and affects the temperature a lot.

Analysis integrated Looking at the immediate surroundings in Christchurch such as Victoria Square, the importance of the historical axis running along Victoria Road is obvious, and must be retained through the future development. Christchurch City Council has already decided to maintain the pedestrian access along the axis, and while the surrounding pieces of land are still for sale, the city would benefit from at least half of it being kept for public use. Instead of merely developing a public access-way, a publicly accessible Town Hall Square could be established on the eastern triangular plot, underlining the city’s paradigm shift towards a city for the people, and perhaps increase the land value of the remaining left triangular plot.

Focusing on a more immediate future, the potentials of the site as a public space is already being explored with the transformative approach of The Commons. By gradually improving not only the pedestrian experience along the axis, but on the site as a whole public space, the potentials of the site can become apparent to the general public and eventually the decision-makers of Christchurch. While the north-west to southeast axis reflects Christchurch throughout the history, a new northeast to southwest axis has emerged with the new story of Christchurch, where sudden open spaces allow for different uses and requires people to navigate differently through the city.

New axis

Connections are potentials:

Spatial problems:

• Connections to the neighbouring re-creative green space. The visual line is well connected but the site is lacking spatial references, mainly larger vegetation and defined spaces. • New connections have emerged. Accept and improve the newly emerged second axis along NE/SW. The access is currently very undefined and feels like walking through the private backyard of the offices. The area is dominated by GapFiller’s tools, back-area and container, which makes it difficult to distinguish where the space goes from rubble and rebuild to public square. • A large amount of people passes through the site everyday, getting them to stay is the challenge. The site works as a thoroughfare most of the day, and those who come to explore the site are only offered active recreational activities such as playing sport, golf or walking around, plus the occasional piano player. The real challenge of exploring the potentials that lies in the in the connections, is to simultaneously improve the walking experience for the walk-through and create an environment that invites people to stay for longer. In order to make an inviting environment, some spatial problems must be addressed within the means of the involved organizations.

• The place is fragmented, with no real definition. This is true for most of Christchurch. The hope is that a site like The Commons can provide a playful transformative site without mimicking the spatial problems of the rebuilding city. • The fragmentation makes it difficult for people to navigate through the site. Many visitors use The Arcades as a guideline but loose their sense of space once they reach the exit of The Arcades. The lack of definition of public and private also prevents many from exploring the parts of the site close to the offices. • Christchurch is a car dependent city, and the site is very exposed to Durham Street North flanking the site to the left. The Retro Sports Facility suffers from too much exposure to the traffic, and the designated seating area hill is practically unused. • The lack of surrounding buildings in a city on a windy location in the middle of the ocean, makes The Commons very exposed to the frequent winds. Any shelter from wind, sun or both would improve the general comfort for those who stay on site, and possibly improve the numbers hereof.

Historical axis

Green connection

Connections are potentials; historical axis, new axis and neighbouring recreational area

Navigation

Fragmented site and surroundings

Exposed to surroundings

Exposed to elements

Permanence

Grassland Trading space Hotel

Earthquake

Broken building

Pallet Pavilion

Offices

Modern grassland

Arcades

Design Proposal Structure Vision Organize Planting Hang out Concepts Actions

Temporariness 66

Existing elements

The incremental development process on The Commons contrast the slower master-plan-based rebuild of the surrounding city. The process allows the organizations to try out ideas and temporarily activate spaces without being stopped by the bureaucracy of a normal design and implementation process. On The Commons the process has resulted in a fragmented site without focal point or defined spaces, and that is the risk of avoiding planning all together.

sub-spaces 1 Create by reorganizing

Temporary

Define a central sub-space with a semi-permanent solution

Structure

the NE/SW axis as 2 Define a real pedestrian access

Being true to the incremental design process of the site, the aim of this design proposal is not to produce a finished master-plan, but instead to suggest the next step in the long term process. The proposal is a combination of making

the best of the existing elements and adding new where it’s needed. It seeks to create the next step in the incremental design of The Commons and evaluates how the present spatial problems can be rewound with as little planning and effort possible. This offers a five-step design proposal, a series of actions that individually will improve The Commons as a public space, as well as complementing each other as a larger solution. Every step is explained with a concept, plan and a suggestion off a participatory implementation process. Ultimately, the five design-steps are presented together on a final plan of the design-proposal.

Vision

Permanent

voluminous shel4 Create ter-giving edge to the west

new and differ3 Encourage ent uses through furniture

New elements

All of the five steps addressed in the design proposal will provide on or more of the following: • Defined sub-spaces within the The Commons that • Better cultural balance by improved use of native plants improves visitors ability to navigate through the site, and knowledge including a defined “host-space” for Greening the Rubble and GapFiller. • Actions to slow visitors down and encourage them to engage with the installations on site. • Distinguish the site from other vacant sites. • Resting spaces out of the wind. • Actions to create balance between the temporary and the permanent on site by giving the temporary elements a • A physical and physiological barrier from the cars on purpose in the semi-permanent space. Durham Street. • Improved pedestrian axis running NE/SW. • Large easy-build comfortable street-furniture

1 - Create sub-spaces by reorganizing The incremental development of The Commons is continued in this counter-action of tidying up. The site elements as they are now, are not providing the site or the host organizations the spatial qualities that they have potential to. Following the principles of Gestalt Thinking as a fundamental human reaction, organizing and clustering the elements of similar look and/or use will instantly make the site easier to navigate (Lehmann 2009). This designstep suggest a way to meet these requirements through a design that requires as little as possible to be moved on site. This is crucial, because the reorganization is most likely to happen in combination with another project requiring heavy machinery on site, such as The Commons Shelter.

and rubbish bins and various things to repair. The colourful container provides extra shelter for the north-easterly wind and will define the boundary between private host area and public area. The general access routes are kept for both pedestrians and work van. The plant exchange is moved southeast, out of the office area and closer to the general public footpath for increased visibility. The location takes shelter and water into consideration and has been discussed with Greening The Rubble.

Moving the two GapGolfs towards Victoria Square helps activate the underutilized high-traffic space between The The reorganizing provides an opportunity to reclaim some Commons and Victoria Square. This solutions is particular â&#x20AC;&#x153;back-stage spaceâ&#x20AC;? for the host organizations. This host back functional in combination with the other space-defining area includes space for one working van, the sites recycling design-steps in this design proposal.

Office-cluster as seen from NW-corner. Depicted as single design-step. 70

Public shelters

Office cluster

Host back area

Plant Exchange

GapGolf/Play

Design-step 1 highlighted Plan at 1:500

Gestalt principles applied to elements on site

Implementation Moving the offices requires hire and use of heavy machinery, a process there can be expensive and difficult and will require a temporary site closure. For an organization as GapFiller, keeping the cost of machinery and professional help to a minimum is crucial to making the project happen. Preparing the site for site closure and heavy machinery can effectively minimize the time and effort being put in by the hired professionals. Preparing the site includes moving the smaller elements such as GapGolf and plant exchange piece-by-piece and doing the same with the pallets, plant and boxes surrounding the offices. When all smaller elements are moved, the positioning of the houses can be measured and market with the architectural site paint, that is stored in

the container. Measuring and marking the proper distance between the offices is important to maintain the exemption from having to get building consent. To be exempt from building consent, the Tiny Houses must be less than 10 m2 and be more than its own height away from all boundaries and larger elements such as the other Tiny Houses. (MBIE, 2014 p. 22) The easiest way to do this is to mark out the GapFiller Office, and from there the height of GapFiller’s Office (2.7m.) towards Greening the Rubble’s Office and the height of The Commons Room (3.1m.) towards The Commons Room. From these marks, the position of each office can be marked off on the ground with chalk spray from.

Office outside measurements (cm)

Height

Width

Length

GapFiller’s Office

270

370

262

Greening the Rubble’s Office

280

275

The Commons Room

310

380

270

GapFiller’s Container

255

240

600

Volunteer actions

Professionals

Prepping before professionals and redecorating after Prepping before heavy machinery Disassemble, move and reassemble: Both Gapgolfs Plant Exchange Surroundings to The Common Room, GapFiller office and Greening the Rubble office. Move everything else out of construction area Measure and mark fire-safety distance for Tiny Houses

Heavy machinery Move GapFiller office Move The Commons Room Move Greening the rubble Move Container

Redecorate new office area Redecorate office area with colours and plants. Make new fence to back-area

Buy or donated New permanent fence

Hire

Other means

Lift hire and use Fence hire during site closure

Staff hours to manage project Staff inconvenience during site closure and prep Possibly many staff hours to help volunteers Volunteer-time

2 - Define the NE/SW-axis as a real pedestrian access. In the transformative rebuild city, pedestrian paths are undefined and cut through the vacant sites wherever possible. With the changes, a new pedestrian axis has emerged on The Commons as an opposite of the historical axis.

slightly defined by the desire lines of the many pedestrians passing through everyday. The trees are placed to create a short alley of trees, slightly mimicking the existing landmarks that define the opposite axis; the wooden arcades. The alley is slightly curved to follow the natural walking path and to avoid creating a funnel for the north-easterly wind to access The newly emerged north-eastern to south-western axis through. The slight curve reflects a more natural form and is acknowledged through an easy definition of the north- challenges the dominating Gothic and geometrical archway, eastern access. The access is defined by moving the existing and while live trees reflect the wood of the arcades. trees from the northern border to the access that is already

North access on the NE/SW-axix depicted as individual design-step 76

Design-step 2 highlighted Plan at 1:500

The history-referencing arches on the NW/SE-axis is mirrored by trees on the northern access to the new NW/SE axis.

Implementation Moving the existing trees is a smaller project that will only require the power of one small lift and the energy of usual staff on site. The trees are heavy and cannot be moved with the machinery present on site, but due to the short distance they need to be moved, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very straightforward as soon as a lift has been hired. It is very likely that the repair team on the neighbouring construction site are willing to loan GapFiller a lift, as they have expressed willingness to help out in similar manner in connection to the The Commons Shelter Project. It is a short job, but any day-volunteers interested in helping would make it easier, as well as help from professionals, but it possible to go through without outside help.

Before undertaking this project GapFiller must determine whether a site closure on the affected areas is necessary. The affected area is the footpath along Kilmore Street and the north-eastern corner of The Commons to where the trees will be moved.

Volunteer actions

It would be beneficial to undertake this project at the same time as Design Proposal 1, when heavy machinery and professionals are also on site.

None or helping staff

Buy or donated Nothing new Future tree donations can be placed as an extension of the alley

Professionals Delivery of lift and possible supervision of movement

Hire

Other means

Lift. Can be managed by staff

Staff hours during use of lift. No project management needed. Possible site-closure on affected area

3 - Encourage new & different uses through furniture The existing elements on The Commons are fun and active, inviting people to play a range of games such as football, bowling and mini-golf. A spectator stand is provided on the Retro Sport Facility and even food stalls are present. It is the perfect site for active fun in the city, but for people who are differently abled, or simply donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel like running around, the site provides very little place for passive recreation. A few information boards tells the stories of the site and site elements like the GapGolf and The Arcades, but similar to a museum experience, people read them one after another and then leave the room - in this case, The Commons. Multiple seating options are provided: old cable drums, wonky table sets, blue pallets from the Pallet Pavilion era and some donated lounge seats â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all hard seats made from wood, and generally not comfortable enough to spend long time on. There are two ways in which the seating on site can be improved: Move and group furniture Following the ideas of Design Step 1, the furniture could be understood and utilized better by grouping them where they provide the best seat. Some seats function better as places to eat from and others for spectating. All drums and table sets should be placed near the food stalls, and the lounge furniture should be facing areas of interest. The pallet seats have a pleasant height to sit down on, and placed along the axes, they provide a needed place for rest for people that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t walk well. The different pieces of furniture are usually placed as described, but as they are easily moved, they

migrate around the site throughout the week. Constantly moving them back is a time consuming Sisyphean task. Generally the existing furniture are needed on site, but fail to provide any other use than short-term spectator-minded seating. Provide soft playful furniture Implementing hammocks on The Commons will provide a new passive way to engage with the site. Hammocks encourage people to stay a little longer, as it is slightly more difficult to get in and out, but comfortable to stay in. Single person hammocks references private experiences in public, and are not found anywhere else on public space in Christchurch, thus making a fun and different place to stop in the middle of the city. The single hammocks creates a relaxing hang out for travellers, a playful installation for children (also those at heart) and perhaps a needed break for the many office and construction workers in the area. Many tourists and young locals visit the site in large groups, they will prefer a passive but social recreation, a place to hang out. The multiple hammock does just that. It is flexible but not swingable, which makes it easier to get in and out without tipping the rest of the group out off the hammock. The surface is slanted with one end higher than the other, so you can lie back and look out. This furniture is spectatorminded, but also a place to enjoy a coffee and a talk.

Multiple hammocks and RAD-users on The Commons. Design step 3 depicted as individual design-step 82

Reused materials and untraditional weaving On The Commons, elements are exposed to the weather, get used all the time and are left alone through the weekend where their faith is the hands of drunk tourists and their desire to bring stuff home. To survive these conditions, materials and structure need to be both easy to clean, durable and somewhat vandalism and theft-proof. This design step suggests building free-standing hammocks that can be placed wherever suited best. It would also be fun and easy to hang hammocks between the arcades using normal camping-hammock straps, this would require making only the soft part of the single hammocks.

from the many demolish-and-recycle companies that carry wood from the earthquakes. The soft part could be a storebought hammock or a recycled hammock from a recyclestore, but it could also be a fun project with references to Christchurch, The Commons and the Māori history of the area. The site was once an important Mahinga Kai for the Māori, a place where Flax-leaves were sourced to be weaved into baskets and clothes.

Māori weaving is still a practiced skill (Swarbrick 2012), and it would be possible to work together with the local Māori community in teaching and implementing the technique A free-standing hammock consists of a frame and a soft in the making of the hammocks. The weaving could be part. The frame is easily build from reclaimed wood sourced very basic or more complicated with different colours and

patterns depending on the ability of the group of volunteers. Christchurch City is developing their bicycle infrastructure, and has a large community of recreational bicyclist. RAD (Recycle A Dunger) is a not-for-profit community bike shed in central Christchurch. It is a workshop space where anyone can build or repair a bicycle for themselves and/or help restore bikes to give away (RAD bikes n.a.), and are situated at The Commons. People often come to RAD to change their bicycles inner tubes. Because of that, RAD has

Multiple hammock Single hammock

a constant surplus of used bicycle inner tubes – not good enough for keeping air in the tires, but good enough for weaving. Weaving hammocks from bicycle inner tubes is both fun, relatively easy to do and teaches the volunteers about reuse and possibly Māori weaving. It is a process that is easy to reproduce and can be done one hammock at a time, making it a easy projects to engage in with visiting school classes and other large groups.

Traditional flax weaving

= Used bicycle inner tubes

Flexible surface

Multiple hammock, length of side: 3x3

Design-step 3 highlighted Plan at 1:500

Single hammock, length of side: 3 m. 84

Implementation of single hammock Build wood frame as pictured on previous page. Attach a drainpipes, creating a square. The straps are attached by solid metal hook 15 cm from the top of each arm. covering both sides of the hole in the drainpipe and than attach with a bolt, washer and nut through. Two 1.5m reused drainpipes. Can be replaced by wood. Two 2.4m ratchet straps, or other heavy-duty straps. Non-flexible Measure 13 times 2.2m of inner tube and sew together. straps make the frame around the weave hard, and flexible straps makes Attach the ends to the drainpipe using the same method the part between the pipes flexible. as with the heavy duty straps. Measure 20 times 1.6m of inner tube and weave through the inner tubes on the long Measure and drill holes in the drainpipes every 10 cm end. Attach the ends to the heavy duty straps. It is possible Create the part on to which the inner tube weave is fastened to attach one end before weaving to make it easier to make by attaching each end of the straps to the end of the a tight weave.

Volunteer actions

Professionals

Measure and cut wood Build frame

None

Cut and sew bicycle inner tubes Measure distance between inner tubes on frame Attach long inner tubes on frame Attach one end of short inner tubes to frame Weave inner tubes Attach edges to last side of frame

Implementation of multiple hammock Build wood frame as pictured on previous page. Make sure Sew inner tubes together to make two sets of 28 straps of to make the legs different heights ranging from 120cm to 35 3.6m Attach one set to two opposite sites on the wood frame cm with the highest and lowest on opposite corners. with screws and washers. Weave the other set through and attach to the last sides. It is possible to attach one end before weaving to make it easier to make a tight weave.

Buy or donated Reclaimed wood Old bicycle inner tubes (should be free!) Strong outdoor-grade screws Outdoor-grade bolts Washers Hex nuts Commons paint

Hire Sewing machine

For single hammock: Large metal rings for hammock large metal hooks for hammock stand Reclaimed drain pipes for short sides Ratchet strap or similar for long sides

Other means Staff hours to manage project Staff hours to source materials Volunteer-time

Legend Cordyline australis Ti kouka / Cabbage Tree

4 - Create voluminous shelter-giving edge to the west

Pseudopanax crassifolius Horoeka / Lancewood

The underutilized spectator hill is improved by the addition of a vegetative shelter giving edge towards the street. The voluminous grasses create shelter from the wind and the busy road and make the hill a pleasant place to sit (Gehl 2010 p.134-148 and Appleton, 1975). They also improve the street-scape on Durham Road North by defining a space on the fragmented road surrounded by many empty lots.

Phormium tenax Harakeke / Flax Austroderia richardii Toetoe Carex virgata Swamp sedge Juncus sarophorus Wiwi / Tussock rush

Design-step 2 highlighted Plan at 1:500

Section at 1:100 88

Native vegetation East of the mountain range, Canterbury plains lies as a large almost flat lowland that slopes towards the sea in east. The changing sea levels throughout time has divided the plain into two broad land types: dry plain and wet plain. Christchurch is located towards the sea on the wet plain land type, where four different soil types has laid the base for four different ecosystems before the European settlement. The four ecosystems are: Kahikatea, a lush rainforesty older plains ecosystem with large noble trees with many ferns , Totara, an older, less lush plain ecosystem with large noble

trees, Pukio, a wetter peat-land plain ecosystem and Houhere, a mid-age semi-wet plain ecosystem found largely along the Avon river (Lucas associates n.a.A) The Commons is placed in an area that used to be a Totara Ecosystem in vicinity of the Houhere ecosystem along the Avon River (Lucas Associates n.a.B) The soil on the commons has been heavily modified through first being a heavy vehicle road, and since then becoming a hotel with foundation and a basement. As a result of this, the soil today is a lot drier

than it was before the European settlements. Canterbury is generally exposed to shifting weather conditions, and can have long dry summers, causing many of the plants native to site to develop some drought tolerance, which makes it possible to still use some of the plants on site today.

industrial clothes making. The Toetoe is large and has soft feather-like flowers, and the native trees are sculptural in their changes throughout the life cycle. All the chosen trees and grasses are hardy and provide shelter, with the largest planted almost on top of the hill, and the volume of the entire planting slowly getting smaller towards the northern In creating a voluminous shelter towards the road, many end, from where the wind is less of a problem. of the indigenous grasses are large and full of interesting textures. The sculptural leaves of the flax are sharp and was the MÄ oris main source of fibre for clothes making prior to

Cordyline australis Ti kouka / Cabbage Tree

Pseudopanax crassifolius Horoeka / Lancewood

Phormium tenax Harakeke / Flax

Austroderia richardii Toetoe

Carex virgata Swamp sedge

Juncus sarophorus Wiwi / Tussock rush

Palm-like in appearance with large heads of linear leaves and bushy sprays of small white flowers. Dead leaves often forming a skirt around branches of the juvenile trees.

Small tree with distinctive draped thick long narrow toothed juvenile leaves. Stays in juvenile face for up to 20 years, before it starts branching out.

Clump-forming flax with large stiff leaves. In urban landscape height to 2m, flower stems to 5m. Native to site and culturally significant. Good shelter-plant.

Coarse green tussock with 3m long leaves that are 3-5cm wide, edged with fine, saw-like teeth. The flower head forms white, feathery, arching plumes. Native to site and provides good shelter.

Evergreen tuft forming sedge. Leaves are long and drooping and forms a trunk-like base when growing in standing water.

Densely tufted, tussock-forming, bluegreen perennial herb. Stems tightly clumped and erect near base, usually drooping in upper half to one third. Stems used to make rope.

5 m.

4 m.

3 m.

2 m.

1 m.

0 m. 90

Implementation This design step provides a planting plan that is only to be taken as a suggestion. The species have been chosen as some of the best suited to this site, and should be kept as a guide, but the quantities and placement of the individual plants will very likely vary with possibilities of donations and offers of discount. To successfully create the spatial definition and provide shelter, the vegetation must be kept large and dense in the southern part of the area, and can slowly graduate towards lower grasses in the north. Where larger grasses might give space, the edge should be filled with smaller grasses. Cabbage trees and Lancewood trees are sculptural but do not always provide much shelter, and should be used as landmarks rather than fillers. They grow naturally between tightly spaced grasses, and can be planted as such on site.

The soil making up the hill is fully fit for planting, but the very northern part of the planting area reaches into a surface that is now gravel. The latter should be dug up and filled with at least 50cm basic planting soil. The westfacing slope of the hill should be dug up and turned prior to planting.

Volunteer actions Dig up and pick up donated plants Dig and prepare planting area Plant plants

Professionals None

It is very possible that individuals throughout Christchurch are willing to donate Flax and Toetoe, as they grow very large for smaller private gardens. This would require staff and volunteers to go and pick them up, and in many cases, dig the plant up for the donating person. Although this is extra work, donated grasses are preferred to growing them from new, or buying from nurseries. Planting mature donated plants has instant effect on the site.

Buy or donated Planting soil for converted gravel area Plants: Estimated plants, numbers can change depending on donations and / or sales. Cabbage Tree Lancewood Flax Toetoe Swamp sedge Wiwi

Hire Digger Car for transporting larger plants

3 5 13 14 36 27

Other means Staff hours to manage project Volunteer-time

5 - Define a central sub-space Segments of rain gardens with large native grasses stands sculpturally as textural space definers. Together they define the edges of the central sub-space of The Commons. Between them runs short paths where visitors will find themselves surrounded by native vegetation, slightly recreating what the surroundings looked like before the European settlement.

Created as a slightly more permanent element on The Commons, the substantial vegetation draws a connecting reference to the neighbouring park and river-vegetation. Both rain gardens and the native vegetation are mentioned as elements that relate with MÄ ori values (Keriata & Thompson-Fawcett 2010 p.20) Using these to define the centre along the very European influenced axis, works towards creating a better balance in the urban design of the duo-cultural place.

Rain gardens as seen from NW-corner. Depicted as single design-step. 94

Form The new central space on The Commons is defined by curved segments of rain gardens. The curves are derived from the classic European designs along the historical axis along Victoria Road and in Victoria Square. The circular typography has been fragmented and moved around, and does not directly translate as a copy of the European designs. The segments are positioned so the two identified pedestrian paths along the axes are equally accessible. The curves helps define the centre and hugs the space without enclosing it. Where two segments sit next to one another, a curved path is created between the voluminous plants with the end out of sight. By doing this, the visitor is introduced to the native landscape of the site, while the

curved and sharp edges that contains the plants, appeals to the cultural sense of order that many of us has inherited (Nassauer 1995: 161-169). Contrary to Victoria Square, the centre, although defined, is left open for the mind to rest upon. The left side is left open to allow for a revival of the speechbubble shaped grass area, to make space for the ongoing use of the sport facility and spectator stands and lastly to give room for the ongoing markets on site. Should these seize to function, one or two curved rain garden elements should be added to the north-western and western area to create a balance.

The circular European typology through Victoria Square lays the foundation for the central space on The Commons

Rain gardens and native vegetation Christchurch is located on Canterbury Plains, a flat area east of the Southern Alps. Being one of the flattest areas on the South Island, it is extensively farmed, and very little of the original vegetation is left. The sea-line has shifted through time, and Christchurch is situated mainly on old wetland area. As the area is also prone to dry summers, the plants native to the area are suited perfectly for use in rain gardens. The plants in the rain gardens mirror the plant selection in Design Step 4: Cabbage Tree, Lancewood, Flax, Toetoe, Swamp sedge and Wiwi.

During the rebuild of Christchurch, Christchurch City Council has installed trial rain gardens on different sites around the city to gain experience and knowledge about the local soil’s ability to filtrate and cleanse rainwater on site. One of these is placed on the southern part of The Commons, it is fenced off at 0.3m above ground and is slightly hidden by information boards and food trucks and visually more associated with the working containers than the public space on the commons. Christchurch has separate sewage systems, one for black water (toilets) and

one for grey water. The grey water system makes it possible This design step provides a planting plan that is only to to connect overflow pipes to be rain gardens. The existing be taken as a suggestion. The species have been chosen as rain garden is connected to such an overflow pipe. some of the best suited to this site, and should be kept as a guide, but the quantities and placement of the individual The new rain gardens on The Commons will improve the plants will very likely vary with possibilities of donations visitors’ attention to attractive storm water management. and offers of discount. To successfully create the spatial The new textural and beautiful rain gardens are connected definition the vegetation must be kept large and dense in to each other through overflow swales that ultimately the rain garden segments furthest away from the centre, lead the water to the technical rain garden owned by and kept smaller in the inner segments. Cabbage trees and Christchurch City Council. The overflow swales runs Lancewood trees are sculptural and have traditionally been through main walk paths and wet areas on the commons, used as landmarks. They grow naturally between tightly and will improve the visitors’ understanding of how water spaced grasses, and can be planted as such on site. can be a playful asset in public spaces.

Legend Cordyline australis Ti kouka / Cabbage Tree Pseudopanax crassifolius Horoeka / Lancewood Phormium tenax Harakeke / Flax Austroderia richardii Toetoe Carex virgata Swamp sedge

A A

Juncus sarophorus Wiwi / Tussock rush Overflow swale Storm water pipe

This technical drawing shows the construction details of a simple rain garden with structural elements that keep the surrounding soil from eroding into the build rain garden. The drawing provides standard measures to be used as guidelines to follow when building with volunteers. Reused paving stones are used where possible, but some load bearing areas will need reinforcing with concrete.

Technical section of rain garden

Design-step 5 highlighted Plan at 1:500

Section AA showing rain gardens. 98

Implementation Creating rain gardens is much more structurally demanding than just planting the right plants. A technical drawing is provided on the previous page, and is meant as a guiding example of what a rain garden in Christchurch might include and how itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s put together. The depth of the holes needed to be dug out for the implementation of the rain gardens will require the use of a digger, which needs to be rented.

with gaps between every one or two at a time, to let the water run through. It is possible to cast the concrete with help from volunteers by making a wood frame to hold the concrete up as pictured, but the task could also be handled by professionals. When casting the concrete, it is important to fasten the geotextile under the concrete, this will prevent the surrounding soil from eroding into the rain garden while letting the water run through.

Preparing the area involves marking the areas attended to become rain gardens, and clearing the area to make way for the digger. The rain-garden areas can be marked using two poles and a string.

After making the frame of the rain garden, the hole needs to be filled with sand and a special rain garden soil mix. It is important to place the soil carefully as to avoid compacting it. After planting the plants, the surface should be covered in a thin layer of mulch or pebbles. The coarse gravel layer The borders of the rain gardens are constructed with that was removed to dig the hole can be reused for this reused bricks from the demolition, but to ensure structural purpose. integrity, the vertical pavers will need to be cast in concrete. Making use of recycled pavers requires less concrete to be It is very possible that individuals throughout Christchurch cast than the traditional method where the whole structural are willing to donate Flax and Toetoe as they grow very wall is made from concrete. The pavers brings a bit of the large for smaller private gardens. This would require staff past Christchurch into the future, and can be cast in various and volunteers to go and pick them up, and in many cases, different colours and patterns if the right pavers are found. dig the plant up for the donating person. Although this The top of the pavers should be just below ground level to is extra work, donated grasses are preferred to growing allow the water running into the rain garden. If the lack them from new, or buying from nurseries. Planting mature of edge is considered to dangerous, the pavers can be cast donated plants has instant effect on the site.

Volunteer actions Dig up and pick up donated plants Measure and draw out area to be dug Dig gutter to cast concrete and attach geotextile Pour concrete and place vertical pavers in wet concrete Lay layers of soil Plant plants Lay mulch or pebble

Dig rain garden holes

Buy or donated Mulch or pebbles (possibly sourced from site) Sand Bioretention soil Permable/open-weave geotextile Basecourse (possible to leave out) Recycled pavers: Vertical: as large as possible Horizontal: 60x60cm or similar Swale: standard bricks

Hire Digger hire and use Concrete mixer Fence during site closure Car for transporting larger plants

Plants: Estimated plants, numbers can change depending on donations and / or sales. Cabbage Tree 3 Lancewood 4 Flax 11 Toetoe 8 Swamp sedge 16 Wiwi 27

100

Professionals

101

Other means Staff hours to manage project Staff inconvenience during site closure and prep Possibly many staff hours to help volunteers Volunteer-time

Design step 3 Hammocks

Design step 2 Alley with trees on NE corner

Design step 1 Design step 5 Cluster of houses Center-defining rain gardens

Visualization of the combined design steps: 1, 2, 3 and 5. 102

103

Combined design proposal and why it makes sense On a place like The Commons, where everything happens step by step, and with an organization like GapFiller, whose founders never expected the group to be where it is now, and don’t necessarily know where they are going next, a design solution has to be flexible. Since the deconstruction of The Pallet Pavilion, several plans of the commons have been developed, none of them completed fully, a few of them completed partially. Generally the most “fun” part of a project has been completed, while the rest of the master plan has been put in a reference folder, and only sometimes been referenced to during the installation of new projects. Generally, this approach isn’t a bad way to develop a site like The Commons that functions as a trial site for fun temporary projects, it is not run by a landscape architecture company and has no intentions of winning architectural and design awards (although GapFiller actually did win two). My point is that making a final and rigid master plan would have been an act of ignoring the iterative approach that runs through both the organization and the site. Instead, I have proposed a site design that accommodates the erratic planning of the commons by providing five individual design steps.

The design proposal seeks to solve the most present problems on site by making the most out of what’s there already, and starts the conversation about the permanence of the site by implementing some new elements of less temporary nature. By making the temporary elements make more sense and testing the area of more permanent installations, a constantly shifting balance between the two is established. This will keep the site interesting over time. Although this is not a master plan, the five individual design steps emphasizes the function of each other, and in my opinion, together create the best design solution for The Commons. Connecting the site to neighbouring areas Design steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 Together the design steps fill out the gaps that were made from rearranging elements in Design step 1, and creates a more complete pedestrian experience on the new NE-SW axis. Especially design step 4, which main purpose isn’t to connect but to divide, makes the site better connected by improving readability of site boundaries. These steps improve the physical, visual and mental connection to the constantly changing areas that surround it. The more stable

Design step 4 Shelter planting on hill

104

105

neighbour Victoria Square, is connected in similar ways by pulling while distinguishing the site from other rebuild sites. The more the vegetative element into The Commons and breaking the Axis planting, the bigger impact. The existing vegetation is put to better with a nod to the breaks in Victoria Square. use, and will make a larger impression standing together. When new vegetation is added, the use of native plants is the most ethical Defining spaces and clever solution. Design step 4 improves the circular function Design steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of design step 5 by mirroring its planting choice and semi-circular Every design step involves some sort of space definition because form. it is defined as the main problem on site. Design step 1, 2, 4 and 5 actively defines sub-spaces within The Commons, and together Making people stay there are no large gaps of undefined space left. Furthermore, Design steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 design step 4 improves space definition on both sides of the While the main purpose of design step 3 is to create an activity that vegetation, on the Commons and the pedestrian path outside makes people stay on site, all the others improve the experience of the site boundary. Design step 3 helps activate the smaller spaces being on site and through that acts as an incentive to stay longer. through strategically places hang-out furniture. Design step 1 creates a distinction between private and public space, improves the ownership and decreases the feeling of being Planting overlooked. Design step 4 creates a comfortable seating space Design steps 2, 4 and 5 out of the wind, and along with design five, increases the sensory The limited planting on The Commons increases the disconnection experience while on site through textural vegetation. from both Victoria Square and the other surrounding areas. Planting more substantial vegetation creates a subtle connection

Design step 2 Alley with trees on NE corner

Design step 1 Design step 5 Cluster of houses Center-defining rain gardens

06 106

Conclusion Conclusion, discussion and perspective References List of figures

107

Conclusion, discussion and perspective From the beginning, this project set out to explore how The Commons could improve as a temporary public square, based on the character of the site and the history of the city. Furthermore, the project aimed to design a space and create a process that supported the participatory and ever changing nature of the site and the host GapFiller throughout the project. I have sought to answer these questions through the following project questions:

to natural pedestrian and public spaces in the evolving city. For the transformative element to stay interesting, the site needs to face and control the contradiction between the seemingly permanent installations and the very temporary and moveable elements on site.

The site needs to continue as a testing ground for every aspects of public life, and avoid becoming a catch-all space for reused temporary elements from around the city. The • How can a temporary space stay interesting to the design proposal gives five examples of actions that will public over a longer period of time? make the space more comfortable and well-functioning, and introduces new temporary and permanent installations, • How can a temporary vacant site connect that are rarely seen on public space, to be tested on the site. physically, visually and mentally to the constantly evolving city that surrounds it? Through improving pedestrian paths and experiences, and emphasising the sight lines and human scale of the site, the • How can a redesign improve the function of the design proposal connects the site to its surroundings both space as a public square that invites people to physically and visually. Improved connections and mirrored hang out? physical language creates a subtle psychological connection to particularly the neighbouring public park. Making • How can a redesign of the space be build by the these connections to the surroundings in their present community? state is reasonably straight forward, but with a complete unknown future, it is impossible to fully connect the site to The site clearly has a strong historical connection to the city its surroundings while targeting every aspect of the evolving and its people, as a thoroughfare and a social trading space future. The design proposal emphasizes the connections and as an important social space in the transformative years to the parts that are very likely to last for a long time, and after the earthquake. The time occupied by the large hotel adapts the site to the changes that has happened since the seems like a short gap in the social history of the site, and beginning of the site occupation. keeping the site interesting becomes an issue of making it a comfortable and well-functioning social space, as it is linked

108

The project explores ways of improving spaces for people, and the design proposal is based on these theories and observations. The design proposal introduces a, to Christchurch, new type public furniture to be tested out on site, that will hopefully inspire people to stay longer and explore the site. Christchurch is still far from having a busy central district, and it is utopian to expect the site to be as busy as before the earthquakes until both residences and jobs are back in full scale. The success of the use of the site should be measured on people passing through and people staying for a while, rather than comparing it to any other city that hasn’t lost its entire city centre in a disaster.

while maintaining its role as a testing ground for the wacky and the needed installations alike. With this project I emphasise the need for thinking about the responsibility that comes with being the largest site in the transformative movement, to make the site successful and not seem unneeded to those uninvolved. The project also emphasizes the importance of history in the future development of the site, as it can continue as a social public space, with the privately owned hotel as the odd gap in a long history. The future development of the site is not necessarily a transformative testing site, but the history as a social space will continue if the developers will let it. The site was social in the beginning of Christchurch’s history as Redesigning a space for a small non-profit organization a trading space, and is now a light and fun space during the like GapFiller, requires not only the design brief to be met odd and difficult rebuild years. through as little effort as possible, but also that as much of the design as possible is both fun and relatively easy to make I take a critical stand towards the quick and monotonous with the help of volunteers. The process of making it is as rebuild with identical green glass facades and areas of important as the final product in terms of public outcome, pedestrian desert. I take a critical stand towards the fact and even more so in making people feel part of the project. that only a strip of land has changed in zoning definition, as the exact same strip of land was given back to a large scale There are many ways of thinking about The Commons as a and international developer when the Royalpark Hotel was transformative playground. Some people will not agree with build. I am critical towards another one of the tourist transit monitoring the site through planned analyses, while others hotels, or daytime-only office blocks, being build on an will believe that this project only scratches the surface. The important site as the one at the end of Victoria Street. The truth is that the site is a testing ground, and there is not one one that today is The Commons. I hope that the current right way of interacting with it, but there might be a right activities on site makes an impact on the future decision in way of improving it for the uninvolved and the involved favour of the people of Christchurch and their public way alike. This project has defined one way of improving the of right. space for a successful occupation by the current site hosts,

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Lucas Associates (n.a.B). Central City Ecosystems. Retrieved 15/3/16 from URL: http://lucas-associates.co.nz/ christchurch-banks-peninsula/christchurch-ecosystems/ Lynch, Kevin (1960). The Image of the City. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

References in literature Appleton, Jay (1975). The Experience of Landscape. London: John Wiley & Sons Bennet, Barbany; Dann, James; Johnson, Emma; Ryan, Reynolds (eds.) (2014). Once in a lifetime: City-building after Disaster in Christchurch. Christchurch: Freerange Press Bishop, Peter & Williams, Lesley (2012). The Temporary City. Oxon: Routledge Beyer, Kurt (2015). Christchurch Town Hall to be restored. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11463651 Canterbury Maps (n.a.) Advanced viewer. Retrieved 2/2/16 from http://canterburymaps.govt.nz/AdvancedViewer/ Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism (2015, August 20) Need inspiration? Retrieved 30/1/16 from URL: http://www. christchurchnz.com/media/story-angles/ Christchurch City Council (n.a.) Transitional Christchurch. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.ccc.govt.nz/therebuild/arts-and-culture/transitional-christchurch/ CERA (2011, July 7) News: More support for Canterbury mental health services. Retrieved 20/8/15 from URL: http://cera.govt. nz/news/more-support-for-canterbury-mental-health-services-7- july-2011 CERA (2012). Central City Recovery Plan. Christchurch: Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. CERA (2013). An Accessible City – Christchurch Central Recovery Plan: Replacement transport chapter – October 2013. Christchurch: Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. CERA (2014) Community in Mind; Strategy for rebuilding health and wellbeing in greater Christchurch. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://cera.govt.nz/sites/default/files/common/community-in-mind-strategy-for-rebuilding-health-andwellbeing-in-greater-christchurch.pdf Dalsgaard, A.M. (2012, November) The Human Scale [Video file] Part retrieved from URL: http://thehumanscale.dk/ christchurch-new-zealand/ Freerange Press (2014). Once in a lifetime: City-building after Disaster in Christchurch. Christchurch: Freerange Press Moller, Chris (2014) Valley Section: A new instrument for the Garden City, p. 429-430 GapFiller (2013). The Commons. Retrieved 6 March 2016 from http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/the-commons/ GapFiller (2016) About. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/about/ Gates, C. (2015, August 30) Council designer regrets Share an Idea didn’t go further. The Press. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/71573351/council-designer-regrets-share-an-idea-didnt-go-further

MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) (2014). Building work that does not require a building consent. Building act 2014. ISBN 978-0-478-41705-0 (Online) Montgomery, C. (2013) Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Murray, Genevive (2014, February 18) Transitional Architecture in Christchurch. Retrievd 30/3/16 from URL: http://assemblepapers.com.au/author/genevieve-murray/ NASA (2011, 20 October). Ozone Depletion a Bigger Deal Down Under. Retrieved 11/3/16 from URL: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ozone-aus.html Nassauer, Joan Iverson (2015). Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames. Landscape Journal 14(2): 161-169 NV Interactive (2015) Consultation Reinvented. Retrieved 2/9/15 from URL: http://www.nvinteractive.co.nz/our-work/share-an-idea Orange, Claudia (2015, December 7). Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; Treaty of Waitangi. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/treaty-of-waitangi Oswalt, Phillip; Overmeyer, Klaus; Misselwitz, Philipp (2013), Urban Catalyst. Berlin: DOM Publishers Peters, T. (2014, February 22) New Zealand: Three years after the Christchurch earthquake. World Socialist Web Site Retrieved 2/2/16 from URL: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/22/chch-f22.html Phillips, Jock (2012, July 13) Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; The New Zealanders - Bicultural New Zealand. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/the-new-zealanders/page-12 Potter, S.H., Becker, J.S., Johnston, D.M., Rossiter, K.P. (2015). An overview of the impacts of the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.01.014 RAD bikes (n.a.) RAD Bikes Christchurch – Welcome! Retrieved 24/3/16 from URL: http://www.radbikes.co.nz Rebuild Christchurch (2013). CERA Land Zone Map. Retrieved 6/3/16 from URL: http://www.rebuildchristchurch. co.nz/content/land-zone-map Rebuild Christchurch (2011). CBD Cordon Map and FAQ For Entry Into CBD. Retrieved 6/3/16 from URL: http://www.rebuildchristchurch.co.nz/blog/2011/3/cbd-cordon-map-and-faq-for-entry-into-cbd Roper-Lindsay, Judith (1993). Tales Of The Riverbank – Examples Of Bank Restoration On Urban Rivers. Pages 125-143 in Collier, K.J. (Ed), 1994. Restoration of Aquatic Habitats. Selected papers from the second day of the New Zealand Limnological Society 1993 Annual Conference. Department of Conservation.

Gehl, Jan (2010). Byer for mennesker (English title: Cities for people). Copenhagen: Bogværket

Schrader, Ben (2014, September 30). Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; Public, commercial and church architecture. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/public-commercial-and-church-architecture

Gehl, Jan & Svarre, Birgitte (2013). Bylivsstudier – studier af samspillet mellem byens form og byens liv (English title: How to study Public Life). Copenhagen: Bogværket

Strategy, Design&Advetising (2015) Share an Idea. Retrieved 2/9/15 from URL: http://www.strategy.co.nz/our-work/share-an-idea.aspx

Greening the Rubble (2016) About Us. 30/3/16 from URL: http://greeningtherubble.org.nz/wp/about-us/

Stevenson, D. (2013) The City. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Polity Press

Iowa State University of Science and Technology. (n.a.) Custom Wind Rose Plots. Retrieved 12/2/16 from URL: https:// mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/sites/dyn_windrose.phtml?station=NZCH&network=NF__ASOS& units=mps&nsector=12&year1=2015&month1=2&day1=1&hour1=12&minute1=0&year2=2016&month2=2& day2=1&hour2=12&minute2=0

Stuart, Keriata & Thompson-Fawcett, Michelle (2010). Taone Tupu Ora; Indigenous knowledge and sustainable design. Wellington: New Zealand Centre for Sustinable Cities.

Kiib, Hans & Marling, Gitte (2015) Catalyst Architecture: Rio de Janeiro, New York, Tokyo, Copenhagen (Art and Urbanism) Bilingual Edition. Aalborg: Aaborg University Press Lehman, Maria Lorena (2009, April 16). Gestalt Principles in Architecture: Achieving Design Balance. Retrieved 10/3/16 from URL: http://sensingarchitecture.com/867/gestalt-principles-in-architecture-achieving-design-balance/ Lucas Associates (n.a.A). Christchurch Ecosystems and Planting guides. Retrieved 15/3/16 from URL: http://lucas-associates. co.nz/christchurch-banks-peninsula/christchurch-ecosystems/ 110

Swarbrick, Nancy. (2012, July 7). Flax and flax working - Māori use of flax. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 24/3/16 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/flax-and-flax-working/page-2 Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal (15, September 7) Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand; Māori. Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/maori Triegaardt, K. (2011, March 8) Rebuilding Christchurch Business - ‘quake brain’ recovery push. New Zealand Herald Retrieved 30/1/16 from URL: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10710853 Wilson, John. (2015, September 1) Canterbury region - Facts and figures’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 30/1/16 from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/canterbury-region/page-18 111

List of figures All figures not represented on this list are by the author. The figures are represented in chronological order.

Crowne Plaza Christchurch [Image sourced from http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/cities/christchurch/prequake/001j.shtml]

01 - Intro

Crowne Plaza broken; taken by Kiwidutch [Image sourced from https://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/new-852/]

Street art: Teresa Oman by RONE [Image sourced from http://www.streetartnews.net/2013/12/rone-new-mural-for-rise-street-art.html] Dance-o-mat image, 20/2/15. Photo by Michael Williams. [Image sourced from: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/dance-o-mat-image/6163048]

Sunday afternoon live music at the Pallet Pavilion. Photo by Glen Jansen [Image sourced from http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/summer-pallet-pavilion/nggallery/page/1] 03 - The Commons - site analysis

02 - Method

Christchurch street frame, based on map sourced from http://canterburymaps.govt.nz

Tea and biscuits seen from outside The Commons Room by GapFiller. [Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://www. gapfiller.org.nz/dock70/]

Rebuild projects and precincts; map by CERA [Sourced 1/3/16 from http://eyeofthefish.org/christchurch-green-print/]

03 - Context

The central red-zone fenced off; photo by Kiwidutch [Sourced 1/3/16 from https://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/new-852/]

Canterbury – Sourced from http://canterburymaps.co.nz 5/2/16

The transitional commons seen from above. Photo by GapFiller [Sourced 3/3/16 from http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/the-commons/]

Globe – Based on image from Google earth sourced 5/2/16 Madras St. during earthquake by NZHERALD ONLINE [Sourced 15/2/16, from URL: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10787029] Madras St. pre-earthquake by NZHERALD ONLINE [Sourced 15/2/16, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10787029]

Artists impression of the future Science Alive centre. [Sourced 3/3/16 from http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/76328469/New-50m-Science-Alive-building-in-Christchurch] Pallet pavilion on The Commons [Sourced 3/3/16 from URL: http://i2.wp.com/tindall.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Pallet-pavilion-with-bikes.jpg

Movable big ball. Picture by GapFiller. [Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: https://www.facebook.com/GapFiller/photos/ pb.170295592997951.-2207520000.1459338087./1241940019166831/?type=3&theater

04 - Design proposal

Cultivate Christchurch, urban farming. Picture by LIVS. [Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://livs.org.nz/projects/i/cultivate-christchurch/]

Arcades. By Adrew Just [Sourced 29/2/16 from GapFillers Internal dropbox] Victoria square. By Christchurch Central Development Unit [Sourced 13/3/16 from https://ccdu.govt.nz/sites/default/files/view-of-victoria-square-from-HG%20CC.JPG]

Home in the CBD, a tiny house on vacant space. Picture by LIVS. [Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://livs.org.nz/ projects/i/home-in-the-cbd/] Vetical pop-up garden. Picture by LIVS. [Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: http://livs.org.nz/projects/i/popup-gardens/] Chchurling workshop with GapFiller. Picture by GapFiller. [Retrieved 30/3/16 from URL: https://www.facebook.com/GapFiller/photos/pb.170295592997951.2207520000.1459338545./1214818811878952/?type=3&theater] All Blacks performing the Haka by Reuters. [Sourced 30/3/16 from http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/world-cup/south-africa-v-new-zealand-five-things-that-will-decide-rugby -world-cup-semifinal-34137611.html] Table showing Maori Urban design principles developed from table on p20 in [Stuart, Keriata & Thompson-Fawcett, Michelle (2010). Taone Tupu Ora; Indigenous knowledge and sustainable design. Wellington: New Zealand Centre for Sustinable Cities.] Also shown on p.456-457 in [Freerange Press (2014). Once in a lifetime: City-building after Disaster in Christchurch. Christchurch: Freerange Press] “Maori group outside a whare puni” by Robins, J.D.. [Image sourced from Alexander Turnbull Library on: http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=8255&l=mi] Victoria Square, Christchurch, 1910: a panorama looking towards the north-east; taken by Alfred Charles Barker [Image from Christchurch City Libraries Reference CCL PhotoCD 16, IMG0005] Christchurch Town Hall from the air; taken by G. Weigel [Image Published and Distributed by A. H. & A. W. Reed. SR 885] 112

Traditional flax weaving. By Flaxweavings blog [Sourced 18/3/16 from https://flaxweaving.wordpress.com/page/3/#jp-carousel-152 Reference P1030867] Bicycle tire by THMRubber. [SOurced 18/3/16 from http://www.thmrubber.com]

Landscape Architecture and City Design April 2016 Copenhagen University