The City of Erasure

2021

Ōtautahi, Christchurch, New Zealand

I have had the absolute privilege of living in designed space most of my life. My Mum is a teacher, painter, jeweler, and my Dad is an architectural designer, build-it-yourself kind of guy. On the 22nd of February 2011, Christchurch had an earthquake that killed 185 people and destroyed 1240 Central city buildings.

The epicenter for this earthquake was just down the road from our house. We lived in this house for years after the earthquake because we did not have any other options. Eventually, they kicked us out, and they demolished the house.

I have many fond memories of this place, but it is not always easy to tell what was real or imagined, or even if that matters. It was only when I stumbled upon the working drawings that I was able to position myself within my memories and reflect on the erasure that caused my memories to change. This thesis does not set out to solve the issues that the earthquake caused, but to use its implications as material for speculative architectural investigations.

View the full publication here