mid-semester crit

vase detail and relationship to water

declaration of project

It is my objective to design a series of instruments in a linked system throughout Christchurch, from which will rise moments of transcendence, or opportunities to move to another ‘place’. Linked by more than the aesthetic, through sensory clues like materiality, texture, and use these interventions will signal an awareness of memory, specifically an awareness of the victims of the February 22^nd Christchurch earthquake.

Seating areas, drinking fountains, water features, bridges, terraces, steps and walkways will operate on two levels, firstly as amenities and secondly as a permanent, coded system, a route through central Christchurch un-codable through collectivity to signal meaning and moments of sacred or spiritual. Collectively they will create a frame that records loss, tensioning the past and the present, and looking to the future with hope.  I will propose temporary exhibitions or events on anniversary days that will involve the community and reveal links between the permanent exhibitions.  

My coded system will need to work within Christchurch’s already existing and proposed urban fabric. This is an investigation into how to represent the victims of Christchurch’s earthquake to renew ownership for those still living to the heart of their city. It will mean negotiating form and materiality, memory and place, individual and collective memory, and the temporary and permanent, to create Christchurch’s identity as rich in history and meaning within an already existing urban fabric.

relationship diagram

key:
dashed line - memory
dotted shapes - material/built environment
blue - water/place

relationship description: bumpy but close, interactive relationship between place and material, memory at times concealed and at others revealed. Water able to flow from top down, or from below to above.

Ōtukaikino living memorial

Turns out the idea of a living memorial in Christchurch isn't so new... the Department of Conservation and Lamb Haywood Ltd (funeral directors) have gotten together to restore a wetland reserve just north of Christchurch. The 13ha site is an old Maori burial ground, and the project is supported by Te Ngai Tuahuriri Runanga. The idea is you plant a native tree in the reserve to commemorate a loved one, contributing to the ecology of the wetland reserve.

see:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/canterbury/christchurch-and-banks-peninsula/otukaikino/

Land(e)scape by Marco Casagrande and Sami Rintala

An architectural exhibition, structures representing barns that have been abandoned in Finland (due to emigration) have been designed and built only to be burnt by the community in a ritual. Demonstrating loss and catharsis, the destructive and transformative power of a ritual. The community together experiencing loss and reflecting on its significance.

See youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqzx1Nj_6SU