Lake Coleridge Village : A landscape assessment : A major design study submitted in partial fulfilment of the Diploma in Landscape Architecture at Lincoln College, University of Canterbury

Abstract

Lake Coleridge Village lies 105 kilometres west of Christchurch on the Rakaia River. It serves Coleridge Power Station, the first significant hydro-electric scheme to be undertaken by the State, officially opened on the 25th of November, 1914.

Before these works began, the area was open, windswept and covered with brown tussock. Now, after only seventy years, it is enclosed, sheltered and covered with many varieties of vigorously growing trees.

Such a remarkable transformation must obviously provide interesting subject matter for a landscape study; it is the aim of this report to describe Coleridge's metamorphosis and comment upon the main landscape problems which nave arisen as a consequence. The concluding section will endeavour to provide solutions to these problems and produce guideline suggestions for future development.