Postcard from Christchurch..

...Community Challenge: Your Local Architecture

It was such a lovely day I took a walk around the city to catch up with the rebuild.

This car-parking building in Plymouth Lane has just opened. There was a car parking building in the same spot, but was damaged in the 2010 Christchurch earthquakes. 

The eight-storey building also offers space and lockers for up to 96 bicycles, 24 disability access parks, and 10 electric vehicle charging bays. The building is wired so almost all of the parks can be converted to electric charging spaces if needed and there are plans to base a fleet of 30 Yoogo shared-use electric vehicles in the building.

Seven retail spaces have also been created and face onto the revamped Plymouth Lane, one side of which has been painted with a large mural by street artist Flox. A time capsule filled by children from a local school has been placed in the lane. 

The building was made using about 11,000 tonnes of concrete and 980 tonnes of steel, and includes its own power substation. More than 40 kilometres of electric cable were installed.

There is also a separate water tank attached to the sprinkler system, which means it can respond to fire even if there is no water available from the mains.

Because of our devastating earthquakes in Christchurch well over 70% of the CBD had to be rebuilt again. It is going to take many years to rebuild and once finished it will be a very safest city to be if there is another big earthquake.

If you would like to read more about this new car-parking building here is a link.