{"id":2642,"date":"2013-03-03T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=2642"},"modified":"2015-06-01T14:58:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T18:58:14","slug":"temporary-natures-potential-for-resilience-and-liveability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2013\/03\/03\/temporary-natures-potential-for-resilience-and-liveability\/","title":{"rendered":"Temporary Nature\u2019s Potential for Resilience and Liveability"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last blog<\/a> I introduced to you the earthquakes<\/a> that devastated Christchurch city beginning back in September 2010. I had been wondering about what I might share with you in my next blog and when I was driving thru the city the other day and spotted a field of wildflowers on a demolition site it occurred to me! Over 2 years on and more than 50% of the commercial buildings have been demolished in the Central Business District, the re-build is beginning and will accelerate from now onwards for the next 10 to 15 years.\u00a0 The demolitions have created thousands of tons of rubble and have left vacant spaces everywhere! Lots of room for carparks now\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n

\"Map
Map<\/a> of central Christchurch, December 2012.\u00a0 You can see from the photo below the central city with the many open spaces where buildings have been demolished. Note also the Avon River (in green) which snakes through the middle, a zone of severe liquefaction during the earthquakes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It will be clear from the above photo that the centre of Christchurch city now resembles something akin to what we see in many \u201cshrinking\u201d cities<\/a> in the USA and Europe. With a difference, of course \u2014 it is only temporary. But also similar in that there are many, many open spaces (vacant lots). So what I want to tell you about is a real \u201cnature in the city\u201d project that exemplifies both resilience and liveability and what is so great about people, places and nature. Mary Rowe in her latest blog<\/a> on the Nature of cities site states it very well in my view:<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasingly in the imaginative, innovative pockets of city-building there is a recognition that small, seemingly modest local initiatives aggregate up into a whole that makes a city not only more liveable<\/i><\/span>, but are also critical contributors to a city\u2019s resilience<\/span>.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\"GreeningtheRubble\"Kiwi\u2019s (people from New Zealand \u2014 named after the iconic flightless bird) are renowned for their \u201cwill do\u201d attitude of rolling up their shirt sleeves and getting stuck in. This project is no exception. Way back, and in amongst all the destruction and rubble and not long after the first earthquakes happened, a group of volunteers decided to bring nature back, albeit temporarily. \u201cGreening the Rubble<\/a>\u201d was born\u00a0and is now an established trust. It is a community project which unites a team of volunteers responding creatively to the extensive damage caused by the earthquakes. The reason Greening the rubble was activated so quickly after the earthquakes was because a number of people were already convinced the city was due for some remedial greening.<\/p>\n

Greening the Rubble <\/a>seeks to bring more biodiversity into the city and it is this urban ecology philosophy that has characterised Greening the Rubble work since its beginning To that extent, it is an experiment in urban ecology that uses private land as an outdoor laboratory. Greening the Rubble volunteers are creating temporary \u201cpocket\u201d parks and gardens on demolition sites, usually in commercial rather than residential streets. License agreements are made with site owners, modest financial support from these owners and extensive sponsorship of the construction materials and design process, make it possible for volunteer teams to build and maintain these parks. These sites are in public use only temporarily, until owners are ready to redevelop \u2014 which might be from six months to a few years later. A partner organisation called Gap Filler<\/a>\u00a0uses these and similar sites as venues for arts events, performances and installations of usually shorter duration, days or weeks.<\/p>\n

The following has been extracted and edited from the Greening the Rubble website<\/a>.\u00a0Key contributors to Greening the Rubble include the site owners and:<\/p>\n