Publication

The remains of the everyday: Memories in an abandoned landscape

Date
Type
Conference Contribution - unpublished
Fields of Research
Abstract
Following the 2010/2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Government purchased and demolished 8,000 homes, all of which were on land no long considered suitable for building. What remains is the “residential red zone”: 630 hectares of abandoned landscape. Emptied of houses, but with a landscape that bares the stains of domesticity: hedges, fruit trees, artesian well heads, driveways, road crossings, street signs. Along with the invisible residues: the memories, the buried pets, the buried placentas, and other items that ‘belong’ to the red zone but have been removed, including thousands of letter boxes and 40,000 house keys which were gathered up from the property owners at hand over. The residential red zone is not an exceptional landscape in terms of the age, design, or style of gardens and layout. It is the imprint of ordinary, everyday life. And this ordinariness makes it vulnerable to the efforts to find ‘value’ in the Government’s asset. Recreational and tourist-driven projects, and an emphasis on ecological restoration, are all proposed. How can the delicate tracery of 8,000 unremarkable but precious residential landscapes provide a matrix of remembrance? How can remembering compete with rafting, jogging, biking, bird-watching, and other big and loud activities in this re-imagined landscape? Public feedback on proposals has just concluded, followed by shortlisting and exhibition. The extent to which the residential landscape might remain will depend on the outcome of this process.
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