On Pegasus

On the drive to Christchurch I drove by the develpment Pegausus and decided to check it out. Quite a grand scale of a design, the town is focused around recreation with it's motto being "Live where you Play".

At the moment very little of the town is built, but I was surprised to see the towns cafe crowded with customers, and the sports fields occupied with childrens rugby teams (which seems to suggest that Pegasus is trying to engage with the surrounding established communities).

The town is situated next to wetlands which are full of birdlife. The town has attempted to engage with this by providing many tracks and bird hides. However one must wonder what the long term ecological effects of situating a town so close to the wetlands will be.





The town center will be built around a massive man made lake that will feature numerous beaches and allow for many water activities. At the moment the lake is built and the landscape around it is complete, but the site remains quite deserted and eery as no construction has begun on the town center.




Yes the town will have a suspension bridge, and even a waterfall.





This is a housing development so of course there was plenty of cheese.


Howdy Partner, why don't we mosey on down to the General Store and buy us a bag of Doritos.

One can also get in touch with their ancient Greek roots.








The buildings at the moment aren't the prettiest, and don't seem to differ much from your run of mill housing development. It will however be interesting to keep an eye on how the grand planning of this development pans out.

The house that students built

Hands up who wants to wants to design and build whilst studying.

Those with your hands up. Are you out of your *** minds!?

Still got them up? How do we make it happen?

Money makes buildings go up so we need a charity, a housing association, a developer or a private individual with some of it and a whole lot of vision. Or government . Plenty of them right on our doorstep and they have some of ‘our’ money they’re always looking to give away.
For example; Housing Innovation Fund - http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government+extends+community+housing+fund

We’d also need a registered architect to sign it off and a registered builder to supervise construction.

The School obviously has to be on board to offer it as a course/s. They might be pretty keen after dipping their toes in the Solar Decathlon water. They’d need to be getting their fees to cover their costs, lecturer, tutors etc. Design it in trimester one. Document it, submit consent and project manage in trimester two. Build it over the summer.

400 level courses starting in 2012 which gives us 18 months to sort it out.
Even longer for funding if that is secured nearer construction time.

Still got that hand up?

for possible inspiration see
Housing Innovation Fund
Wellington Housing Trust
Rural Studio
Basic Initiative
Architecture School
Share Architecture

Citizen Architect

While we're on the topic of movies, the Wellington Film Festival is just around the corner and we are in for such a treat with the documentary film Citizen Architect. If you've been keeping up with the comments on previous blogs, you might have heard mention of something called Rural Studio and a man by the name of Samuel Mockbee.
 

Rural Studio is a design/build programme at Auburn University which was driven by the late Mockbee. The programme came about as a way to both improve living standards of those in rural Alabama while giving the students practical knowledge and skills to give back to their communities. After his death the programme continues but with a focus on building community projects rather than individual houses. The film contains previously unseen interview footage with Mockbee, as well as student perspectives and praise and criticism from other architects and designers. This movie is bound to feed the little idealists inside us all, but it also questions architecture's role in a broader sense. 

Watch the fantastic trailer and read more about the movie here.

Or go directly to the Rural Studio website to read more about their inspiring programme.

Screening times and venues are:

Sat 24 Jul | 5:30pm | Film Archive 

Tue 27 Jul | 12:15pm | City Gallery Cinema

Tue 27 Jul | 1:30pm | City Gallery Cinema 

"If architecture is going to nudge, cajole, and inspire a community to challenge the status quo into making responsible changes, it will take the subversive leadership of academics and practitioners who keep reminding students of the profession's responsibilities." Samuel Mockbee