A rock emerging from the depths

These of us who name Christchurch house and have lived right here most of our lives are likely to see our place and historical past as basically break up in two. A schism divides the time: earlier than and after the 22 February 2011 Canterbury earthquake. Christchurch modified in so some ways on that horrible day, not least of which was within the strategy to structure. With round 80 per cent of our constructing inventory within the central metropolis destroyed or demolished within the frenzy of the quake’s aftermath, it was inevitable that the change could be profound and important. Christchurch has a proud architectural historical past with actual excessive factors, together with the magnificent Gothic revival buildings of the Nineteenth century and the Christchurch fashionable type prevalent within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies. This was an structure of substance and weight, constructed of masonry – stone, brick and concrete – suggesting a long-lasting, steady world. Publish-earthquake, this modified and the sense of permanence was discovered to be an phantasm as these buildings crumbled and have become so badly broken that insurance coverage corporations deemed them too costly to restore. Publish-quake, the mantra grew to become construct again mild, contact the earth delicately, flex and roll with the punches relatively than resist with supposed energy. Metal and glass grew to become the brand new architectural language. Ephemeral-looking clear buildings dominated the post-quake world because the wealthy architectural legacy of Christchurch grew to become lower off from the brand new world, ignored and deemed largely irrelevant to our new paradigm.

Into this world, the Ravenscar Home Museum and Artwork Gallery from Patterson Associates Architects, led by ex-Christchurch resident and architect Andrew Mitchell, has emerged. It’s as if town has reawakened to its previous and earlier architectural pleasures. Ravenscar Home is a stable, substantial place stuffed with heft, shadow, thriller and creativeness, thrust up from Christchurch’s previous. Constructed of gorgeous pre-cast concrete, securely grounded and folding up and over the roof, it seems monolithic and sculptural – a pure piece of rock rising from the depths. There are not any home windows dealing with the road, solely a cleft lower into the mass luring you in and never giving a lot away. We’re now not in a world of transparency and light-weight however, relatively, in considered one of rock faces and caves with shadow and thriller: a spot to discover and enjoyment of the place issues are hidden and must be discovered, and a spot through which the creativeness can flourish and be entranced. The great e-book In Reward of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki speaks fantastically about one of these magical expertise. For a few of us who grew up right here, we have been fascinated by the darkish, mysterious nooks and crannies and sumptuous halls and courtyards of the neighbouring Gothic revival Arts Centre. These are qualities largely forgotten in post-quake structure and it’s a delight to see them return right here in a contemporary means.

To enter Ravenscar Home, you go via a deep, slim opening within the concrete and emerge beside a tranquil central enclosed courtyard. Inside this inaccessible courtyard, designed to have a look at and convey mild into the guts of the constructing, is an impluvium pond reflecting rippling mild on the draping mirror ceiling over the lobby. This expertise brings again reminiscences to me of the now sadly misplaced Canterbury Museum courtyard, with its personal reflecting pond and hanging skeleton of a blue whale. This place of magic and thriller lower off from the remainder of the world is unforgettable to these of us who encountered it
in our childhood.

Ravenscar can be modern, not mimicking however constructing on the legacy of the architectural previous. The concrete work is beautiful and a technical tour- de-force telling a narrative of the venture’s genesis. The constructing is a really beneficiant present from native benefactors, the Wakefield household, who lived via the quake and skilled the trauma of seeing their home on the Port Hills destroyed, together with a lot of Christchurch. The home has been reworked, as if by alchemy, into this gallery. The concrete consists of a mixture of broken-up brick, stone donated by the neighbouring Arts Centre and granite from the courtyard of the Wakefield’s home. Traces of previous existences are immortalised in seams throughout the floor. As it’s in geology, the place you may learn the previous within the strata and supplies embedded within the rock, Ravenscar tells its previous and story in its very material.

Its setting is extremely important, as nicely, surrounded by the most effective remaining examples of the Gothic revival structure that fashioned the foundations of post- colonial Christchurch and survived the quake. Throughout the street is The Arts Centre, together with the Nice Corridor on the nook: an architectural masterpiece by Benjamin Mountfort, fantastically framed in Ravenscar’s tall entry corridor window. Straight throughout the street is the Nineteenth-century Canterbury Museum and diagonally reverse is Christ’s School, one other set of stone and concrete buildings produced by a few of Christchurch’s greatest architects. It’s onerous to envisage a extra heritage-sensitive surroundings through which to insert a recent constructing. Ravenscar responds nicely, establishing a dialogue the place its faceted stable type, comprising rotated ridge strains, recognises the language of its neighbours however pushes it into new instructions, suggesting the pre-quake architectural legacy of Christchurch nonetheless has relevance and may be constructed on in new and thrilling methods.

One may query the dominant use of concrete in right now’s world the place environmental points are on the forefront. Concrete has gained the popularity of being one of many bad-boy supplies in our climate-change- aware age, emitting carbon in its manufacturing. But, a constructing so clearly meant to final a very long time shouldn’t be as vulnerable to the impulses of our consumerist-driven time to have new, shiny issues and discard the outdated dungers. Ravenscar is constructed on a car-park website the place it grew to become a requirement to retain these parks to ensure that the construct to go forward. They have been positioned in a basement space below the museum, which gave the chance to base-isolate the constructing. This built-in resilience and the truth that this solidly constructed concrete construction will solely enhance with age and, hopefully, be embraced by the neighborhood, ought to imply it is going to be right here for a really very long time, like its illustrious companions that encompass it. This longevity affords inherent sustainability, as probably the most unsustainable architectural act of all is to demolish a reusable current construction and change it with one thing new.

Ravenscar Home is an ode to the Wakefield household and their expertise in the course of the quake. Fragments of their demolished home are exhibited amongst their very own artwork assortment within the numerous domestically scaled exhibition rooms paying homage to their outdated home. You progress in a round route, passing from room to room, every a specific reminiscence of a chunk of their previous house. The areas are proportioned to imitate these locations; you begin with the eating room, then the bed room and lounge, earlier than ending within the library/media room. All these rooms are windowless, inside enclosures, full of artwork and memorabilia, whereas the hyperlinks between are totally glazed transitions the place you might be reconnected with the skin. Exploring the areas is an uncommon feeling. You sense you might be collaborating in a extremely private expertise now exhibited for all to see. Wall panelling from the Wakefield’s home, drawings of their furnishings, private artwork and books via to the fragments of the previous home embedded within the partitions make it really feel like a frozen lament for a misplaced home previous. Mausoleum-like virtually, it’s a place of non-public remembrance within the coronary heart of our metropolis gifted to us all to share and take care of. Is it, in a means, a stand-in for the shared reminiscence many people have of the quake’s trauma? Is it an indulgence of a household to immortalise their private expertise or is it merely a beneficiant donation again to a metropolis they clearly love, which we are able to now all share and take pleasure in?

No matter your views are, we’re left with a wondrous piece of structure that can change into
a welcomed participant within the ongoing story of our place. Maybe it’s an excessive amount of ambition to placed on a single constructing however, in some methods, it feels as whether it is straddling the break the earthquakes precipitated and serving to heal the architectural break up character of our metropolis. It’s reaching again and acknowledging the previous whereas wanting ahead with sturdy confidence.