NZ WOOD WINS supreme award in 48 Hour Christchurch Rebuild design competition

Jul
5

Last Friday over a hundred architects, designers, engineers and students gathered together in Christchurch to compete in the 48 Hour Design Challenge. Their brief? Redesign a red-zone area within central Christchurch.

Five damaged sites were chosen for the 48 hour challenge, and they were allocated to teams to re-design. The aim of the competition was to bring together fresh ideas to help regenerate the city.

The NZ Wood team consisted of:

Jason Guiver (director of the NZ Wood Timber Design Advisory Centre);
Jasper van der Lingen (Sheppard + Rout Architects Ltd. – Architect);
Dr Jackie Bowring (Lincoln University – Urban Design);
Chris Speed (Dunning Thornton – Design Engineer);
Paul King (Architecture Prime – Architect);
Di Lucas (Lucas Associates – Landscape Architects);
Ben Carter (Engineering Student University of Canterbury);

Jason and Chris were the only two team members not living in Christchurch.

The NZ Wood team were given the 15000m² Orion site, situated near the Avon River in central Christchurch. Two heritage buildings and a multi-storey concrete car park on the site were to remain. All other buildings needed to be demolished.

The team needed to recreate office space for Orion and ‘create greater permeability’ of the site to allow pedestrian access through the site, rather than around it.

Their winning concept included retail and office space, affordable housing, a covered market and community rooms. They also opened up 8000m² space for people to enjoy, including a path through to Latimer Square and the river.

The team re-used the existing concrete car park by turning it into an office building and affordable housing. They then created two new buildings using ‘damage avoidance technology’ similar to that seen in the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) Art and Media building.

A new 30 meter round building was created in the central area use for the community rooms and open market space.

The team’s over-arching aim was to create an area that was more vibrant to live and work in.

More coverage on the competition can be found here:
3 News video clip here; 48 Hour Design Challenge – Presentations from competition; A peek into the future – Christchurch rebuild.
You can reach Jason of NZ Wood Design on jason@nzwood.co.nz or through www.nzwooddesign.co.nz