Beautiful objects created from the ruins of red-stickered homes to be displayed at Canterbury Museum
That’s the principal behind the Whole House Project, a project designed to highlight just how much raw material goes into the construction of the average family home, and how much of that material – post-Christchurch earthquake – is being lost through ‘demolish and discard’ thinking.
The Whole House Reuse project has taken a house condemned for demolition (19 Admirals Way, New Brighton, former family home of the Buxtons) and demonstrated the “explicit the scale and breadth of materials of one modest home” and the waste occurring as a result of the ongoing demolition in Christchurch following the 2011 earthquakes. (The Christchurch ‘Red Zone’ has seen more than 10,000 homes ‘red stickered’, and more than half of the homes within that area have already been demolished.)
“In 2013 we painstakingly deconstructed the entire home from 19 Admirals Way, New Brighton, catalogued all the materials and wrote a design brief,” says Juliet Arnott, project founder and director of Rekindle, facilitator of the project.
“We then managed to engage creatives, across New Zealand and beyond, in the use of the resources from the home to make new objects.”
“Now we have around 398 unique and beautiful objects that have been made from the home and a small pile of leftovers, and these will be shown in the Canterbury Museum from June 5th to August 23rd 2015.”
Image: Creative participants with the reclaimed raw materials, ready for transformation
Image: Dallas Matoe carving and the finished papahou.
Image: Trudo Wylaars in front of completed Lath chairs
Image: Tim McGurk’s Double Bass-Basin
The final exhibition takes place 5th June – 23rd August at Canterbury Museum.