Is on Tonight – LT2 – School of Architecture – 5.45pm
See you there!

At last the Anglican church in Christchurch appears to be speaking the same language as the people.
Finally, two years after the earthquakes, the Bishop Victoria Matthews has decided to approach the question of a replacement cathedral in a manner that does, to some extent, involve the People. A choice range of three possible options for rebuilding the Anglican Cathedral has been published today, and we wish our southern cousins all the best in the ensuing discussions.

We all know what Bishop Matthews preferred option is, as she has made her stand quite plain before, but at least, here are three options presented for discussion, even if the outcome is probably already well known. there is of course the full rebuild, looking just like the original:

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The WCC has issued a report which evaluates Alternatives to the NZTA’s proposal for a flyover at the Basin.
Download a PDF to read our response to the WCC report.
Arch-Centre_Response to WCC report

Mitigation is a funny word.

“mit·i·ga·tion [mit-i-gey-shuhn] noun
1. the act of mitigating, or lessening the force or intensity of something unpleasant, as wrath, pain, grief, or extreme circumstances: Social support is the most important factor in the mitigation of stress among adolescents.

2. the act of making a condition or consequence less severe: the mitigation of a punishment.

3. the process of becoming milder, gentler, or less severe.

4. a mitigating circumstance, event, or consequence.”

(source: Dictionary.com)

In the case of the Basin Reserve flyover, the Wellington City Council has asked for further “mitigation” of the proposed Flyover (concrete bridge / Option A). For its part, NZTA has also promised some “mitigation” of the effects of the flyover, and says that they will focus on “mitigation” to ensure that the flyover is “integrated”. Trouble is, I’m not really sure that they are talking about the same thing.
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Welcome back to work, and welcome to 2013. It’s going to be a big year.
Why? Well, apart from the battle for the soul of the city – flyover proponents vs those who favour something else (read more here), there is also going to be a shake-up in the Building Code over the issue of Seismic strengthening.

Yes: MoBIE strikes again – submissions are called for on the issues of What should we strengthen, How high is the new strengthening level, When do we have to strengthen it to, and lastly but certainly not leastly – Who pays for the strengthening? Check out and download the document at this DBH/MoBIE site. Closes 8th March – you have 2 months for your comments. To help you on your way, let’s discuss them briefly here. The proposals are: More »

Someone asked us to make a movie to explain Option X. Well, we thought, it’s a pretty simple scheme. Let’s make a simple movie.
And here it is!
Option Xplanation

As slow as government departments move, when they really want to move fast, they can. Free from all the hassle and moans and gripes of legitimate public concern, such as the Resource Consent process, the Building Consent process, an Archaeological dig etc, in order to get the Memorial Park complete by April 2015, a new NZTA road has leapt into place, skirting round the back of the (once) sacred turf of the Memorial green space. You’ll be driving on it by Christmas…

If you are interested in knowing more about the works around the Basin Reserve and the Memorial Park, then click on the words BASIN RESERVE either here, or up top in the menu. You’ll find a whole lot of back catalogue information on what we call Option X.
First up was the country’s biggest / fastest More »