Christchurch: a New Urbanism?

Christchurch had a 6.3 magnitude earthquake at 12.51pm, on Tuesday 22 February 2011. This comment will be forever memorialized as recovery extends into a third week for bodies now totaling 166 at this time of writing. What has been inspiring is written on news websites across the planet, and many are coming to grief at the loss of life and property, spurred to by thelong delays in getting their toilets, water and power back to normal. The CBD is a tourist centre, with the Cathedral Square as pivot with the over one hundred year old stone church as eyecatcher. All that changed on that Tuesday, as the Square filled the sunny day with many who were on their lunch break.

There have been a determination, however, to see to it that the CBD in particular, gets a total makeover. This will raise the architects eyes and minds to a creativity whose vision will be to see that Christchurch gets a total makeover the way Napier got theirs in the 1930s after their earthquake. One part of the vision to establish Christchurch will be a new form of urbanism. This means a stronger chance to establish an 'Ecotopia' - Eco-friendly, sustainable and pedestrian friendly and of course, earthquake proof. Ecotopia come from a novel written in  1975 by Ernest Callenbach, set in "1999 [where] America's Northwest has succeeded from the United States". It looks at a journalist investigating the changes to a organic, car free society not bent on oil or greed etc.

This new urbanism I would call Ecotopia, is a prophetic call to once and for all do something on the fringe of architecture, urban design and culture that calls to heed the global reduction on the need to consume oil, to better our cities for people - not cars, and to make them safe for kids to play in them (parks, landscapes with water etc.) Mixed use developments are the most sustainable and productive in terms of energy use, social connections and cultural aspirations. Christchurch is a city that could be the one to do just that. I am looking forward to seeing it all unfold in my lifetime.