THE PRESS, Saturday & Sunday, February 22 - 23, 2014 Mainlander editor: Ewan Sargent C1

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C2 Saturday, February 22, 2014 THE PRESS, Christchurch
Whether youre stopping for a coee
at the historic Curators House, taking
the kids to the Botanic Gardens
Paddling Pool for a dip or enjoying one
of the citys new temporary libraries,
these facilities have been restored as
part of the Councils Facilities Rebuild
Programme.
In 2014, were looking forward to
construction beginning on new
community centres, pools and
libraries. Well also be ramping up our
repair programme.
Rebuilding
our
communities
Doing what needs to get done
Three years on,
Christchurch City
Council has repaired
and re-opened many
facilities that matter
to Christchurch and
Banks Peninsula
residents.
For more information
on the Facilities Rebuild
Programme visit:
futurechristchurch.co.nz
Tony Smith
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SPORT, 2031
Changing guard
T
he All Blacks have crashed
out of the global world
championships playoffs
after a shock loss to
Argentina at Ballantynes-
Ngai Tahu Stadiumin
Christchurch.
The Pumas beat the five-time
Rugby World Cup winners 31-29 in
golden point extra-time for an
historic first victory over New
Zealand.
Argentinas ambassador to New
Zealand watching while sharing
a steak dinner with Governor-
General Gerry Brownlee hailed
the upset as his countrys greatest
sporting result of the 21st century.
Argentina scored five tries and
three conversions to one try and
eight penalties by the All Blacks,
who abandoned their usual
expansive game to play 10-man
rugby.
The All Blacks needed to beat
Argentina by a four-try bonus
point margin and rely on the
winless Wallabies to upset the
ladder-leading Springboks,
coached by Robbie Deans, 71, for
the NewZealanders to win the
southern hemisphere leg of the
world championships league and
qualify for the March 15 global
grand final in Dubai against the
winner of Europes Six Nations
championships.
Immediately after the final
whistle, All Blacks head coach
Steve Hansen the first coach to
win four World Cup gold medals
announced he was ending his
19-year reign to give the teamnine
months to prepare for the next
World Cup tournament in India.
Hansen, 72 in May, said it was
time he gave long-time assistant
Ian Foster a crack at the top job
before he qualifies for his gold
card.
Ill miss the boys; they call me
grandpa, Hansen said,a tear
streaking his ruddy, chubby
cheek.
Meanwhile, NewZealand
Rugby Union chief executive Sir
Richard McCawsaid the
13,339-turnout in the 45,000-seat
stadiumwas disappointing. We
had a full house, but most people
left before kickoff after Sonny Bill
Williams pre-match boxing bout.
But at least they sawold Sonny
(aged 45) win the world
heavyweight geriatric
championship.
Sir Richard said the walk-up
crowd were probably saving their
money for tomorrows first home
game of the 2031 season by the Te
Wai Pounamu Taniwha, the three-
time National Rugby League
champions. And the Southern
Mustangs play here in the
A-League playoffs on Monday
night; so 13,339 isnt a bad crowd
really; its not like rugbys our
national sport.
After the ood
Sarah-Jane OConnor
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Plant Science Park: Woo-Min Lee proposed a Plant Science Park in the Green
Frame where the research facility is a park and the park is the research facility.
CLIMATE CHANGE
E
ast Christchurch residents
inundated with floodwaters
last year are once again
battling with insurers to replace
belongings and repair their
waterlogged homes.
Residents around the mouth of
the Avon woke up the day after
Boxing Day to find water rapidly
encroaching on their homes. The
king tide, which arrived at 7amon
Friday, December 27, brought with
it devastation to homes still
clinging on to the banks of the
Avon River.
The December floods have
renewed calls to remediate
earthquake-damaged land and
push ahead with raising floor
levels in line with the
Christchurch City Councils Flood
Management Plan.
Land around the western edge
of the estuary sank by about 10
centimetres after the 2010 and 2011
earthquakes. Much of the land
around the area was deemed
uninhabitable by the government
and subsequently red-zoned. The
sunken land makes the area more
vulnerable to flooding, and with
human-induced climate change
raising the sea level, experts say
events such as the December 27
king tide flood will become more
frequent and intense.
Sea levels have risen by about
10 centimetres in the past two
decades, with predictions that by
the end of the century the total
increase will be about one metre
above 1990s levels. Climate
scientists have warned that king
tide floods are only the first sign of
sea level rises, with more flooding
of low-lying areas predicted.
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UUUU With contribution fromDr Rob Bell,
Niwa
Stars return for Godot
Philip Matthews
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TOWN HALL, 2031
V
eteran British theatre actors
Ian McKellen and Patrick
Stewart have returned to
Christchurch for another sold-out
season of Waiting for Godot.
Interviewed before the opening
night performance, McKellen, 91,
said Christchurch audiences had
embraced his interpretation of the
Samuel Beckett play about waiting
ages and ages for something to
happen.
There may be an element of
nostalgia for the days before the
earthquake in the overwhelming
audience responses, but I think
Cantabrians also get Becketts
message about futility, McKellen
said.
People come again and again,
bringing all the family.
McKellen and Stewart, 90, had
hoped to performtheir fourth
Christchurch season of Waiting for
Godot at the Isaac Theatre Royal,
but that theatre was already
booked for next weeks world
premiere of the seventh filmin
Peter Jacksons Silmarillion
franchise.
The theatre was also belowthe
capacity required for audience
demand, McKellen said.
Ultimately, the Christchurch
Town Hall was the only venue that
really suited, he said.
We needed all 2500 seats in the
auditorium.
I remember that there were
suggestions that the Christchurch
Town Hall be demolished after the
2011 earthquake.
Thank goodness that didnt
happen.
He said the prestigious
International Modernist
Masterpieces Award given to the
Christchurch City Council in 2019
for its sensitive and thorough
repair and renovation of the Town
Hall, guided by original architect
Sir Miles Warren, showed that it
was on the right track.
Can you believe that the
government of the day wanted to
bowl the Town Hall and steer the
council towards paying for some
sort of performing arts precinct
instead? McKellen said.
Imagine if Christchurch had
lost this incredible building. It
really is the citys living room.
We love Christchurch,
McKellen added.
Coming back to this incredible
city is one of the things that keeps
me and Patrick young.
Sounds of silence
Ewan Sargent
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ARTS PRECINCT, 2031
S
tanding in the deserted Town
Hall car park last night you
could catch snatches of music
drifting over fromAddington
when the wind shifted.
Ageing boy band One Direction
was belting out the back catalogue
to its middle-aged mumfans.
Those snatches aside, it was a
lovely Christchurch night. And if
you wanted peace and quiet, this
was the place to be. You knowthe
old joke Christchurch CBD
Centre Bit of Doughnut. But is it
right that we can happily meditate
in the middle of the countrys
second-biggest city on a Saturday
night?
Looking across the vast empty
grassy lawns and gardens
spreading out fromthe river and
towards the cathedral, the lonely
Theatre Royal sat pale in the
moonlight. It was also deserted
another casualty of the big crowds
that Specialised Cranes Addington
Auditoriumcan pull.
Farther out again, well out of
earshot and across town, the
orchestra would be practising at
the Woolston Brass Band centre.
Swing 180 degrees and 12kmaway
in Hornby, more musicians would
be working hard at the Eezi-Air
Soundproof Complex.
And the citys only professional
theatre company, the Rangiora
Players (oldies will remember it as
the Court Theatre) would be of
course gearing up for its
controversial newplay Whered the
Waimak River Go? in its new
theatre-stage complex in Blackett
St.
So things were humming in the
citys arts and entertainment
world . . . everywhere but right
here among the grass and daisies.
OK, except in one thing. It
wasnt a complete entertainment
void. Distant Manchester St was
glowing thanks to the headlights of
dozens of cars moving slowly up
and down.
But this big grassy park in the
city centre, Baby Hagley I think
the office workers call it, is what
you get when a city spreads like an
old egg in a cold frypan and the
money runs out to scrape it back
together.
Maybe once weve fixed the
Town Hall foundations (yes I
know, again, but properly this
time) it might be useful for
something? Howabout a big
garden party? We can duck into
the St James Theatre if it rains.
2031
COME WITH US TO 2031
N
obody can predict what
Christchurch will be like on
February 22, 2031 20 years
after the worst earthquake
and 17 years fromtoday.
Will the anchor projects
of the central city
invented and sited behind
closed doors in just 100 days in 2012 be
built and tenanted, popular and prospering?
Will sporting and cultural events fill a
35,000-seat covered stadium? We cant know.
Imsuspicious of people who claimto
knowwhat the future holds, professional
futurist Stuart Candy once said.
Long-termpredictions are almost always
wrong because mere extrapolation cant
stand up to the complexity of time, he told
a TedXChristchurch audience last year.
The better alternative is to understand
that the future is plural, Candy argued.
There are multiple futures open to
Canterbury and we can make decisions
today that will help make or prevent those
futures.
But to understand future-Christchurch,
you have to rely on sometimes scant
information provided by the Canterbury
Earthquake Recovery Authority,
Christchurch City Council and other public
bodies.
So, with so much still unknown we
decided to experiment.
What if The Press visited Christchurch
on February 22, 2031, and reported back
what we found? Obviously we cant time
travel, but we can imagine futures and
report them. So we did. What follows is
entirely fictional.
The point is not mere entertainment,
although there is that. The point, a la Stuart
Candy, is that readers may find in our
fiction possible futures they love or hate.
It may even spark an idea, stir some
latent urge to get involved. If it does, we
urge readers to do something about it.
Rally, protest, cheer, plant . . . do something
that changes the future.
And one further message for those who
are challenged by the appearance of fiction
in this well-read section of the newspaper,
Mainlander.
Fiction in newspapers dates back
centuries. Charles Dickens published some
novels in serialised form.
It appeared regularly in the The Evening
News, a daily evening paper that served
London from1881 to 1980. Authors included
AAMilne, Arthur C Clarke and Ken
Follett.
On these pages we challenged The Press
reporters to write fictional non-fiction and
the results, we think, are provocative.
Some of its good news, some bad.
Come with us to 2031.
THE PRESS, Christchurch Saturday, February 22, 2014 C3
You should be proud, says Obama
Will Harvie
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ECO, 2031
Sun-catchers: Wenzuo Zody
Yi proposedpoweringa
Riccarton bus stop with
solar panels. He also
converted awnings and car
ports into solar harvesting
points.
P
eople power won
Christchurch the
United Nations 2031
Green City Award,
former American first
lady and United
Nations Special Envoy
for Urban Ecology Michelle
Obama said this morning on her
first visit to the city.
When politicians wanted to
sell the residential red zone to
developers, the residents of
Christchurch started to farmthe
land. They transplanted fruit and
nut trees fromtheir own
backyards to this beautiful place.
They came in their hundreds and
then thousands to till the soil, to
plant vegetable gardens on public
land, to make the land into urban
farms, Obama said in a speech
attended by mayor Bailey
Peryman and other worthies. You
should be proud.
This crowd knows this story
you were among the diggers,
Obama said. My real audience is
the global citizenry who want to
emulate Christchurchs green
mutiny and the city planners and
leaders who should be listening
better to their own people.
Earlier, Peryman guided
Obama though the Avon-Otakaro
Park on the latest YikeBikes.
Starting at the Estuary and ending
two hours later in Cathedral
Square, the mayor and envoy and
a significant security detail (some
on horses) stopped at the Sir Bob
Parker Wetlands and the Flat
Water Sports Facility. Obama
cooked and ate her own whitebait
fritter fromthe Otakaro River,
using spelt flour and eggs
harvested fromChristchurch
Urban Farm.
Not one lot in the former
residential red zone has been
rebuilt upon, Peryman told
Obama. Every family and
resident who lost a home to the
earthquakes of 2010 and 2011
knows their land belongs to all of
Christchurch and all of New
Zealand.
Obamas job is not ceremonial.
As a special envoy, she reports
directly to the UNsecretary-
general on urban agriculture and
ecological diversity. Her rockstar
popularity has perhaps made her
more effective than her husband
Barack.
Every single newbuilding
and almost all the surviving pre-
quake buildings in the city core
are heated and cooled with aquifer
water and heat exchange systems,
Peryman said. Every building in
the core must by lawgenerate
solar power and as a central
business district we feed more
power into the national grid than
any comparable city. Fifty per cent
of downtown buildings have a
green roof. The City Mission,
which cares for the homeless and
destitute, harvests all its produce
fromour public and private roofs
and employs over 50 people.
Obama also toured Big Breathe,
the newresidential development
on former East Frame land which
includes elevated housing and
many large community gardens.
Adecade ago, most would have
said allowing residential
development on green space the
Green Frame we called it once
was absurd. But its amazing how
families, retirees and the working
young can activate and enliven
space provided they also make
the land productive, the Green
Party mayor said.
Dollar reserves for empty buildings
Charles Anderson
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Novel approach: Angela Yoo calls this swarmhousing. It takes swarmlogic to
create housing free of the influence of empty traditions in the central city.
HOUSING, 2031
P
rivate property
developers are giving up
on the Christchurch CBD
by offering architecturally
designed multi-storey
structures for dollar reserves on a
popular online auction site.
Imsorry it has come to this,
said one developer who spoke to
The Press on the condition of
anonymity. There is nothing left
to do.
The developer said the CBDwas
left to stagnate for too long in the
aftermath of the earthquake. The
first city Blueprint in 2012 was not
enacted quickly enough to make
the city attractive for investment,
he said.
Meanwhile, the Government
continued its desperate push to
attract investors and tenants into
the CBDby offering free rents for a
year, fire-sale land prices and
attractive tax rebates under the
Charities Act 2005.
The situation is a far cry for
those who can remember that first
Blue Print. Six plans later, only 10
of the 14 anchor projects have
come to fruition. While those
projects employ about 1000 people
with taxpayer funds, it is private
investment that is missing from
the city centre. Two-dollar shops,
takeaway restaurants and the odd
cafe occupy the ground floors of
many buildings.
We are lucky lawyers like
their coffee, said one cafe owner
next to the Justice Precinct.
Without themwe would be
broke.
But a short distance away, the
city periphery is thriving.
However, the continual
development of big-box retailers
has raised the eyebrows of some.
One insurance company has set up
permanent shop in a former
supermarket to deal with
outstanding earthquake claims.
While the Bus Interchange is
close enough to bustling
Moorhouse Ave to remain viable,
the walk through to its retail hub
is largely uneventful.
Closer to town, heritage groups
are still fighting to retain McLeans
Mansion on Manchester St but its
fate is even more uncertain after
three arson attempts in the past
two years have caused thousands
of dollars of extra damage.
Speaking fromhis Florida
home, one former eastern frame
business owner said he was
saddened to hear about the state of
his hometown but he took pride in
his predictions being correct.
They took a North Korean
dictatorship approach back then
when they took peoples
businesses away fromthemand
nowthey want us back. Its quite
funny, really.
Ruling on red-zone case
Will Harvie
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NGAI TAHU, 2031
T
he Supreme Court will next
week hand down its decision
in the long-running lawsuit
between Ngai Tahu and
Christchurch developer 1@4 Ltd
over which of themcan buy
central city land acquired by the
Crown in 2013 for the Blue Print
and later found to be surplus.
The iwi won the initial High
Court case with its claimthat the
Ngai Tahu Treaty Settlement Act
gave it an absolute right of first
refusal on any land dispositions by
the Crown, while 1@4 won a
reversal in the Court of Appeal,
claiming it had a right to
repurchase land that was
compulsorily acquired fromit
under the Public Works Act.
Lawyers said only the Supreme
Court could decide which
apparently equal Act of Parliament
was paramount. Over the years,
and with some despair, judges
have urged Ngai Tahu and 1@4 to
settle out of court and twice the
matter went through arbitration.
A2022 agreement to co-develop the
land fell apart amid acrimony and
a flurry of lawsuits.
Ngai Tahus land deals with the
Crown have been controversial,
not least within the tribe itself. The
tribe is still split between those
who favoured buying former
residential red zone land for an
800-section residential subdivision
beside the Avon River and those
who wanted the land to formpart
of the Avon-Otakaro Park.
Apower struggle almost
toppled the iwis senior leadership,
which favoured development, and
some tribe members who had been
residents and homeowners in
Aranui and Wainoni at the time of
the earthquakes. The leadership
survived and remediation of the
land began last year. Sections are
being sold off the plan and house
building is expected to start next
year.
UUUU Meanwhile, lengthy
negotiations are expected to begin
next month over rent increases in
the Justice Precinct.
Ngai Tahu bought the estate
fromthe sixth Labour Government
and the agreement gave the iwi a
to-be-negotiated rent increase in
2033.
Earlier this year, the Land
Minister said the rent increase
should be peppercorn given
market conditions. Ngai Tahu
declined to comment.
Cardboard Cathedral to be night club
Beck Eleven
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CATHEDRAL,
2031
T
he Cardboard Cathedral will
open its doors as a night club
and music venue next week.
For more than a decade, the
transitional cathedral stood on the
corner of Hereford and Madras
streets as debate raged over the
future and style of the post-quake
Anglican cathedral.
The modern ChristChurch
Cathedral in the Square was
consecrated in early 2024 to
widespread praise and coverage in
international media.
The Cardboard Cathedral was
bought last year by Auckland
consortiumNewMusic Group Ltd
(NMG) for a reported $6.8 million.
Its newowners quickly indicated
they meant business for their
cardboard venture, investing a
further $1 million to bring the
structure back to its original
standard, replacing all 86 of the
16.5-metre-long cardboard
cylinders. The stained glass
feature known as the trinity
window will stay.
The Press understands the new,
marijuana-licensed venue on the
corner of Hereford and
Manchester Sts will be called
either The Ministry or Sugar-roo
(a common pronunciation of its
architect, Shigeru Ban).
The first band scheduled to play
in the cardboard construction is
Clifftop Paranoia whose lead
singer was born in 2011.
Whitebait-Sky have paid an
undisclosed sumfor the rights to
broadcast the first concert.
Aspokeswoman for NMGsaid
the intimate nature of the venue
had artists clambering to book the
stage with megastar acts already
scheduling smaller scale or
acoustic performances in
Christchurch to coincide with the
Australasian leg of their world
tours.
Along with Re:Start Mall, it
was architecture born of a moment
and its great both have nowbeen
saved, albeit not on their original
locations, NewHeritage chair
Goosely Gowan said.
2031
Conscience-stricken director reveals $40m fraud
Martin van Beynen
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CRIME, 2031
F
our Christchurch company
directors filched nearly $40m
frominsurance companies,
the council and the Government in
sophisticated post-earthquake
rorts which came to light only
through a guilty conscience.
Three of those involved,
company directors in their 60s,
pleaded guilty yesterday to
charges of conspiracy to defraud
and fraud relating to the
earthquake scams.
The trio, two men and one
woman, who have name
suppression, entered their pleas
before Judge Kerry Crookshank in
the District Court in Christchurch
and in front of a large media
contingent.
The judge said the amount the
group would be able to pay in
reparation would significantly
affect their final sentence. The
group are understood to have
considerable assets. Crown
Counsel Porter Davenport told the
court police began an investigation
when a co-conspirator of the three
had a pang of conscience after
becoming a Christian and went to
the police to confess the scam
which occurred between 2012 and
2017.
Davenport said two of the group
were, at the time, public servants
who authorised payments for
belowground infrastructure
repairs. The others were a
quantity surveyor and a project
manager for a large contractor.
Over five years from2012 the
four set up a sophisticated scheme
where they built in a margin for a
large number of contracts for
repairs in the $2 billion
infrastructure repair scheme.
The group, Davenport said, were
well organised and keep their
margins relatively small which
made the fraudulent amounts hard
to detect.
However, over five years the
amount taken built up and allowed
each of the defendants a
comfortable lifestyle. They kept
their extra spending discreet and
would often go overseas to spend
their ill-gotten gains, he said.
After the offending the four
moved onto other businesses and
maintained a firmsilence until one
of themcould no longer live with
the fraud and confessed to the
police.
Detective Inspector Harold
Thresher said outside the court the
police informant would face
charges but his co-operation,
which included documentary
evidence, would be taken into
account in sentencing.
Police were continuing
inquiries and expected to make
more arrests related to the
offending, he said.
Spouses of the defendants had
been spoken to but said they had
no knowledge of the offending.
They say they just thought their
partners were going really well,
Thresher said.
C4 Saturday, February 22, 2014 THE PRESS, Christchurch
2031
Designs t for heroes
Noboxes FarahSaaddesigneda
ContemporaryTemporaryArts
Centrewhereornament is no
longer just anembellishment but it
is integratedintothebuildingto
formawhole.
3-Dpuzzle: BiranHewantedanewflexiblehousingtypethat wouldaddress theneeds of rebuildworkers andadapt tochangingdemand. His
modular systemwouldespeciallysuit theinner citybut couldbedeployedelsewhere.
ArcinthePark: Thefive-member ArcintheParkteamrespondedtoa2013PeterboroughVillagemixed-
usedesigncompetitionwiththesestrongtimber structures, circulationroutes at different levels and
greenroofs. Theteam: Jianxiang(Mickey) Ma, LinBing(Fatina) Chen, MatthewRyu, Ziyi (Bill) LiuandErica
Austin.
Commonground: Ting-Hin(Desmond) LamalsotackledhousinginHalswell inaproject calledVoidDensification. It proposedsmall, sharedunits
separatedbyagreenstripfor increasedsocial interactionandanundergroundcarpark.
AvonRiverfront Market: NataleeYeeWei Tanplacedavibrant outdoor marketplaceontheriverfront inbetweenCambridgeandOxfordTerraces.
It features indoor andoutdoor spaces for stalls, alargeauditorium, acafeandnovehicles.
Dont youwish: MelissaHarrisondid
awaywiththedisproportionately
largeboxstructure that isatypical
conventioncentreandsubstituteda
designformthat augments windflow.
Clean, green: Villa(Huilin) Yanidentifiedthat Halswell has toomanythree-bedroomhouses andnot enoughpublicspace. Asolutionwastoraisesmall
housingonplatformsandgardenunderneath.
F
or architecture students,
Christchurch is almost
too good to be true a
real city, devastated by
demolitions and
rebuilding with a $40
billion war chest. Since
2011, the School of Architecture and
Planning at the University of
Auckland has been running design
courses under the title Future
Christchurch. More than 100
students have developed concepts
for a newChristchurch, researched
the issues and come up with
plausible buildings including
hero images of their designs.
Working with course tutor,
Christchurc designer and trained
architect Camia Young, The Press
selected the images on pages C1 to
C4 to illustrate the fictional 2031
stories. The images are fictional in
their own way.
JMore information:
futurechristchurch.wordpress.com