UTS ISD
Christchurch Studio
Brief one
The first brief was an individual project to redesign the Worcester Bridge. This bridge was the site of the first encounter between the Maori people and Europeans. The location is an enterance to what was the CBD prior the earthquake. The axis is punctuated by the museum on one end and the Cathederal on the other.
This new bridge is conceptualized as a performative space, ie the bridge as a space of interaction. This allowed us to understand the site, the city and the culture as much as possible from a distance. We examined physical grid. Should the bridge break the grid, or enforce it? We developed an intermate relationship with Christchurch via Google maps.
Grace has played with the idea of the grid of Christchurch and the need for community in the face of disaster to design a beehive bridge. It is constructed from reused timbers salvaged from destroyed buildings. The beehive is the place of life. The Beehive Bridge frames the city. It has cells where people can stop, dwell, and enjoy the city through the frames.
Jesue's Repair Rubble (Repairable) Bridge uses the bridge as a stage, the river as a stage and the city as a stage. It utilises social media to collect the building blocks of public art from around the city to build a raft and negotiate the space in order to cross the river. The bridge is a game with defined rules and the need for people to work together to cross the river.
Kate's Proximo Bridge (New Histories from Below) is a breaking of Christchurch's grid. It seeps onto the bank. There are preformed, unformed monuments creating a trace line along the axis between Cathedral Square and the museum, with the bridge at the centre. There are constantly changing, recorded, ordinary histories played at the monuments. These whispered histories change the path of the micro-narrative. The bridge is circular; a flow of histories, a flow of people, a flow as a path.
Grace has played with the idea of the grid of Christchurch and the need for community in the face of disaster to design a beehive bridge. It is constructed from reused timbers salvaged from destroyed buildings. The beehive is the place of life. The Beehive Bridge frames the city. It has cells where people can stop, dwell, and enjoy the city through the frames.
