A commemorative landscape in the Christchurch Residential Red Zone

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can a post-disaster landscape commemorate the collective loss of place felt by communities after the Christchurch earthquakes?

The Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES) occurred between September 2010 and December 2011, with the Christchurch earthquake of February 22nd, 2011, killing 185 people and destroying much of the Central Business District (CBD). At the time of the first earthquake Christchurch was the second largest city in New Zealand. The Earthquake Commission received over 470,000 insurance claims, due to the reoccurring earthquakes and damage to the built environment. The collective sense of loss was felt heavily by the people of Christchurch, especially those families living in the eastern part of the city. With 15,000 families losing their homes and 7,350 of those families permanently displaced from their land, the earthquakes caused the largest internal displacement in New Zealand history. Through the 1900s the Christchurch suburbs sprawled east along the Avon River/Ōtākaro. This is now known as the Residential Red Zone (RRZ). This project looks at the abandoned landscapes of the RRZ, and how a commemoration of loss might be expressed honestly. This design uses broken elements of the abandoned neighborhoods to tell a story of place and loss. This design incorporates new elements that give back a sense of place, creating tūrangawaewae for all visitors, to the design site.

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