#Buildings lost to time how to

Jackson believes that citizens identify themselves in the buildings around them. This idea is backed by the theoriest, Crinson who believes that shared memory and lived experiences shapes urban memory and defines a “city as a physical landscape and collection of objects and practices that enable recollections of the past and that embody the past through traces of the city’s sequential building and rebuilding.”Īnother theorist, J.

They are integral to our identity as Christchurch citizens and remain a valuable and culturally significant form of understanding ourselves as Christchurchians. The shared experiences and collective memory which have existed since the city was born are real in each of our minds.

#Buildings lost to time how to

However, the fact that vast spaces and frameworks of Christchurch are now being removed means that there is such total devastation of a familiar environment that it will be difficult to recognise.Īs we look to visionaries for new ideas on how to rebuild, we must consider the issues: – do we try to maintain what was or completely extinguish the memory of what was. What was once a familiar and ‘taken for granted’ backdrop has gone and and deeply formed attachments, past memories of our city are in the past.Ĭities are always changing entities as old buildings are replaced by new structures. Now in post quake mode, as the city is slowly reveals its ruined self, we must accept the the gaping spaces and empty lots and realise that a part of our identity, memory and intergenerational link to the past is severed. It also served as a storage facility of stored social memories and of humanized experiences which every person who has ever lived here has been able to contribute by merely being a part of it.

Our city was a strong narrative which not only provided a place to live in but gave each of us an identity, a sense of permanence and an attachment to where we belonged. On a deeper subconscious level, the loss of such a tangible cultural and historic scape is devastating. Gone are the historic buildings that men, women and children walked past, the old interiors they shopped in, the cafes they ate in, the churches they prayed in, the schools they were educated in and the offices they worked in. However, forty seconds of ground shaking on February 22nd, 2011 broke the loom, and our city fell apart, leaving us only with memories and residue of what once stood here. Each wall, facade and interior were like looms which the threads of time and social associations entwined around. Inherited from a long list of valuable contributors dating back to its inception in the 1850s, the buildings and spaces of the city were significant cultural landmarks which served generations of citizens. Up until February 22nd, 2011, the city of Christchurch was a unique, historic and cultural living and breathing entity.