Central Christchurch — August 2016
I moved to Christchurch in early 2012 and lived there for four years till the end beginning of 2016. I spent the weekend back there recently (for the magnificent WORD Festival) and it was intriguing to see the city again after seven months away.
I wouldn’t say the city has exploded with activity and new buildings. It still feels strange, quiet, and uncanny. Unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been. But there is a definite increase in people, and a thousand small changes are evident. The main thing that made me (slightly) optimistic is the slow accrual of different urban things — most of them are a bit ugly, some ungainly, but with increasing density and activity. Slowly different scales, different temporalities, and different types of activity are emerging. As if the city is gradually, but steadily, taking over from the planners visions of it.
The rapid changes that took over the city during and after the quakes are slowing down. Instead of the demolitions, rezonings, large openings, and new beginnings we are now getting a more steady and increasingly stable realisation of streetscapes and places.
It’s becoming a place again — or even better a city full of different and varied places. It is amazing to see a place lose 80% of its central city buildings, and yet still keep enough of its character and identity to be able to reinvent itself with some consistency of character. Thank god for the river.
The difficult part of this is that it’s still a long game. The major government projects will still not be finished for another ten years, and the city itself will take at least another ten or so after that to settle on an identity and really strong sense of itself.
In the mean time I hope the residents of Christchurch keep work, caring, and sustaining the place; making it rich and varied and different. And importantly that they keep looking after themselves. This is the long game now.
I took some photos which illustrate the slow emergence of places, the new streetscapes, and the constant mixing of new and old - the broken and the repaired.
