FUTURE CHRISTCHURCH V4.1building resilience: responding to agrarian roots

Yvonne Mak

Thesis completed in part fulfilment of requirements for the Master of Architecture (Professional) degree at the University of Auckland, 2013.

b u i l d i n g r e s i l i e n c e : r e s p o n d i n g t o a g r a r i a n r o o t s

Yvonne Mak

CHRISTCHURCH INDUSTRIAL CORRIDOR

And I hear, from your voice, the invisible reasons which make cities live, through which

perhaps, once dead, they will come to life again.

Italo Calvino

a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s

Thank you to my supervisors Camia Young and Chris Barton, for constantly challenging

me throughout the year. This thesis would not have been possible without your

immeasurable support, encouragement and dedication. Your enthusiasm continues to

be an inspiration.

I would also like to thank those in the back bay of studio, for your cherished conversation

and companionship during those long hours.

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In the aftermath of the devastating succession of earthquakes in Christchurch in 2010

and 2011, a new landscape can be proposed in light of the city’s reconstruction. This

landscape seeks to integrate the seemingly opposing impulses of creating innovation

and fostering a resilience born from the city’s own inherent qualities. The recognition

of perspectives from local cultures highlights the agrarian roots of Christchurch – but

while New Zealand has a world class reputation built on the production of high quality

primary produce, its agricultural sector is an industry of intensive labour in relation to

production output. Nevertheless, agriculture remains fundamental to Christchurch’s

economy; and with a history so deeply rooted in New Zealand traditions, opportunities

for an incorporation of an innovation culture with the primary sector will be key to

developing resilience when considering its role in Christchurch’s economic future.

With a relatively low level of support for long term investment in Research and

Development (R&D) and a lack of cross-scale linkages being a significant barrier towards

cultivating this innovation, this thesis focuses on constructing a platform for synergetic

dialogues between industries and institutions. In illustration of this proposition,

a collection of small, local industries more reflective of Christchurch’s cultures are

interwoven into landscape synonymous to the ideals of resilience and innovation in a

reconstructed city.

a b s t r a c t

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c o n t e n t s

Abstract 7

Introduction 11

1.0 Beginning with Narratives

1.1  The Poetics of Disaster 17

1.2  Here is Christchurch 25 

 Endnotes 29

2.0 The Local Narrative2.1  From Maori to British Colonial Perspectives 31

2.2  Christchurch Historical Context (Early Industry) 33

 Endnotes 39

3.0 Arguing for the Local3.1  Industrial Theories: Geographic Proximity 43

3.2  Of Integral Elements & Connectivity 49

3.3  The Knowledge vs. Material Economies 53

 Endnotes 57

4.0 Urban Strategy4.1  Economic Argument: NZ Context 61

4.2  Economic Argument: By Industry 65

4.3  Site/Un-site: Along the Rail Corridor 71

4.4  Methodologies 82

4.4.1  Urban Proposition 84

 Endnotes 97

5.0 Architectural Strategy5.1  An Industrial Typology     101

5.2  Elemental Sketches     106

5.3  The Winery     115

5.4  The Apple Orchard     125

5.5  The Apiary     135

5.6  The Eel Farm     145

5.7  The Urban Market     155

5.8  The Industrial Corridor: Elevations     159

 Endnotes     163

6.0 Reflections     165

Bibliography 177

Appendix A: Comparative Statistics on GDP and Contributions to R&D  183

Appendix B: Comparative Statistics Relating to Key Industries     193

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i n t r o d u c t i o n

One of the critical issues that this thesis responds to is how the uniqueness

of Christchurch’s local agricultural industries can be placed when

considering today’s ideals of an innovative economy. This is taken through

a perspective of regional resilience, and how the ideas revolving around

the concepts of innovation and resilience can be stitched together to create

a new landscape. It is an exploration into the portrayal of this landscape,

and the linkages it would harness between the strong base of New Zealand’s

material economies and the contemporary understanding of the knowledge,

or creative economies.

In the context of Christchurch’s industrial development, the main freight

line running along its central industrial corridor affords a means by which

trade distribution is accommodated. Fed from routes reaching across the

length of the South Island, the Main North and Main South Railway lines

intersect at Addington in Christchurch, linking its rural hinterland with

the city centre. Given the advantage of geographic proximity, this corridor

presents an opportunity to revive the connection between a very disjointed

urban and rural fabric, where suburban development and sprawl have

continued to push distances between resources of production and places of

consumption. The provision of educational and research facilities aligned

with this route of new agricultural sectors seeks to facilitate the integration

of innovative advancements with traditional practices.

The rail lines and their associated industrial typologies have in themselves

a strong symbolisation of the historical traces of trade and manufacturing

development in Christchurch. They are a reference to the layers of

culture and age-old practices upon which the city has been built. As

such they demonstrate a certain pertinence as a backbone in conceiving

the merging of two very different ideals of tradition and advancement.

Placing the strength of Canterbury’s agricultural output alongside Research

and Development strategies could stimulate a substantial economic

transformation at a national scale, as well as promote both significant local

and export opportunities. In the spirit of Jane Jacobs,1 this proposal would

essentially recreate the industrial tract into a lively variety of specific and

vital architectures. These small scale insertions then have the ability to

forge new connections and networks, fostering a growth of local cultures

in a diverse landscape.

However, there have been barriers to this method of thinking. Historically,

New Zealand’s economic development has been dependent upon the

agricultural industry’s exports and revenues, with the primary sector

accounting for 7.1% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and over 50% of

its current total exports.2 The agricultural, fishing and forestry industries

in the Canterbury region alone have increased their GDP by 2.7% over the

past decade.3 Although these statistics point towards a sector which still

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many of those high value sectors currently exhibit a strong reliance on

international employment.8 There is in this scenario a danger of creating

a city of narratives so fractured that these economy-boosting industries

become almost a checklist of capacities irrelevant to those who have given

Christchurch its solidarity, where it can only be experienced through its

latest accomplishments. Just as Richard Sennett observed the complex

relationships between craftsmanship and an engagement in conscious

knowledge,9 recognizing that the economic history of a region nurtures its

unique knowledge economy offers value to the craft engrained in earlier

material practices.

While the concept of innovation is typically tied with formal R&D

organisations, many significant examples in New Zealand are derived from

individuals and small scale firms, reinforcing the national culture and

identity as encompassing a rugged individualism: Bill Hamilton was a self-

taught engineer who invented the jet boat, and Bill Gallagher was a Waikato

farmer who invented the electric fence. It must be noted that Hamilton

had the advantage of a strong educational background, and although

Gallagher’s implementation was based on American inventions, he went

on to head the Gallagher Group which now holds over 500 patents. This

romanticism is heartening – New Zealand undoubtedly has the history and

cultural resources necessary for innovation even within its smaller scales

of operation. A second issue, which has made its way to the forefront of

contributes largely to our economy, these primary industries have a bleak

outlook regarding support for advancement in New Zealand’s economic

future.4 With specific consideration towards facilitating an increase in the

country’s GDP to meet at least the Organisation for Economic Cooperation

and Development (OECD) average in post-earthquake Christchurch, the

Christchurch Central Recovery Plan outlines strategies aligned towards

a focus on innovation.5 This innovation would ostensibly arise through

developing knowledge-based industries exemplified by those within the

information, communications and technology (ICT) sector or the high

value manufacturing and services (HVMS) sector. As opposed to criticism

raised concerning the economic opportunities surrounding primary

output,6 these growing R&D intensive industries are characterised by high

levels of output with lower labour intensities.

Still, when the notion of innovation is put forward, the importance of

the local trades on which a city’s economic history is deeply embedded

must be understood; HVMS and R&D sectors need not be kept distinct

from the agricultural perspectives rich in Christchurch’s industrial

development. Reports compiled by the Ministry of Business, Innovation

and Employment highlight a change occurring in New Zealand’s economy.

The emergence of sectors including high-technology manufacturing and

information technology are beginning to sit alongside the more traditional

sectors of food and beverage, forestry and tourism.7 Unfortunately,

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much of the discourse on the Christchurch rebuild, is the idea of building

a resilient city, one able to absorb and flexibly respond to disturbances,

accommodating change such that its system is not fundamentally altered.

Such a city would support industries rooted to the local economy by

fostering regional resilience. This trait is highlighted by the strength of a

skilled and innovative workforce without a reliance on any single industry,

linked by networks of research and training institutions. These networks

facilitate the place competitiveness that would enable a locality such as

Christchurch an economic standing in the global environment. With

strategies aimed at R&D, the aggregate effect of merging technological and

research advancements with both primary and high value manufacturing

and services sectors involved in urban development could provide the

transition for Christchurch away from a reliance on the primary sector

and into an integrated high value economy. Using the economic strengths

inherent to Christchurch and the Canterbury region will also help in

restoring and developing local displaced businesses and employment

opportunities.

The architectural proposition offered in illustration of these principles uses

as case studies a winery, an apiary, an apple orchard and an eel aquaculture

farm, with a central city farmer’s market to provide the retailing of such

commodities. With a focus on smaller-sized industries aimed primarily

towards local production, emphasis has been removed from established

corporate multinationals. These smaller scale businesses are placed in

relation to a wider, socially cohesive network of shared local materials,

local labour and local transport. Considered in conjunction with this

network will be opportunities for innovation by taking advantage of

the geographic proximities of Crown Research Institutes, independent

research organisations, and tertiary institutions. As a holistic integration

of agriculture, architecture, and social networks, this proposal paints a

semblance of the co-creative cycles of permaculture, a landscape where

industries and institutions form cross-scale networks of trade and

communication. Together, this would establish a new, resilient landscape

supported by the philosophies inherent to those perspectives inseparable

from our history.

This thesis is part of a larger urban strategy initiative, a collaboration of

work within Future Christchurch V4.0 which as a whole encapsulates

a hyperlocal approach to the city – a city reflecting the importance of

recognizing locally-sensitive approaches to rebuilding Christchurch. In this

volume, aspects of housing, education, transportation and technological

advancement will also be explored. It is in part a response to the issues

raised by Prototype City: Future Christchurch V3.0, which develops urban

and architectural strategies based on catalysts for economic growth.

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1 . 0   b e g i n n i n g w i t h n a r r a t i v e s

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Fig. 1.1 Warsaw, Staszic Palace (Pałac Staszica) at Nowy Swiat rebuilt in original neoclassicist form.10

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1 . 1   p o e t i c s o f d i s a s t e r / s y m b o l i s m i n r e c o n s t r u c t i o n

In some ways, the notion of a “resilient city” conjures up a societal stance

of denial. There is a hazy boundary between economic opportunism

and nostalgic idealism. When one considers resilience as a post-disaster

recovery response, as that of the Canterbury earthquakes, this recovery

entails not only a physical reconstruction of the built environment, but

also that of an interpretive one, encompassing psychological, emotional

and symbolic frameworks.

Rebuilding a city undeniably demands repair of a myriad of severed social

connections embedded in homes, schools, places of recreation, workplaces

and other institutions. The re-use of or reference to pre-disaster physical

constructs can be a means by which these connections can be restored,11

and this symbolism in reconstruction has been demonstrated through

many examples of reconstructed cities. The haste with which the historic

core of Warsaw was rebuilt after its destruction during World War II,

and its completion in 196112 suggest a distinctly strong symbolization of

Poland’s cultural and historical identity. The Old Town and other historic

areas also carried an emotional symbolism embedded in the resistance

efforts of 1944.13

While a visitor might today be innately aware of the reconstructed and

recreated nature of the site, it nevertheless impresses an underlying

poignancy surrounding the importance of restoring what was lost.

However, the deliberations around the reconstructed and the recreated

must be addressed. Certainly the historic core was not restored to an exact

replica of its previous state, but rather was edited according to the political

and ideological priorities of the doctrines observed by Socialist Realism.14

Modernised renaissance and neo-classicist styles prior to the 1830s were

considered more reflective of a “Polish” identity, while styles such as art

nouveau or baroque, dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth

centuries, were referenced to capitalism and a domination of Poland by

foreign powers.15 The buildings were thus shaped to provide for the needs

of the present, where different architectural styles conveyed different values

and associations.

However, under the dominance of post-war Soviet communism, an

exhibition in Warsaw’s National Museum opened in May 1945 by the

Office for the Rebuilding of the Capital (BOS). Entitled “Warsaw Accuses”,

artworks survived from famous buildings were presented; yet the showcasing

of these items only served to highlight those objects which could not be

saved, laying blame and responsibility upon Nazi Germany.16 Targeted

towards Polish and international audiences, the exhibition supported

Stalin’s position and addressed anti-German sentiments, but did not offer

any true acknowledgment of the fate of Warsaw’s Jews.17 While the Jewish

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Fig. 1.2. Picasso’s Guernica was an effort by the artist to publicise the event – as an antifascist sentiment, he instructed that Guernica not be returned to Spain until it had recognised a stable democratic government; as per his wishes, it

was returned from New York’s MoMA in 1981, three years after the formation of Spanish democracy.20

21

Committee was still able to commission monuments to the Warsaw Ghetto

Uprising under Communist authorities’ efforts to suppress its memory,

these conditions devastated any opportunity of reconciliation between the

parallel yet divergent tragedies of the Polish and Jewish Varsovians.18

Consequently it was a filtered version of Warsaw that was reconstructed,

with almost all physical traces related to its Jewish history destroyed, with

the exception of the Ghetto Fighters monument. It is only more recently

and in the early stages of the 21st century that the relationship between

Jewish and Polish memories are being unearthed, with examples such as the

opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in April 2013, in time

for the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.19 The question is

raised as to whether the Christchurch blueprint, imposed in such a haste

by the government so that reconstruction work might commence, might be

considered as building a filtered version of the city.

There begins to be an intimation here of a realm of resilience beyond that

encapsulated purely by the physical and the emotional, and captures an

essence instead more attuned to the cultural.

Cultural resilience suggests a perseverance of customs and norms, and the

ability of the symbolism of these to survive and evolve. Gernika, a small

town in Biscay in the Basque region of northern Spain, was before 1937

a symbolism of democracy and autonomy.21 When General Francisco

Franco of the National Forces ordered the demolition of the town, the

attacks were aimed at key civilian centres, in particular the open-air

market and other main downtown areas. Then followed the extraordinary

circumstances in which Franco himself initiated the city’s rebuild after he

assumed dictatorship of Spain in 1939.22

However, cultural suppression and a denial of emotional healing ensued

from the politics of Gernika’s recovery: the rebuild was influenced by his

political supporters, and became devoid of any commemorative efforts.

Basque religious figures were persecuted, properties of known nationalists

confiscated, and even communicating in the Basque language became

illegal – scant opportunities were afforded for cultural expression.23 It is

in the clandestine acts of the citizens that enabled their culture to endure:

annual commemorations of the attack at a collective grave, services held in

secret at the Church of Santa Maria, illegal schools which continued the

Basque language and education24 – until Franco’s death in 1975 allowed the

first prospects of reconciliation between Gernika and Spain.25

The question of the importance of maintaining traditional values,

associations and also practices becomes part of the struggle in rebuilding a

city. The tradition of Christchurch is undoubtedly embedded in a history

of living off the land and agrarian traditions, stemming from early Maori

perspectives which told of hunting over the Canterbury plains. After

British settlement, family-sized and owned farms were established for local

food production, with distribution out to the ports taking advantage of

the existing Main North and Main South railway lines. The knowledge

and traditional practices which come with such small scale operations are

passed down from generation to generation. This establishes a relationship

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Fig. 1.3. Responding to America’s imposed surtaxes on locally produced Roquefort cheese, an angry group of local farmers marched to the site of a McDonald’s under

construction in Millau and dismantled it, piling the pieces onto the back of their tractors and driving it through the town to the cheers of supporters.27

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between the individual, their materials and their craft, anchoring them into

a landscape composed from just such practices.26

The significance given to tradition, whatever the economic consequence,

is demonstrated by the efforts of José Bové, a sheep farmer and activist in

Aveyron, France. In 1999, the World Trade Organisation backed the United

States government in imposing a heavy surtax on certain European “luxury

products” in retaliation to Europe’s refusal to import hormone-induced

American beef.28 One of those items taxed was Roquefort cheese –which

Bové produced on his farm. Infuriated by such measures, he took a stand

for French cultural identity and the symbolic value of French traditional

food by destroying a McDonald’s which was under construction in the

town of Millau, whose sheep supply the milk for Roquefort.29 Rather than

being labelled as another resentful reactionary, Bové was lauded as a leader

of the anti-globalisation movement.

The explanation could perhaps be attributed to an attachment to the

land or an idealised way of rural life in France – but foremost would be

the protection of the region’s historically established culinary traditions.

Naomi Klein, a Canadian journalist and activist, reported Bové’s actions as

representing an “attack against an agricultural model that sees food purely

as an industrial commodity rather than the centrepiece of national culture

and family life.”30 Even Paris, the most densely populated city in France,

contains more family-owned cheese shops, bakeries and butchers than

larger chain supermarkets.31 It is here that the Salon de l’agriculture, an

annual agricultural exhibition, is held where farmers, locals and politicians

are all expected to participate in events requiring a knowledge of farm

practices and produce – the exhibition itself a long-held tradition.32

There is, then, the undoubted debate as to how much significance should

be given to these aspects of a region’s identity when that region must be

reconstructed. For Christchurch, at least, certainly not everybody would

respond to an agrarian culture. One point of conflict could be to whom

this agrarian culture belonged, especially when taking into perspective

that the practice of farming in Canterbury is very much that of a British

colonial one, introduced to the region in the 1840s.

However, even prior to British settlement, Maori had long been utilising

the land in a very similar fashion, making a living out of local resources

and taking advantage of the soils and waterways over the plains and the

Port Hills. More recently, some of Ngai Tahu’s corporate aspirations in

their partnership with Lincoln University has also strengthened their

agricultural ties into Cantabrian culture.

In April 2013, a memorandum was signed marking the establishment

of Whenua Kura, an initiative directed at increased support for skills

development in agricultural practices for local Maori.33 Dr Andrew West,

Lincoln University’s Vice-Chancellor, spoke of the partnership as an

opportunity: “The values around stewardship of the land while undertaking

primary production are key to the teaching at Lincoln University. Food

production is going to be a major driver globally and the potential impact

on our natural resources will only increase. Being able to apply stewardship

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values to efficient and effective agriculture is essential. These values are

important for Ngai Tahu and are fundamental to Lincoln University’s

position as New Zealand’s specialist land-based university.”34

Alongside the established locals of Christchurch, the more recent flux of

people in and out of the city after the earthquakes raises a concern as

to whom the reconstruction of the city would be for. At one level, the

image of Canterbury is still very much that of a low-lying farming district

with plenty of fertile soils over the plains. With 75% of Canterbury land

dedicated to agricultural activity, agriculture, tourism and manufacturing

are still the region’s primary export earners.35 At a local level, this may

have the capacity to change when considering the rebuild from a purely

economic recovery standpoint, where development is focused towards

high-growth industries. But alongside the key sectors of information

and communications technology, construction, and knowledge intensive

manufacturing, the agribusiness sectors have continued to deserve a

mention in the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA)’s

economic recovery plan. The question of focus then begins to consider how

this recovered landscape would operate, and how it would be presented to

those to whom Christchurch “belonged”.

26

Fig. 1.4. Frank Auerbach’s Shell Building Site from the Thames, 1959, oil on board.36

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1 . 2   h e r e i s C h r i s t c h u r c h

By exploring the qualities of a city which might lend some influence to

how it might be depicted, it is argued that perhaps a reflection of the

inhabitants themselves shape its aesthetic more so than any physical edifice.

Although architectural vernaculars begin to emerge from regional styles,

the manifestation of place and identity is placed upon the individual, and

memories imprinted on a city must take place in reference to the social

interactions associated with those architectures. In essence, encapsulating

the traditions of a region are those who continue its practices. E. B.

White, an American writer who contributed to The New Yorker shortly

after it was founded in 1925, wrote an essay in 1949 entitled Here is New

York. Describing stark contrasts between solitude and multiplicity, riches

and squalor, and permanence and transience, the city is given a range of

personifications which together make up the whole:

This treatment could be made of any city: a sum of inter-related parts.

Those natives, commuters, and settlers of New York could translate

effortlessly, although at a much smaller scale and perhaps with altered

significance, into the natives, commuters and settlers of Christchurch.

First, the Christchurch for whom the city has always been home, who

have grown up through the transition from farm life to suburban homes

and fenced gardens. Second, the Christchurch of those who have seen

the city as a means of providing occupation, whether permanently in its

labour force or temporarily stationed as part of the rebuild efforts. The

third Christchurch belongs to the tourist, who has associated the city with

some idealistic means of representation perhaps aligned to the “Garden

City”, similar to the clean green image that New Zealand presents to the

international traveller.

Except a fourth Christchurch may be suggested in light of the reconstruction:

that which may belong to the new or returned. Three years on from the

2010 earthquake, Christchurch has been described as a city divided – a city

composed of the fractured identities of “the angry, the disillusioned, the

untouched and the hopeful.”38

The angry are those who suffered the most loss in the earthquakes and

still harbour a sense of uncertainty and frustration at the future. The

“There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man

or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts

its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the

New York of the commuter – the city that is devoured by locusts each day

and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who

was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. […]

Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidarity and

continuity; but the settlers give it passion.”37

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Fig. 1.5. Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, with an excerpt describing the city of Zaira, of Cities and Memory.

29

disillusioned are those anxious at the slow progress of the rebuild, feeling

their opinions and suggestions side-lined in a perceived loss of democracy.

The untouched are those whose homes and businesses escaped generally

undamaged, but who may nevertheless be distressed from a “survivor’s guilt”

of having emerged unscathed. And lastly, the hopeful are those who see the

opportunity in being able to rebuild the city anew. This Christchurch could

present for these a restoration of a paradise lost, the potential for a new and

evolved landscape, or, hopefully, one that encapsulates an essence of both.

In a similar manner of visualisation to Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, the

articulation of landscape is told through a series of architectural insertions.

These express Christchurch’s industrial narratives by integrating historical

perspectives within the context of a rebuilt urban fabric, thus recreating

its existing industrial corridor. Invisible Cities is framed as a series of

conversations between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. It tells of the travels

of Marco Polo and his descriptions to the Khan of the 55 different cities

he encounters on his journeys. However, as they don’t speak the same

language, Polo uses various objects taken from his places of travel to

illustrate his stories. The implication is that each person understands the

other through their own interpretation of what the other is saying.

The ideology of such a landscape is seen as a repository of the values and

meanings we attach to places over time, that nurture our existence in a

set of collective memories. The grassroots and locally-specific cultures

of Christchurch therefore influence, as a supportive element in events of

disaster, the combination of nostalgia in rebuilding a resilient heritage, and

a society embracing the opportunism of innovation. In this inevitable cycle

of demolition and construction, the city becomes in itself a palimpsest

of former and existing forms.39 In gestures similar to Frank Auerbach’s

artistic inclinations to continually create and obliterate images as layers

upon layers,40 former traces indelibly linger in a city and this recognition

and expression of commonplace traditions and activities are the very same

which create a rich tapestry of heritage and place.

In a city that must rebuild for diversity, for economic revival, and for

renewed social constructs, the elements that make up the process of

reconstruction should then reflect the layers of narratives built up of all the

Christchurchs of the now divided city. This creation of a new landscape

becomes reconfigured from the familiar, being built up corresponding to

those same narrative qualities.

30

31

1. Jane Jacobs, The Economy of Cities (New York: Random House, 1969).

2. “Gross Domestic Product: March 2013 Quarter.” Statistics New Zealand, http://www.stats.govt.nz

(accessed March 22, 2013).

3. Ibid.

4. Alexander Haryowiseno, Future Christchurch: Innovation Economy (Master’s Thesis): University of

Auckland, 2013)., 23-28.

5. Christchurch Central Development Unit., Christchurch Central Recovery Plan: Te Mahere ‘Maraka

Otautahi’ (Christchurch, N.Z.: Christchurch Central Development Unit, 2012).

6. Haryowiseno, Future Christchurch: Innovation Economy, 23-28.

7. Ben Chapman-Smith, “ICT Sector Expanding, Skilled Workers Missing,” The New Zealand Herald,

Tuesday July 16, 2013.

8. Ibid.

9. Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).

10. “Warsaw, Poland, Staszic Palace.” made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.0

license, http://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibrarian/5844165290/ (accessed June 21, 2013).

11. Lawrence J. Vale and Thomas J. Campanella, The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 347.

12. Ibid., 138.

13. Ibid.

14. Duane Mezga, “Political Factors in the Reconstruction of Warsaw’s Old Town,” Urban Design Studies

4 (1998), 41.

15. Ibid.

16. Travis Currit, “Return from Death/Burying the Dead: Polish-Jewish Memories and the Rebuilding of

Warsaw” (MA Seminar Paper, University of Washington), 29.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid., 30-34.

19. Nicholas Kulish, “Polish Museum Repairs a Tie to a Jewish Past,” The New York Times, April 18, 2013.

20. “Picasso, Guernica.” made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license, http://

www.flickr.com/photos/ (accessed June 21, 2013).

21. Robert P. Clark, The Basques: The Franco Years and Beyond (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1979), 70.

22. Max Morgan Witts and Gordon Thomas, Guernica and the Crucible of World War II (New York: Stein

and Day, 1975), 288.

23. Clark, The Basques: The Franco Years and Beyond, 81.

24. Ibid., 137.

E n d n o t e s .

25. Ibid., 156.

26. Sennett, The Craftsman.

27. “Resistance: Demontage Du Macdonald De Millau En 1999.” http://aurka.canalblog.com/

archives/2007/07/08/5476473.html (accessed September 2, 2013).

28. W. Northcutt, “Jose Bove Vs. McDonald’s: The Making of a National Hero in the French Anti-

Globalization Movement,” Proceedings: Western Society for French History 31 (2006), 326-345.

29. Ibid.

30. Naomi Klein, Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate (New

York: Picador, 2002), 67.

31. Daniel Bell and Avner De-Shalit, The Spirit of Cities: Why the Identity of a City Matters in a Global Age

(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011), 236.

32. Ibid.

33. “Ngai Tahu Partners with Lincoln University for Canterbury Agricultural Development.” Te Runanga o

Ngai Tahu, http://www.ngaitahuproperty.co.nz/news/lincoln.php (accessed August 12, 2013).

34. Ibid.

35. Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, “Economic Recovery Programme for Greater Christchurch

Te Whakaara Tahua: A Foundation for Economic Recovery and Growth in Greater Christchurch.”

(Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, 2012.)

36. “Shell Building Site from the Thames.” http://arttattler.com/archivefrankauerbach.html (accessed July

12, 2013).

37. E. B. White, Here is New York (New York: Harper, 1949)., 1.

38. Olivia Carville and Anna Turner, “The Tribes that Bind Christchurch,” The Press, 2013.

39. Ken Taylor, Landscape and Memory: Cultural Landscapes, Intangible Values and some Thoughts on Asia

(The Australian National University: Research School of Humanities, 2008)., 4.

40. Mark Crinson, Urban Memory: History and Amnesia in the Modern City (London: Routledge, 2005).,

4-5.

2 . 0   t h e l o c a l n a r r a t i v e

34

Fig. 2.1. The first house on the Canterbury Plains, erected at Riccarton by the late John Deans ca 1890. In 1843 the Deans brothers built this

house using wooden pegs as nails were not available. Primitive as the structure was, the work was sufficiently sound to keep the building

standing until some time in the late 1890s when it was taken down, as by then it was considered unsafe.1

Fig. 2.2. A Northwood family of flaxcutters, 1913. Flax was a major income earner, and was used in

rope making and gum digging.2

35

2 . 1   f r o m M a o r i t o B r i t i s h c o l o n i a l p e r s p e c t i v e s

The Canterbury plains were built up from the outwash gravel from

eroding glaciers in the Southern Alps,3 where to the north the glacier-fed

Waimakariri flows as one of its major rivers. An assortment of shingle

deposits by the river comprises most of what Christchurch is built on

today, and the swamplands are drained by the spring-fed Heathcote and

Avon rivers into an estuary.4 Fresh water fish such as eels were harboured

by the rivers, where flounder and shellfish became plentiful in the estuary.

Flax, raupo, patches of kanuka and cabbage trees, and other swampland

plants of shrubby vegetation and grasslands covered the plains.5 This was

Nga-pakihi-whakatekateka-o-Waitaha (the wetlands where Waitaha made

fish spears from flax-stalks).6

Preceding the Canterbury Association settlers in 1850, waves of migration

and settlement of Maori migrants saw multiple displacements of

dominance before the mid nineteenth century saw the arrival of European

settlers.7 First to settle were the Waitaha, who gathered food by the coast

and estuary and built mahinga kai, or food-gathering places, assimilating

the related knowledge and practices customary to their identity and way

of life. They were followed by Ngati Mamoe in the 1500s and then Ngai

Tahu in the mid-1700s, who subsequently assumed authority over the

Canterbury region and wider South Island, driving the Ngati Mamoe south

to Fiordland.8 From their arrival, the Maori used the area’s rich food and

plant ecologies. Putaringamotu (Riccarton) became a particularly valuable

mahinga-kai, with its abundance of eels, fish and freshwater crayfish.9

These provided resources for the permanent and semi-permanent Maori

settlements of the various iwi of Waitaha, Ngati Mamoe and particularly

Ngai Tahu, who remained strongly associated with Christchurch’s history

and traditions beyond a simply archaeological past.10 Otautahi, the Maori

name for Christchurch, means “the place of Tautahi” and stems from the

name of the Ngai Tahu chief Tautahi, who built the Tautaki pa at the site of

the Barbadoes Street bridge.11

Flax traders, whalers and sealers frequented Christchurch prior to the

1830s, but it wasn’t until 1840 that the first attempt at settlement on the

plains were made by whalers at the site of Putaringamotu.12 After this

venture was abandoned, a sheep farm was established at the same location

by William and John Deans in 1843, leased by Ngai Tahu on the condition

that their settlement did not disturb Maori plantings. They became the

earliest European settlers of Canterbury, selling produce in Akaroa and

Wellington and exporting their wool as far as London.13 Riccarton House,

using timber from the Riccarton Bush of lowland Kahikatea, was built for

Jane Deans in 1855 near Deans Cottage.14 These buildings, along with the

Deans’ brick farm buildings at the present site of the Christchurch Boys’

High School, still stand as a heritage of the former family farm.

36

Fig. 2.3. The Canterbury stock sale of Sir John Hall’s famous Merino flock was held at Hororata

on 21 February 1907.15

Fig. 2.6. The threshing gang pose for the camera, Moderate farm, Bennetts district, Canterbury,

1901.18

Fig. 2.5. The Wood Brothers’ Flour Mill in Addington were established in 1890 – it was demolished

after the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011.17

Fig. 2.4. Milking Shed, ca 1900.16

37

2 . 2   C h r i s t c h u r c h h i s t o r i c a l c o n t e x t ( e a r l y i n d u s t r y )

Farming constituted much of the region’s initial land use before subsequent

residential development took place.19 In anecdotes and images found in

historical archives, the lives of local farmers have been well documented.

The first settlers arrived at Lyttelton Harbour in 1850, and in the ensuing

years farming practices on the Canterbury plains took root: sheep farming

and the wool market in particular provided an economic start, and

in the 1870s Canterbury held over half of New Zealand’s total land for

wheat production.20 Both pastoral farming and crop growing expanded,

prosperity increased as a result of government subsidies and guaranteed

minimum prices, and up until 1973, the productivity of farming in

Canterbury presented a landscape of considerable prosperity.21

However, a shift in terms of trade in the 1970s and 1980s coincided with the

removal of subsidies, and left farming exposed to market forces in an open

economy.22 This led to an increase in the amount of small holdings, and

a rise in the significance of horticulture and the continued diversification

of crop growing.23 Horticulture and orcharding became prevalent in the

Port Hills, Heathcote, Horotane and Avoca regions, and these valleys still

constitute a significant area of rural activity.24

Market gardens, greenhouses and dairy farms were also found on

Christchurch’s rural fringes, where apples and other fruits were harvested

and the town’s milk supply was produced. The Marshlands region remains

to this day primarily a market gardening area, with its exceptionally fertile

soils.

To the north, Coutt’s Island was situated on what was then the city’s rural

fringe, where it became the origin of Canterbury’s wine industry in the

late 1970s; its first vintage was introduced at St Helena Winery in 1983.25

Since then the wine industry has grown significantly, with regions such

as Waipara Valley to the north and Burnham to the south specialising

especially in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Associated with the region’s primary production were industries

supplementary to this: equipment suppliers, abattoirs, canning works and

the like, all providing the manufacturing, handling and processing inputs

needed for agricultural production. When it was discovered that meat

could be frozen and exported to the other side of the world, the Belfast

Freezing Works along Factory Road became Canterbury’s first purpose-

built facility (and New Zealand’s second) for freezing meat, with production

commencing in 1883.26

Similar such expansions to the industry were developed based on

accessibility to the Lyttelton Port and main south railway lines,27 leading

38

Fig. 2.8. Modern beekeeping in Canterbury: a demonstration at Hundred-Hive

Apiary.29

Fig. 2.7. Mr James Turner “Ha-Ha” with Bert Gimblett and Jack Salt coming

down the narrow track with their baskets of apricots at Hillwood, 1920.28

39

to the consequent formation of a major manufacturing and industrial

corridor from Heathcote at the eastern end to Islington at the western

end, so that farm products could be brought in from Christchurch’s rural

hinterland, then processed and handled along this route for distribution to

the city centre as well as for export – the first Christchurch railway station

opened in Ferrymead in 1863.30 Since then, this corridor has maintained

an influence over the development of the surrounding suburban areas,

particularly in Sydenham, where small industrial expansion in the second

half of the 20th century resulted in the displacement of most residents

north of Brougham Street.31

Although most of these businesses were typically small, family-sized

industries, they made up the bulk of the industrial corridor, and

Christchurch briefly became New Zealand’s main manufacturing centre in

the late 19th to earth 20th centuries;32 although it no longer holds this

status, this manufacturing background has nevertheless been integral to the

city’s economy. Up until the 1950s, the main south railway lines included

services between major centres, ports and the rural hinterland. Since then

it has predominantly transported long-haul freight, with major distribution

of goods covering timber, frozen meat, wool and manufactured goods. It

was also more recently used to transport coal from the Stockton Mine and

Spring Creek on the west coast to the Lyttelton Port, until Solid Energy’s

decline in operations in late 2012.

Fig. 2.9. A large eel. This eel, which weighs 30lb, was caught by Miss S. Hames in the

Lower Selwyn district.33

40

Fig. 2.9. Bishop’s corner, Armagh and Colombo Streets, 1867. E.B. & F.A. Bishop were wine merchants.34

Fig. 2.10. Up-to-date farming in New Zealand: an Ivel agricultural motor at work on a South Canterbury farm, 1913.35

41

Fig. 2.11. The works of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company at Belfast 1885. Killing and freezing operations began here on

the 16 Feb 1883.36

Fig. 2.12. Loading frozen mutton on ship from railway wagon, ca 1900.37

42

43

1. “The First House on the Canterbury Plains,” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.

com (accessed July 21, 2013).

2. “The Flaxcutter, 1913,” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July

21, 2013).

3. “Geological Map of New Zealand.” http://data.gns.cri.nz/geoatlas/ (accessed March 25, 2013).

4. S. J. Owen, The Estuary: Where our Rivers Meet the Sea: Christchurch’s Avon-Heathcote Estuary and

Brooklands Lagoon (Christchurch, N.Z.: Parks Unit, Christchurch City Council, 1992).

5. Ibid.

6. Jenny May et al., “Christchurch before 1850: Inner-City and Coastal Heritage Trails,” Christchurch

City Council, http://resources.ccc.govt.nz/files/ChChBefore1850-publications.pdf (accessed July 12, 2013).

7. Wilson, Contextual Historical Overview for Christchurch City, 18.

8. May et al., Christchurch before 1850: Inner-City and Coastal Heritage Trails

9. Geoffrey Rice and Jean Sharfe, Christchurch Changing: An Illustrated History (Christchurch, N.Z.:

Canterbury University Press, 1999), 10.

10. Wilson, Contextual Historical Overview for Christchurch City, 18.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid., 19.

13. “The Pioneering Deans Family.” http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/heritage/earlychristchurch/

deansfamily.asp (accessed June 17, 2013).

14. Ibid.

15. “Canterbury Stock Sale.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July

21, 2013).

16. “Milking Shed.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July 21,

2013).

17. “Woods Mill.” made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license, http://www.

flickr.com/photos/ (accessed July 21, 2013).

18. “Threshing Gang.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July 21,

2013).

19. John Cookson and Graeme Dunstall, Southern Capital, Christchurch: Towards a City Biography, 1850-

2000 (Christchurch, N.Z.: Canterbury University Press, 2000), 115-116.

20. Ibid.

21. Statistics New Zealand, “Historical Context: Rural New Zealand,” http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_

for_stats/people_and_communities/geographic-areas/urban-rural-profile/historical-context.aspx (accessed

March 22, 2013).

E n d n o t e s .

22. G. Cant, “Social and Community Wellbeing in Rural Canterbury 1945-2005,” Canterbury Regional

Jubilee Symposium Proceedings (2004), 3.

23. Statistics New Zealand, Historical Context: Rural New Zealand

24. Wilson, Contextual Historical Overview for Christchurch City, 129.

25. Ibid., 129.

26. “Belfast Freezing Works.” http://www.ipenz.org.nz/heritage/itemdetail.cfm?itemid=2171 (accessed

March 29, 2013).

27. Wilson, Contextual Historical Overview for Christchurch City, 137.

28. “Hillwood Orchard.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July 21,

2013).

29. “Modern beekeeping.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July

21, 2013).

30. Rice and Sharfe, Christchurch Changing: An Illustrated History

31. Wilson, Contextual Historical Overview for Christchurch City, 134-138.

32. Rice and Sharfe, Christchurch Changing: An Illustrated History

33. “A Large Eel.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July 21, 2013).

34. “Bishop’s corner, Armagh and Colombo Streets, 1867.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://

christchurchcitylibraries.com (accessed July 21, 2013).

35. “Up-to-date farming in New Zealand.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com

(accessed July 21, 2013).

36. “Canterbury Frozen Meat Company.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com

(accessed July 21, 2013).

37. “Loading frozen mutton on ship.” Christchurch City Libraries, http://christchurchcitylibraries.com

(accessed July 21, 2013).

3 . 0   a r g u i n g f o r t h e l o c a l

46

47

3 . 1   i n d u s t r i a l t h e o r i e s : g e o g r a p h i c p r o x i m i t y

In the labour market, there are inevitable uncertainties which confront

industries and hinder their capacity to create innovation. When placed in

the context of regionalism, a set of collective and dynamic processes which

promote a synergetic integration of firms can be incorporated, reducing

these uncertainties. Clive Lawson outlines a few of these processes as

including collective information sharing between firms, collective learning

processes through a regional labour market, and a general coordination of

decision-making resulting from local associations, families and linkages.1

The expression of significance here is the suggestion of the “collective”, a

cooperative network of familiar contacts consisting of regional suppliers and

customers, all facilitated by the spatial proximity that a regional imperative

would inform. This reiterates the importance attached to the concept

of networking afforded to local trades. In itself, it becomes a learning

mechanism by which trust can be built between industries and skills can

be developed, enabling the foundation through which opportunities for

innovation may arise.

James Simmie argues that the consequence of proximity embeds

economic activity in a social context which allows it to become also a

social phenomenon.2 Such regionally specific social interactions begin to

construct locally differentiated cultures – each region would thus develop

a continually evolving set of collective processes which would come to

characterise different regions and different socio-economic capacities.

Bear in mind the cultural distinctiveness arising from each locality must

of course hang in balance with these collective processes – one is mutually

dependent upon the other. It is in this sense that innovation may be

brought about by the concept of regional resilience.

This is in part reflected in the perspectives of Piore and Sabel, who argue,

as a response to the saturation of mass markets, for flexible specialization

of firms in meeting the demand for a constantly changing market.3 In

these agglomerated “industrial districts”, populations of small, interacting

businesses would engage both in competition and cooperation in a manner

conducive to growth. Each firm’s success would be built on the development

of products complementing its own specialization, and would thus benefit

from social exchange with related producers.4

A criticism highlighted towards the nature of Piore and Sabel’s approach

has been of their rationale of analysis, which borders on a somewhat

behaviourist logic.5 The emergence and growth of innovation in the model

epitomized by these industrial districts relies heavily on psychologistic

frameworks, the language of which avoids empirical backing. What it does

maintain, however, is a sense of openness and possibility.

48

49

The illustrative landscape painted in this thesis is not that of a district

of flexibly-specialised industries, and aligns more with an urban

acupuncturist approach, but nevertheless encapsulates the same principles

of social construction as that raised by Piore and Sabel, as well as many

other enthusiasts of the industrial district theory. Rather than engaging in

exchanges with producers, the emphasis shifts towards similar exchanges

on a knowledge and information front with broader institutions such as

educational facilities and research institutes, supporting the growth of a

highly skilled workforce.

Similar ideas were developed towards the early 1990s by the Groupement

Européen des Milieux Innovateurs (GREMI), a group of European

economists from France, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Eschewing

Fordism and its functionalist logic represented by mass manufacturing

systems, they assert that urban development is being dictated by a new

territorial logic, based upon innovations realized through regionally-

oriented social and industrial networks.6 They introduced the idea of

the “innovative milieu”, the central approach of which is that a region’s

socio-economic environment is developed through an interaction of small

local industries, institutions and labour, sited in a geographic context.7

The association between the actors involved in each of these sectors,

including the suppliers, subcontractors and customers, encourages regional

learning through the collective learning process,8 a concept derived from

the aggregate knowledge of individual institutions. When considering

that since the 1900s, cities have evolved from being built by proximity to

production advantages to being built by proximity to consumer advantages,

the suggestion that the socio-economic dynamics of industrial districts

and innovative milieu in their regional agglomerations generate a market

culture9 becomes a medium from which local industry can be addressed.

In developing industries drawn from local resources, which are then placed

within a predominantly local distribution line with the flexibility for export,

proximity to production and proximity to consumer advantages can coexist

as complementary networks. Aside from our reliance on Fonterra’s export

revenue, New Zealand’s primary industries, agricultural and horticultural

practices have been criticised and subsequently devalued as industries of

intensive labour and low-impact output. These industries have provided

relatively minimal returns and have placed the country in a state of reliance

on one multi-nation corporation. The attribution of New Zealand’s decline

in relative prosperity since the 1970s, relative to other OECD countries, was

given to its economic and market orientation favouring such industries.10

Recent studies indicated that while New Zealand puts in approximately

15% more working hours as compared to the OECD average, it generates

only 80% of the output achieved by the rest of its counterparts.11

Perhaps the issue here is one of a lack of diversification. But with

arguments for a broader mix of traditional exports, increased high value

manufacturing and ICT,12 where does this leave Christchurch’s agricultural

businesses? Part of the reason for New Zealand’s lack of diversification is

the natural endowment of the land to yield a comparative advantage in

agricultural production. Another reason is the dominance of large business

corporations which have the ability to influence a local economy. If the

50

Fig. 3.1. Map of urban growth development of Christchurch.

51

sector’s exposure ranged across a multitude of smaller business owners,

this would correspond to a decrease in economic volatility.13 Parallel to this

situation has been the consequence of suburban residential development,

whereby the rural land area has slowly crept into the fringes of the city’s

current political boundary. This has widened the distances between local

production areas, their supporting research and manufacturing industries,

and their consumers. The closest areas to the central city core still

undertaking rural practices are predominantly the Marshlands region and

the Heathcote and Avoca Valleys, although residential development has

already been planned for part of Marshlands.

As a means of preserving the industries which hold historical and symbolic

referrals to Christchurch, those devalued sectors can be given a measure

of resilience by setting them in a new context. By introducing principles

of innovation economics into a city’s developmental strategy, these can

be placed in a synergetic relationship with older industry sectors. This is

of course pitted against the globalization movement – by reestablishing a

scenario where small-scale farmers are provided access to local markets,

local food systems would be given the opportunity to thrive. In this new

setting of cultural revival and self-reliance, small-scale farmers, local

business owners, educational and research institutions, and local consumers

could all benefit from a platform of resilience in a landscape geared towards

innovation. While this may not transform New Zealand’s primary sectors

into the top grossing industries which might recover New Zealand’s OECD

ranking in terms of GDP, it creates a responsive solution to long-standing

industries which continue to provide associative influences beyond that

of economic return. While labour services have customarily belonged

in a linear pathway in the production of finished commodities through

manufacturing, a reciprocal relationship in this methodology could produce

what James Simmie refers to as a “self-reinforcing circle”,14 which runs in

parallel with the concepts contiguous to permaculture. Educational and

research-based services would benefit manufacturing and services sectors,

whose products, and subsequent information gained, would then be

utilised in a feedback loop to further those same and expanded knowledge

institutions. For the industrial corridor of Christchurch, this idea forms

the possibility of creating a powerful innovation agglomeration.

Connecting traditional practices in an urban setting generates the

proximity demanded by Piore and Sabel’s theories of competitiveness and

cooperation, and supporting their constant advancement through the

networking of these businesses with educational and research facilities

derives the aggregation of GREMI’s innovative milieu. In such a setting,

the industrial types set up by Christchurch’s historical developments must

coexist with these agrarian practices, promoting a mix of vital architectures

along with their social and cultural constructions.

52

53

3 . 2   o f i n t e g r a l e l e m e n t s & c o n n e c t i v i t y

As a response to the growing sense of disconnectedness in urban

environments, Jane Jacobs wrote:

Suburban growth in the 1960s saw much of the housing developments

turn its back to the canals, which themselves became dumping grounds

and abandoned paths. However, in March 2008, the local newspaper

published a column which described the proposition of celebrating

historical infrastructure, and that the canals were unique qualities of the

region which should be considered alongside urban living. “Canalscape”

would offer a sense of place and identity through cultivating a respect for

local heritage as well as highlighting the canals as a valuable water source.17

As an alternative to urban sprawl, these mixed-use developments would

contain working, living and recreational spaces. The result would be a

contribution to both economic and urban regeneration. After much input

from contributing professionals and educational institutions, Canalscape

has since been recognised by the mayor of Phoenix and many aspects of

the project are moving towards implementation.18

A parallel inflection of the qualities drawn by Canalscape is that of Ignasi

de Sola-Morales’ urban acupuncture: the expression of small interventions

which cultivate a catalytic ripple effect rather than attempt an overarching

comprehensive master plan.19 This attitude of urban intervention has been

approached via numerous instances:20 the redevelopment of Barcelona

during the 1980s emphasized the application of projects rather than a

planning scheme, creating a network of outdoor spaces contextual with its

“…we need all kinds of diversity, intricately mingled in mutual support…

most city diversity is the creation of incredible numbers of different people

and different organisations, with vastly differing ideas and purposes,

planning and contriving outside the formal framework of public action.”15

This kind of connected or integral urbanism investigates an application

of permaculture where ecosystems are developed around emphasising an

assembly of parts, which as a whole, practices sustainable and self-sufficient

relationships.

In Metropolitan Phoenix, a distributed system of developments along the

banks of it canals leverages existing assets, offering vital urban hubs with

live-work settings and gathering places, which re-orientates urban design

theory to bring together functions made separate during the modernist

age. In such an arid landscape, the canals were originally established by

Native Americans over 2000 years ago to support life, but were abandoned

until a modern reconstruction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.16

54

55

surroundings. Bernard Tschumi’s folies at Parc de la Villette are intended

as moments of events punctuating space and time, and Michael Gamble

and Jude LeBlanc at the Georgia Institute of Technology describes their

urban and suburban retrofitting strategies as “incremental urbanism”.21

These types of interventions characterise an attitude departing from the

top-down master planning dominating much of the twentieth century.

Stemming from much more localised influences, the idea revolves around

creating opportunities for the growth of unprogrammed effects. The design

of such flexible spaces allows for a dynamic flux of development based on

time-driven processes, unconstrained by predetermined programming.

This would allow for an adaptation to new conditions that a master

plan may not have foreseen. The redesign of Lafayette Square Park in

Oakland, California was an advocate for just such an integrated approach.

Landscape architect Walter Hood chose to blend old and new constituents

into a hybridised landscape to accommodate its diverse user communities.

Rather than shifting the social landscape of the area through gentrification,

this method of process sought to improve conditions for its current users

while also making it accessible to others. Hood’s designs of public spaces

have been described as being “rooted in the tangible past, enlivened by the

public, and integral to the community.”22

It is in a similar fashion that bringing small agricultural practices into an

urban setting would seek to restore connections between people, their

associated landscape and the elements integral to these.

56

57

3 . 3   t h e k n o w l e d g e v s . m a t e r i a l e c o n o m i e s

Today’s current understanding of the knowledge economy is seen as one of

a non-material nature, of abstract knowledge and the talent of the “creative

classes”.23 According to sociologist Saskia Sassen, the relationship between

cities’ older material economies and their knowledge economies needs to be

recovered.24 As a key factor to innovation, knowledge is often a vague and

uncertain concept with multiple means of interpretation. As far as systems

of innovation are concerned when approached with a regional imperative,

the expression of new knowledge comprises much more than simply an

association of firms with a linkage to R&D. In a local innovation system,

Simmie argues that geographic proximity of interlinked institutions is a

major contributor in facilitating a personal knowledge transfer between

workers.25 Industries and their trade associations, business consultancies

and research partners all participate in overlapping local mechanisms of

exchange, such as trade shows, conferences and other social activities.

In this network of diverse relationships, the mutual dependence of these

two economies provides for opportunities towards innovation. Especially

when knowledge economies can only reflect the knowledge of a particular

region, it becomes imperative that they are able to lend significantly to

advancing traditional industries. Moreover, it is the smaller, regionally-

defined industries which provide a larger variation in production, which

base themselves on networks of multiple contractor links, and support

direct contact with customers. Unlike the mass manufacturing undertaken

by larger conglomerates, an application of small agriculturally-focused

businesses within the current industrial corridor of Christchurch would

better reflect the uniqueness of the city’s economic and cultural character,

which holds particular significance for a city with so rich a hold on its

historical practices.

Although there may be a challenge in linking local farmers to higher value

sector chains, the importance of markets of traditional produce cannot be

overlooked. The recognition that it is these aspects of a place’s history which

cultivates its specialized knowledge economies returns value to its older

material economies – agriculture, manufacturing, mining – and the craft

embedded within those practices. The knowledge economy must therefore

stem from creative classes which are in turn fed from the knowledge

embedded in these same material practices of the older economies. Each

city would thus reflect their own regional specificity through a specialized

knowledge economy.

Christchurch’s positioning in local markets supports this use of its existing

local resources and historical trading base. When aligning the rebuild

strategies with economic recovery, switching into a knowledge economy

would provide support for its agricultural trade. In a typical model of

economic development whereby branches of multinational corporations

are incentivised into a city, these corporations hold no roots in the local

economy and local community.26 This makes it easier for these same

58

59

corporations to abandon the area based on global economic fluctuations,

where this might be contrasted to the stronger ties given to regional

industries.

By Simmie’s logic, where these regional industries are strengthened by

ties into a network composed of their supportive trade associations, so

too would innovative practices be encouraged. An example of unplanned

innovation in a small-scale manufacturing industry is given by Jane Jacob’s

description of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.27 This

company was represented by a few local employees engaged in the digging,

crushing, sorting and selling of sand. In order to increase their customer

base to include carpenters and other woodworkers, the proprietors decided

to stick some of this sorted sand onto paper, producing sandpaper. This

invention was not a new one, and unfortunately their product was not

as effective as they had hoped. In an effort to improve this, 3M, as the

company has come to be recognized, began to experiment with new types

of adhesives and this work led to the production of a much more profitable

masking tape and a whole additional family of products. If 3M had been

a small sand manufacturing department in a large metal-casting business,

it would have rendered the need for experimentation irrelevant. Those

new products, which helped the much more regionally specific company

to expand their sales to carpenters, would have been of no use in the metal

working company.

This network of overlapping market bases and associations also provides for

regional competitiveness, lending further to the notion of resilience backed

by methods of innovation. Although there may be a paradox observed in

the rhetoric of regional competitiveness in its emphasis on the importance

of qualities and assets unique to a region, which nevertheless results in

standardised practices, the notion of resilience offers a perspective rooted

in different theories, namely ones backed by social cohesion as well as

economic efficiency. This process of creative experimentation could be

exhibited in many different pathways if given the opportunity.

In the end, it is the fostering of the diversity and spontaneity of inherent

regional industries that lend weight to an economy’s strength – a fostering

which engages entrepreneurial skills and encourages unplanned and

unpredictable episodes of innovation.

60

61

1. Clive Lawson, Territorial Clustering and High-Technology Innovation: From Industrial Districts to

Innovative Milieux (Cambridge: ESRC Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, 1997)., 15.

2. James Simmie, Innovative Cities (London: Spon Press, 2001)., 24.

3. Michael J. Piore and Charles F. Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity (New York:

Basic Books, 1984).

4. Ibid., 31.

5. Ash Amin and Kevin Robins, “The Re-Emergence of Regional Economies? the Mythical Geography of

Flexible Accumulation,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 8, no. 1 (1990), 7-34.

6. Ibid., 10.

7. Simmie, Innovative Cities, 24.

8. Mark Lorenzen and Nicolai Juul Foss, Knowledge and Coordination between Firms: The Role of

Institutions and Regional Innovation Systems. (Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School: Department of

Industrial Economics & Strategy, 2001).

9. Alex Deffner, Dimitrios Konstadakopulos and Yannis Psycharis, “Culture and Regional Economic

Development in Europe: Cultural, Political and Social Perspectives” University of Thessaly Press, 2003).

10. Haryowiseno, Future Christchurch: Innovation Economy, 23-28.

11. Statistics New Zealand, “Innovation in New Zealand: 2011,” Statistics New Zealand, (accessed June 12,

2013).

12. Paul Brislen, “Paul Brislen: End Unhealthy Reliance on Dairy Giant,” The New Zealand Herald, August

7, 2013.

13. Gareth Kiernan, “Economic Diversification - at what Cost?” Infometrics, http://www.infometrics.co.nz/

Forecasting/10142/9999/Economic%20diversification%20-%20at%20what%20cost (accessed September 5,

2013).

14. Simmie, Innovative Cities, 30.

15. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York: Random House, 1961).

16. Nan Ellin, “Canalscape: Practising Integral Urbanism in Metropolitan Phoenix,” Journal of Urban Design

15, no. 4 (2010), 599-610.

17. Ibid., 603.

18. Ibid., 607.

19. Sola-Morales i Rubio, Manuel de, Kenneth Frampton and Hans Ibelings, A Matter of Things (Rotterdam:

Distributed Art Pub Incorporated, 2008).

20. Nan Ellin, Integral Urbanism (New York: Routledge, 2006)., 124.

21. Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson, Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning

Suburbs (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).

E n d n o t e s .

22. Ellin, Integral Urbanism, 97.

23. Stephen Arthur Goldsmith and Lynne Elizabeth, What we See : Advancing the Observations of Jane

Jacobs (Oakland, CA: New Village Press, 2010)., 263.

24. Ibid.

25. Simmie, Innovative Cities, 37.

26. Goldsmith and Elizabeth, What we See : Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs, 278.

27. Jacobs, The Economy of Cities, 52-53.

4 . 0   u r b a n s t r a t e g y

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65

4 . 1   e c o n o m i c a r g u m e n t : N Z c o n t e x t

On the 30th July 2012, a 100-day blueprint plan for the Christchurch

CBD rebuild was released to the public by the Christchurch Central

Development Unit (CCDU). This was incorporated into the Christchurch

Central Recovery Plan developed by CERA. Highlighted alongside other

precinct developments and anchor projects is the Innovation Precinct,

located on the south-east corner of the Green Frame. The purpose of the

Innovation Precinct aims to “facilitate the establishment of a technology-

based industry and research precinct within the central city, attracting new

business and employment opportunities in high-value industry sectors.”1

Given particular significance in the description of the businesses expected

to be integrated within the Innovation Precinct are those associated with

the information, communications and technology sectors. However, the

recovery plan continues to mention the hope of collaboration with the

skills and knowledge established at the University of Canterbury and

Lincoln University. Collaboration is also anticipated with the seven Crown

Research Institutes that have facilities in the region, including those with

a specialisation in the fields of agriculture, plant and food research, land

management and industrial research.2

In conjunction with the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, CERA’s

Economic Recovery Programme for Greater Christchurch provides an

overview of twenty key economic recovery projects. Within this list

is mentioned regional clustering opportunities as exemplified by the

Enterprise Precinct and Innovation Campus (EPIC) already established

within the Innovation Precinct, and the Land Innovation Cluster for

agritechnology.3

In considering the industrial types that might be used in illustration of

the landscape painted by this thesis, it could be noted that larger, pastoral

practices such as dairy, beef and wool farming are perhaps more indicative

of the traditional farming scene of the Canterbury plains. Indeed, these

industries hold the majority of land use dedicated to agricultural practices,

and are the primary contributors to the region’s export economy.

However, in celebration of cultures reflective of New Zealand’s rugged

individualism, the four chosen industries reference the changing agricultural

landscape since the 1980s, and the subsequent growth of horticultural

and orcharding practices. These small to medium sized industries were

also considered to be more easily incorporated as an initial acupunctural

catalyst into the urban fabric and industrial corridor. The selection of

case studies chosen therefore had the intention of lending some sense of

economic viability within the scheme of the CCDU’s blueprint.

Statistics New Zealand quarterly and annually publishes several reports

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67

prepared by The Ministry for Primary Industries (see Appendix A). Gross

Domestic Product by production group showed that agriculture, forestry

and fishing was the 5th largest by percentage contributor to New Zealand’s

total production GDP, with primary industries contributing a total of

7.2% in the year ending 2012.4 Out of the principle agricultural products

accounting for the 2012 agricultural sales, dairy produced the most revenue

at 45.1% of total gross revenue, with fruit, sheep meat and cattle following

at roughly 10-11%.5

International comparisons were made of the country’s contributions to R&D

as a percentage of GDP in contrast with other countries within the OECD

(Appendix A). This can be used as an indicator of how much prioritization

is given to high-impact sectors, as they often produce a linear relationship.6

Countries which spend more on R&D therefore typically generate more

GDP per capita. Currently New Zealand exhibits a relatively low level of

overall expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP (1.27% in comparison

with the OECD average of 2.38%, as of 2012), although both government

and business contributions to R&D are expected to grow.7

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69

4 . 2   e c o n o m i c a r g u m e n t : b y i n d u s t r y

Appendix B discloses a compilation of graphs and figures which highlight

the trends and projected growths of the industries chosen as case studies

by this thesis. The research strategy outlined by the New Zealand

Winegrowers Annual Report 2013 focuses on pests and diseases, managing

costs and profitability, sustainability, expanding quality wine markets, and

technology transfers.8 According to this report as well as statistics recorded

by the Ministry for Primary Industries, the total value of wine exports

increased by 22% from 2009 to a total value of $1.2 billion, making it New

Zealand’s largest horticultural export by volume.9 Accounting for 33.9%

of all horticultural export revenue, the top ten markets for New Zealand’s

wine include Australia (31%), the European Union (31%), and the United

States (23%).10 The Ministry for Primary Industries continues their report

to hypothesize an encouraging medium-term outlook for New Zealand’s

wine industry, with the coordination of market development activities and

new initiatives in promoting wine sustainability credentials.11

A similar promising outlook for the New Zealand apple and pear sector

is also expected, with a growing proportion of new varieties planted and

the increased potential for ongoing market expansion in Asia, and an

indication of good future demand from markets in Europe and the Middle

East.12 As a result of ongoing production of different apple and pear

varieties and further expansion into higher paying markets, current export

prices remain stable, and a projected forecast anticipates improvement over

the next 3 years. Contributing $386 million, or 11% of total horticultural

export revenue in 2013, the top international markets for the New Zealand

apple are the European Union (37%), Southeast Asia (18%) and the United

States (11%).13 The Royal Gala, together with the Braeburn produce Jazz

apples, one of the four major New Zealand exported varieties alongside the

Braeburn and Royal Gala themselves, as well as the Fuji. Together, these

make up over 75% of ENZA’s export volume,14 a significant player in the

global pipfruit trading market – created through the merging of Turners

and Growers with the New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board in

2003.

The medium-term outlook for the seafood sector, however, is relatively

subdued, with only marginal increases predicted for the outlook period

to 2016. Although New Zealand’s first eel farm was established in 1971,

these had largely declined by the 1980s. This was attributed to reasons

including a depression in export prices, poor economic conditions and a

lack of knowledge of sustainably culturing New Zealand eels.15 However,

recent increases in funding for eel farming have improved prospects for

the industry. The Ministry of Science and Innovation are supporting

NIWA’s Bream Bay Aquaculture Park in providing advancements in

farming protocols, and developments into weaning and tank recirculation

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71

systems hope to improve survival rates.16 The Mahurangi Technical

Institute’s Warkworth aquaculture research facility has also entered into a

partnership with the Manukau Institute of Technology so that information

and resources can be shared.17

In the projected future, New Zealand seafood export prices are estimated

to grow at a rate faster than that of volume, due to the constraints in

businesses’ ability to improve the volume of sustainably harvested wild

fish. With 90% of New Zealand’s commercial seafood production reaching

international markets, the export earnings in the seafood market account

for roughly 3.5% of total merchandise trade.18 Aquaculture accounts

for 17% of these export earnings, composed of lower volume species at

higher values.19 The United States is New Zealand’s top export market for

aquaculture (24% of aquaculture export value), with the European Union

(15%), Australia (15%) and Japan (10%) following closely behind.20 For

the seafood sector, innovation has the potential to had value to the seafood

market by encouraging more sustainable fishing practices and developing

new products to premium markets. The Ministry of Business, Innovation

and Employment (MBIE) is a major investor in Seafood Innovations Ltd, a

research corporation promoting industry-initiated R&D projects.21

Apiculture is the last case study taken by this thesis. Another growing

industry, the New Zealand honey crop over the 2011-2012 production year

increased by 10% relative to the previous year, producing a total of 10,385

tonnes of honey.22 The Honey Marketing Authority was formed in 1955,

and was effectually New Zealand’s sole honey exporter until around 1980,

when the growth of private individuals and companies began exporting

honey and honey products.23 Income and revenue constraints mainly

come from limited access to manuka sources or a lack of crops requiring

pollination. However, world shortages of high quality honey and the

growing consumption of honey and honey products, particularly in China

and India, meant increased prices paid to beekeepers for most lines of

honey during 2012.24

Other sources of revenue from apiculture practices include pollination

services, the sales of live bees, and the marketing of pollen, propolis and

beeswax, with the major export destination for live bee shipments being

Canada.25 According to the Federated Farmers bees industry group

chairman John Hartnell, beekeepers contribute to aprroximately five billion

dollars of New Zealand’s GDP, through intensive pollination of crops and

pasture.26

Generally, despite a relatively poor honey production season in the last

year mainly due to decreased production in parts of the North Island, the

apiculture industry is forecasted to remain in a good light. Manuka honey

in particular continues to attract premium prices, with many bee products

processing and export companies either implementing their own manuka

plantations or entering into crop sharing arrangements. However, the

risk of pests and diseases such as the varroa mite remains high, and the

industry’s close relationship with the horticultural industry means a wider

base of concern – this remains a major focus of research and development

efforts.27

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73

The advantage of the agglomeration of these industries is made apparent

by a whimsical tale told by economist James Meade in 1952.28 He describes

a beekeeper who is neighbours with an apple orchardist. While making

his honey, his bees also pollinate the apple crops, providing a spill-over

benefit. Since he is paying out full production costs while not being able to

reap all the benefits, this produces an inefficient outcome – what is referred

to by economists as market failure. Usually, the solution, as pointed out

by Meade, is to have the state tax the apple growers, and then use the

revenue to subsidise the beekeepers. However, this theory was dismissed

by a second economist Steven Cheung in 1973.29 Studying orchards and

beekeepers in Washington State, he found that the apple growers and the

beekeepers regularly contracted the others’ services, thereby internalizing

what in Meade’s model necessitated government intervention.

74

Fig. 4.1. Concept sketch of industries along the Christchurch industrial corridor.

75

4 . 3   s i t e / u n s i t e : a l o n g t h e r a i l c o r r i d o r

76

Fig. 4.2. Construction of Christchurch Railway Station, Moorhouse Ave, ca. 1953.30

77

78

Fig. 4.3. On the Midland (Christchurch to Greymouth) Railway Works. This photograph shows the centre pier of the

viaduct over Staircase Gully.31

79

80

81

Fig. 4.4. Tram line construction works at the High St/Manchester St/Lichfield St intersection, 2013.

82

Fig. 4.5. Railway tracks along the Main South Rail line, Addington, 2013.

83

84

85

(Left) Fig. 4.6. A depiction of the Woolston Tannery in 1901.32

(Right) Fig. 4.7. The Woolston Tannery in 2012, before commencement of its retail

redevelopment programme.33

86

4 . 4   m e t h o d o l o g i e s

With the expansion of residential developments out from the CBD,

current agricultural practices have been pushed to the fringes of

Christchurch. Shown highlighted in red, this is a map of the current land

area within the Christchurch political boundary used for agricultural

practices. The Port Hills region has been shown in a lighter gradient due

to a decreased viability in supporting agricultural practices as a result of

soil types.

The Marshlands region in the north-east, as well as the Heathcote,

Horotane and Avoca regions in the south-east have retained prevalent

activities of horticulture and orcharding.

Fig. 4.8. Map of current land area within Christchurch used for agricultural practices.

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88

The urban proposition began with the idea to take the existing agricultural

land use as shown in Fig.4.9., and allow for a permeation and extension of

these practices from the city periphery into the central industrial corridor

whereby local distribution as well as eventual distribution out to the ports

could be achieved. In a series of mapping exercises, different soil types

were recorded alongside their corresponding suitability for the growing of

various crops. These were then correlated with industry types holding a

significance in traditional Cantabrian practices.

Because the principal industries consisted, in the context of Christchurch,

predominantly of large pastoral practices such as dairy and wool farming,

the selection of small to medium sized practices took into consideration

the potential of practices to hold an economic viability in producing high-

value produce while still retaining regional and national relevance.

4 . 4 . 1   u r b a n p r o p o s i t i o n

Fig. 4.9. Proposition showing permeation and extension of current agricultural land use.

89

AGRICULTURALLY VIABLE LAND USE / CHRISTCHURCH REGION PROPOSITION 1 _ PERMEATION / EXTENSION

MAIN

SOUTH RAIL LINE

MAIN NORTH RAIL LINE

LYTTELTON PORT

MAIN

SOUTH RAIL LINE

MAIN NORTH RAIL LIN

E

LYTTELTON PORT

90

Fig. 4.10. Deep sandy loam.

91

92

Fig. 4.11. Deep silt loam.

93

94

Fig. 4.12. Site maps and associated locations along the Christchurch industrial corridor.

95

96

97

From this exercise, the four different industry types chosen to illustrate the

proposed landscape were sited along the Main South Rail line and inserted

into the existing industrial tract:

The winery is in Wigram, on the edge of industrial development and

opposite the Canterbury Agricultural park south-east of the site. The apple

orchard is on Deans Ave., taking the site of the original Canterbury Sale

Yards in Addington, facing Hagley Park. The apiary in Waltham has been

placed adjacent to the rail line, across Ensors Rd from the CPIT Trades

Innovation Institute. The eel aquaculture farm is in Woolston, across the

Heathcote River from The Tannery, a new retail development on the site of

the historic tannery dating back to 1874 - the largest primary industry site

of its type left in Christchurch.

It is hoped that with the rail corridor linking these industries, trades will

converge within a central city farmers’ marketplace from where their

commodities can be locally traded. Rather than reflecting the typical

approach of a master plan, these small interventions are intended, in an

urban acupuncturist approach, to foster a catalytic effect on the growth of

similar industries and their associated networks.

Each architectural intervention has incorporated facilities amalgamating

both traditional and innovative practices. In siting them along the Main

South Rail line, references to the industrial typologies associated with the

architectures of the railway become in themselves a demonstration of the

merging of two very different ideals of tradition and advancement. Though

the framework of urban acupuncture could largely apply to any geographic

location where the contextual traces and layers merely shift in reference,

these sites pay particularity to the context of this corridor.

The selecting of these small to medium sized industries was performed

through consideration of those with properties of being either inherent to

Christchurch or at the very least to the national landscape. Each industry

is also in a position of growing economic viability, pushing the potentiality

of high value product from each trade. Seeking to promote urban and

economic revitalization, this approach focuses on placing Christchurch’s

unique cultural assets on the map of economic advantage. Their site and

opportunities for interaction between themselves and with their associated

industries highlights the strength that the agglomeration of such businesses

is afforded. Each industry engages amongst themselves in a dynamic,

serendipitous landscape of self-reinforcing supportive networks, such as

in the opportunities of the bee-keepers at the apiary to lease their hives to

the apple orchardists, who in turn share their grafting knowledge with the

winemakers.

The values of process, dynamism, ambiguity and serendipity are all

qualities that have been exhibited in various guises. Like Henri Lefebvre’s

arguments for defining space as social constructions and the processes

of its production,34 or Robert Venturi’s manifesto for messy vitality over

obvious unity,35 Nan Ellin’s theories of integral urbanism advocates for

vulnerability.36 This implies an approach that is context-based and self-

reflective rather than object-centred, allowing equal value to both subjective

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99

as well as scientific knowledge, and qualitative as well as quantitative

methods. The strategy of this integral landscape is in support of various

literatures which have attempted the quest of seeking a city’s “authenticity”.

Ellin proposes that this existential question cannot be given a singular

answer. She takes precedence from The Velveteen Rabbit, a story which,

although aimed at children, addresses just such this question. In this story

of two toys in a nursery, the Rabbit asks the Skin Horse how a toy became

real, whereby the Skin Horse replies:

“It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who

break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved

off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very

shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real

you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”37

Like the Skin Horse, a city becomes and stays real through ongoing and

accumulated meaningful connections, rather than through cosmetic

fixes or demolishing and rebuilding large swaths of the existing urban

fabric. By means of emphasizing relationships rather than objects, and

complementarity rather than opposition, these approaches and the

landscapes they create become a generation of process rather than product.

In Calvino’s city of Thekla,38 one of the cities of the sky described by

Marco Polo to Kublai Khan, the scaffoldings, the metal armatures, and the

wooden planks all symbolise a continued construction of a landscape such

that destruction cannot begin. Knowing that more than just the physicality

of the buildings are at stake should the city crumble, the inhabitants never

cease their work. Eventually the traveller understands that the blueprints

they follow are not fixed, but rather are reflected by the constellations of

the stars. This city, as with Christchurch, or indeed as with any city, can be

seen as being constantly in a cycle of renewal.

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101

1. Christchurch Central Development Unit, Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, 73.

2. Ibid.

3. Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Economic Recovery Programme for Greater Christchurch Te

Whakaara Tahua: A Foundation for Economic Recovery and Growth in Greater Christchurch, 30.

4. “Gross Domestic Product: March 2013 Quarter.”

5. Ibid.

6. Haryowiseno, Future Christchurch: Innovation Economy, 25.

7. Research and Development in New Zealand: 2012 (Statistics New Zealand, 2013)., 33-34.

8. NZ Winegrowers Annual Report 2013 (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2013)., 10-12.

9. Ibid., 21.

10. Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries 2013 (Ministry for Primary Industries, 2013)., 34.

11. Ibid., 25.

12. Ibid., 41.

13. Ibid., 34.

14. “About ENZA.” www.enza.co.nz (accessed September 2, 2013).

15. “Tuna Aquaculture - New Zealand.” http://www.niwa.co.nz (accessed June 15, 2013).

16. Ibid.

17. “Eels are Making A Mint.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/7816686/Eels-are-making-a-mint

(accessed September 9, 2013).

18. Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries 2013, 49.

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid., 48.

21. Ibid., 52.

22. Apiculture Report 2012 (Ministry for Primary Industries, 2012)., 1.

23. “Story: Beekeeping.” http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/beekeeping/page-7 (accessed August 15, 2013).

24. Apiculture Report 2012, 3.

25. Ibid., 5.

26. “Bees’ Immunity Weakened by Varroa Mite.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/cropping/8769272/

Bees-immunity-weakened-by-varroa-mite (accessed July 15, 2013).

27. Apiculture Report 2012, 9.

28. “Of Honey Bees and Apple Orchards.” http://www.the-idea-shop.com/article/18/of-honey-bees-and-

apple-orchards (accessed July 29, 2013).

29. Ibid.

30. “Construction of Christchurch Railway Station, Moorhouse Ave.” http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/

E n d n o t e s .

(accessed June 17, 2013).

31. “On the Midland Railway Works.” http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/ (accessed June 17, 2013).

32. “The Tannery of the Past.” http://thetannery.co.nz/about-us/the-tannery-of-the-past/ (accessed August

5, 2013).

33. “Christchurch’s New ‘Historic’ Boutique Shopping Emporium nearly Full.” http://thetannery.co.nz/the-

tannery/christchurchs-new-historic-boutique-shopping-emporium-nearly-full/ (accessed August 5, 2013).

34. Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1991)., 26.

35. Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiciton in Architecture (New York: Museum of Modern Art,

2011)., 22.

36. Ellin, Integral Urbanism, 119.

37. Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit (New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2011)., 12-13.

38. Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974)., 127.

5 . 0   a r c h i t e c t u r a l s t r a t e g y

104

Fig. 5.1. Plates: Winding Towers, Bernd and Hilla Becher, 1967.1

105

5 . 1   a n i n d u s t r i a l t y p o l o g y

Visual methodologies in recording landscapes have often taken many

different approaches to representation. However, artists’ depictions of

industrial landscapes are not always valued for their romanticism, or as

an appropriate expression of an idealistic aesthetic. Most were rendered

as grim scenes of giant machines symbolising toil and labour, instead of

the promise of lucrative opportunity and a flourishing economy. Still, the

brutalist technicality of these buildings down through the centuries has

nevertheless defined the face of cities and the countryside in its day.

Bernd and Hilla Becher, a collaborative German duo best recognised for

their extensive photographic series of industrial typologies, views the

formal repertoire of industrial architecture as playing a decisive role in

shaping domains of cultural heritage. Their photographic plates displayed

buildings and equipment presenting the qualities of both functional

orientation and site definition. Seen as an inquiry into ambiguous

landscapes, the Bechers’ solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in

1969 summarises a particular alien quality of industry. In the words of

Karl Ruhrberg, the curator of the exhibition and author of various works on

contemporary art, “these are entities that rise up from their surroundings

like anonymous sculptures or anonymous structures, that define their

environment’s appearance and have become like a second form of nature:

organs of technical existence… [Bernd and Hilla Becher] were thinking

neither about aesthetics nor solely about function, but about the aim they

were serving.”2

The Bechers’ work, when reflected against these ideas of anonymity, pursues

a maxim of representing things as they are. Their reproduction of basic

and typical traits thus intends to portray those objects’ narrative qualities as

lying within the objects themselves, as long as they are given an opportunity

to speak in a manner appropriate to them. This field of preservation of

industrialized form arose from England in the 1950s, where conservational

efforts meant the listing of worthy buildings.3 The effects of globalisation,

deindustrialisation, industrial relocation and economic reconversion over

the past decades have had profound effects on traditional industrial areas,

producing obsolete industrial facilities and the various impacts generated

from them. Where possible, these buildings were imbued with another

function, while its original substance and elements of form remained

unaltered.

In such a manner, the Woolston tannery buildings adjacent to the Main

South rail line in Christchurch were refurbished into The Tannery, a mixed

retail complex which now holds over 50 businesses. While its function has

ultimately been repurposed, the preservation of the formal representation

of its industrial typology has allowed the site to be recognised as a

106

107

significant allusion to Christchurch’s industrial development. The rail

corridor here begins to bear relevance to the significance of site for each

of the architectural insertions. Pragmatically, there is the advantage of

accessibility, allowing the distribution of goods and the creation of cohesive

network linkages. As a symbolic means of referencing historical narratives

through an anonymity of form, the design aesthetic applied here endeavours

to allow industrial typologies to complement agrarian typologies, in a

landscape where they must learn to coexist.

(Left) Fig. 5.2. Plates: Gravel Plants, Bernd and Hilla Becher.4

108

109

(Left) Fig. 5.3. Post-earthquake landcape of reconstruction, Christchurch CBD, 2013.

(Right) Fig. 5.4. Crane, Christchurch reconstruction, 2013.

110

5 . 2   e l e m e n t a l s k e t c h e s

site.

Pre-disturbance: it is a site representative of the in-between, reposing

amongst the natural and the manufactured. The current condition of place

is at once separate from the urban, as much as it is in a state of coexistence.

Post-disturbance: this sense of place is shifted through the imposition of

ideological circumstance, oppositional to the condition of disturbance.

The coexistence of elements derives an incremental integration.

object.

Elements are incremental in nature and derive a landscape of integrated

parts.

(Right) Fig. 5.5. From the sketchbook pages: shifting landscapes.

112

These sketches narrate an architectural conjecture of preservation and

transition, of significance and manipulation.

(Right) Fig. 5.6. From the sketchbook pages: conditions of sky and ground.

113

114

The manipulation of the object embodies multiple stages of interpretation

– this becomes an exploration into the resilient qualities of that object and

how alterable they are while maintaining the essence of their being.

(Right) Fig. 5.7. From the sketchbook pages: reposing.

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116

This investigation of resilient traces becomes integral to the design process,

and is used to establish a new normality grown from a pre-existing state.

It is a study of elements, of themselves and within a whole, which together

constructs a new urban landscape of traditional and hybridised narratives.

(Right) Fig. 5.8. From the sketchbook pages: transition – cyclic states.

117

118

119

5 . 3   t h e w i n e r y

120

121

122

Fig. 5.9. The winery site.

123

124

Fig. 5.10. Winery, exterior render.

125

126

For each industry, a traditional calendar was created of annual activity,

and this was hybridised with a secondary calendar which was aligned with

opportunities for innovation. In the traditional wine calendar, harvest

typically begins in February, after optimum levels of sugar and acidity have

been reached. The growers harvest by hand, and the day begins before

dawn. Then comes the sorting, crushing and pressing before the must of

the grapes is fermented. This is done along with their skins for the making

of reds such as Pinot Noir, for the next three weeks. Wines are blended,

filtered and barrelled or bottled for ageing over the next 24-48 months.

Opportunities for collaboration align with the height of the harvest season,

where facilities can cater for educational programs running at the Centre for

Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University. In the research lab of the

winery complex, experimentation occurs with the research of disease and

pest control systems, irrigation technology, and the adjustment of blends of

different grape varieties. The vineyard and vine library are stocked through

collaboration with contracted grape growers around the region.

On site, the two hectares of vineyard is dedicated to different vine varieties.

These varieties provide prospects for advancing the markets of reds and

blends. As for the other industries, the facilities providing for traditional

practices are oriented towards the sun’s position during their associated

harvest period, as a response towards acknowledging their distinctive

practices. As the programming for the research and development units

of the complexes remain the same for each industry, they maintain a

consistent north-south orientation on each site.(Right) Fig. 5.11. View from the winery.

127

128

129

5 . 4   t h e a p p l e o r c h a r d

130

131

132

Fig. 5.12. Hagley Park, opposite the orchard.

133

134

Fig. 5.13. Apple orchard, exterior render.

135

136

At the apple orchard, fruiting begins when summer is underway and flower

clusters begin to be replaced by young apples. The orchardist must engage

in some light summer pruning to thin new growth and maintain tree

shape, before the harvest season begins in mid February. Although these

seasons will shift slightly for different apple varieties, this calendar focuses

on the year of the Royal Gala, as this is one of the major New Zealand

apple exports. It is also extensively used in the development of new apple

varieties such as the Jazz.

This orchard, on the site of the old Canterbury Sale Yard, pays tribute

to William and John Deans, who became the earliest European settlers

in Canterbury. Again, a two hectare orchard site provides for grafting

opportunities for cross-hybridising different apple varieties.

(Right) Fig. 5.14. The proposed apple orchards sit on the site of the old Canterbury sale yards.5

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139

5 . 5   t h e a p i a r y

140

141

142

Fig. 5.15. View from the apiary.

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Fig. 5.16. Apiary, exterior render.

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146

In the annual beekeeper’s calendar, harvesting of honey typically occurs

during the summer. Smoke is pumped into the hive to calm the bees,

and the frames are uncapped and placed in the warm room, awaiting

honey extraction. Propolis and royal jelly are also extracted during this

time. As for the winery, seasonal tastings are held in the tasting room to

allow local consumers the opportunity to try the different properties of the

local flora. During times of nectar gathering by the bees from the early

spring to just prior to harvest, the beekeepers engage in a leasing of hives

and collaboration with growers such as our apple orchardist – increasing

productivity for all farmers involved in the trade.

On site, the planting of manuka crops adjacent to the complex will

eventually also mean a gradual gradation from multi-floral into manuka

honey production. This will provide opportunities for off-shoot products

such as the marketing of the UMF or anti-bacterial properties of manuka,

and royal jelly. The neighbouring CPIT Trades Innovation Institute is the

main vocational provider in Christchurch, who also work in collaboration

with the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University.

(Right) Fig. 5.17. The route of the Main South Rail line, adjacent to the apiary.

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149

5 . 6   t h e e e l f a r m

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151

152

Fig. 5.18. The first bend downriver of the Heathcote, on the Woolston Loop.6

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Fig. 5.19. Eel aquaculture farm, exterior render.

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156

At the eel aquaculture farm, glass eel collection season begins in the

darkening hours of the evening from December to June. They are given

a salt water dip to remove any ectoparasites before being weaned and

matured in the series of outdoor maturation ponds.

To help stabilise the population of Ngai Tahu’s treasured longfin eels,

considered taonga, this processing facility serves both a commercial and

a research role. Those caught by the fyke nets at the fishing bridge are

either tagged by researchers, bred for the development of eel aquaculture,

or dried and smoked for sales at the central market. The practices of eel

farming were not uncommon among Maori. Studying the eels’ life cycles,

habitat and migration patterns allowed them to sustainably use the rivers as

a food resource.7 Eeling would occur according to different environmental

indicators such as lunar cycles, and the caught eels were preserved by line

drying or smoking.8

These facilities have been sited in Ferrymead on the banks of the Heathcote

River. The spawning grounds of New Zealand’s native eels are believed

to lie in the deep ocean trenches near Tonga; once the eggs hatch, the

larvae ride the oceanic currents back to New Zealand, where they turn into

glass eels.9 The glass eels are carried by the tides and currents into coastal

estuaries where they undergo further development into elvers, before

maturing into adult eels.10

(Right) Fig. 5.20. On the Heathcote River from Cumnor Terrace, near the eel farm.11

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159

5 . 7   t h e u r b a n m a r k e t

160

(Right) Fig. 5.21. View from the central farmers’ trading market, High Street.

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5 . 8   t h e i n d u s t r i a l c o r r i d o r : e l e v a t i o n s

(Overleaf) Fig. 5.22. Elevations of proposed industries along the Main South Rail Line, Christchurch industrial corridor.

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165

166

167

1. Armin Zweite, Bernd and Hilla Becher: Typologies (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004)., 44.

2. Susanne Lange, Bernd and Hilla Becher: Life and Work (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007)., 28.

3. Ibid., 29.

4. Zweite, Bernd and Hilla Becher: Typologies, 74.

5. “Addington Saleyards.” made available under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://commons.

wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Addington_Saleyards_01.jpg (accessed August 26, 2013).

6. Mark JS Esslemont, “Heathcote River, First Bend Downriver on Woolston Loop,” http://wozamark.

blogspot.co.nz/ (accessed August 26, 2013).

7. Joseph Potangaroa, Tuna Kuwharuwharu: The Longfin Eel (The Department of Conservation, 2010)., 10.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid., 8.

10. Ibid.

11. Mark JS Esslemont, “Another Heathcote River Bend,” http://wozamark.blogspot.co.nz/ (accessed August

26, 2013).

E n d n o t e s .

6 . 0   r e f l e c t i o n s

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171

The constructed landscape of this thesis suggests a representation of a

city which understands that societies are greater than the sum of their

technological competencies. In the midst of a high-tech, fast-changing

world, a sensitivity towards the ineffable and unquantifiable values of a

home-grown society must be recognised.

This thesis was written with the intention of offering a cohesion of industry,

architecture and collective social integration, operating upon self-reinforcing

cycles of trade and communication. Given the context of Christchurch,

it is hoped to lend consideration towards an acknowledgement of the

elements constituting a resilient landscape supported by innovation.

The process of exploration into the multiple layers of references which

inform the current industrial landscape has led to an exploration of

specificities. In the endeavour to express such a breadth of associations and

allusions that remain in a multiplicity of states, the formal design proposal

reflects, at certain scales, a transcendence of site. However, this is not to be

confused with a transcendence of context. Each architectural proposition

was given a measure of regard towards its relationship with its placement

within the history of Christchurch.

This applied framework had the intention of fitting within the processes

of urban acupuncture as an illustration of integral urbanism. By refuting

the notions of a master plan, geographic location unassertively plays the

part of an instance, a means by which the constructed landscape can be

realised. Although these integrations could invariably be layered onto any

landscape if applied from perspectives of other regional industries, the

perspective in the bearing of this thesis was taken from the inquiry of the

rail corridor, as a symbolisation of industrial development and network

linkages. It is in their collective expression that the proposition begins to

exact the social, cultural and historical aspects of the city. Therefore it is as

a collective that the land is given form and begins to become an affirmation

of resilience. While the resulting aesthetic representation of form seems

laid bare and unassuming, the reification of such values referred to by this

thesis consequently defines the design as a thought process.

The design methodology follows this progression. The wine, apple, honey

and aquaculture industries are all in a position of economic growth, and all

belong solidly to national cultures of significance. The ensuing mapping

of soil types and site considerations were primarily an exercise in logistics,

and became a necessary prelude to the drawings and calendars created for

each trade. Meanwhile, materiality and aesthetics were considered from

the standpoint of instantly recognisable industrial typologies that could

inform the constructed landscape. Drifting in and out of specificities, a

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173

certain disengagement was kept from a full resolution of architectures.

This development of the design methodology can be attributed to the

interrogation of what was eventually emphasised – although composed of

singular entities, the design itself is read as a narrative of parts that make

up an integrated whole. The outcome of this has been a variability of

articulation in the architecture, and this has contributed to a development

of personal practice and design representation.

Walter Benjamin described Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus” with the following

words:

“This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward

the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single

catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it

in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead,

and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from

Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the

angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into

the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before

him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”1

Benjamin’s words embody a perspective bound in a temporal state of in-

between, in an analogous manner to which this thesis has addressed the

landscape of Christchurch’s reconstruction. The attempt to bridge the

disconnect between a city of progression and a city of historical integrity

has produced elements that contend to very concrete principles, and

elements that begin to substantiate more abstract realms.

It is this navigation of temporal states that becomes the architectural

composition – an interweaving of history, industry and their layers of

significance to reflect a resilience of a city and those within it. There are

many people still hanging on to Christchurch’s Gothic “Garden City” mix.

Then there are another group of people who believe that with time, new

memories can be created from contemporary buildings. Whatever is rebuilt,

Christchurch needs to be a city that is grounded in the environment. This

is what will provide traces back to its inherent identity, allow people a form

of psychological ownership to the evolution of the city and facilitate the

transition into a new Christchurch that people can still call Christchurch.

174

175

Figure 6.1. Final exhibition pin up, 29 October 2013.

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177

“Those who arrive at Thekla can see little of the city, beyond the plank

fences, the sackcloth screens, the scaffolding, the metal armatures, the

wooden catwalks hanging from ropes or supported by saw-horses, the

ladders, the trestles. If you ask, ‘Why is Thekla’s construction taking

such a long time?’ the inhabitants continue hoisting sacks, lowering

leaded strings, moving long brushes up and down, as they answer, ‘So

that its destruction cannot begin.’ And if asked whether they fear that,

once the scaffolding is removed, the city may begin to crumble and fall

to pieces, they add hastily, in a whisper, ‘Not only the city.’

If, dissatisfied with the answer, someone puts his eye to a crack in the

fence, he sees cranes pulling up other cranes, scaffolding that embraces

other scaffolding, beams that prop up other beams. ‘What meaning

does your construction have?’ he asks. ‘What is the aim of a city under

construction unless it is a city? Where is the plan you are following,

the blueprint?’

‘We will show it to you as soon as the working day is over; we cannot

interrupt our work now,’ they answer.

Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is

filled with stars. ‘There is the blueprint,’ they say.”2

178

179

1. Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt and Harry Zohn, Illuminations (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World,

1968)., 249.

2. Calvino, Invisible Cities, 127.

E n d n o t e s .

b i b l i o g r a p h y

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A p p e n d i x A : c o m p a r a t i v e s t a t i s t i c s o n G D P & c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o R & D

188

Figure 7.1. Gross domestic product by industry.1

189

Figure 7.2. Agriculture, forestry and fishing activity.2

190

Figure 7.3. Gross domestic product by production group.3

191

Figure 7.4. Gross agricultural production.4

192

Figure 7.5. Gross expenditure on research and development.5

193

Figure 7.6. Research and development expenditure by industry.6

194

Figure 7.7. Research and development expenditure as a proportion of GDP in OECD countires.7

195

1. Statistics New Zealand, “Gross Domestic Product: March 2013 Quarter,” http://www.stats.govt.nz

(accessed March 22, 2013), 3.

2. Ibid., 5.

3. Statistics New Zealand, New Zealand Economic and Financial Overview 2013, 14.

4. Ibid., 17.

5. Research and Development in New Zealand: 2012, 11.

6. Ibid., 12.

7. Ibid., 33.

E n d n o t e s .

A p p e n d i x B : c o m p a r a t i v e s t a t i s t i c s r e l a t i n g t o k e y i n d u s t r i e s

198

Figure 8.1. Excerpt from the NZ Winegrowers Annual Report.1

199

Figure 8.2. Wines by export value.2

200

Figure 8.3. Statistical summary of New Zealand wine .3

201

Figure 8.4. Apple and pear export volumes.4

202 Figure 8.5. Horticultural exports, markets and revenues.5

203Figure 8.6. Seafood exports, markets and revenues.6

204

Figure 8.7. Seafood export volumes, prices and values.7

205

Figure 8.8. Honey export volumes, prices and values.8

206

Figure 8.9. Returns for apiculture products.9

207

1. NZ Winegrowers Annual Report 2013, 1,21.

2. Ibid., 4.

3. Ibid., 22.

4. Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries 2013, 41.

5. Ibid., 34.

6. Ibid., 48.

7. Ibid., 49.

8. Apiculture Report 2012, 4.

9. Ibid., 5.

E n d n o t e s .

In the aftermath of the devastating succession of earthquakes in Christchurch in 2010 and 2011, a new landscape can

be proposed in light of the city’s reconstruction. This landscape seeks to integrate the seemingly opposing impulses

of creating innovation and fostering a resilience born from the city’s own inherent qualities. The recognition of

perspectives from local cultures highlights the agrarian roots of Christchurch – but while New Zealand has a world

class reputation built on the production of high quality primary produce, its agricultural sector is an industry of

intensive labour in relation to production output. Nevertheless, agriculture remains fundamental to Christchurch’s

economy; and with a history so deeply rooted in New Zealand traditions, opportunities for an i¬¬¬ncorporation

of an innovation culture with the primary sector will be key to developing resilience when considering its role in

Christchurch’s economic future.

With a relatively low level of support for long term investment in Research and Development (R&D) and a lack of

cross-scale linkages being a significant barrier towards cultivating this innovation, this thesis focuses on constructing

a platform for synergetic dialogues between industries and institutions. In illustration of this proposition, a collection

of small, local industries more reflective of Christchurch’s cultures are interwoven into landscape synonymous to the

ideals of resilience and innovation in a reconstructed city.