This important book offers the first
substantial critique of the Government’s recovery plan for Christchurch,
presents alternative approaches to city-building and archives a vital and
extraordinary time.
New Zealand
has to rebuild the majority of its second-largest city after a devastating
series of earthquakes – a unique challenge for a developed country in the
twenty-first century. The earthquakes fundamentally disrupted the conventions
by which the people of Christchurch lived. The exhausting and exhilarating mix
of distress, uncertainty, creativity, opportunities, divergent opinions and
competing priorities generates an inevitable question: how do we know if the
right decisions are being made?
Once in a Lifetime brings
together a range of national and international perspectives on city-building
and post-disaster urban recovery.
Featuring:
·
foreword by Helen Clark (former New Zealand Prime Minister and
UNDP Administrator)
·
55 written essays from a range of contributors including Kevin
McCloud, Rebecca Macfie, Sally Blundell, Raf Manji, journalists, economists,
designers, academics, publicans and more
·
39 visual essays that document community, business and
government responses to Christchurch’s recovery.
Barnaby Bennett and Ryan Reynolds, members of the editorial
team, are available for interview.
Once in a Lifetime:
City-building after Disaster in Christchurch
Edited by Barnaby Bennett, James Dann, Emma Johnson and Ryan
Reynolds
Foreword by Helen Clark
Freerange Press, August 2014
512 pages, full colour. Includes photos, maps and index.
55 essays, 39 visual essays
RRP NZ$45
ISBN: 978-0-473-28940-9
The launch:
Around
80 people packed into the Physics Room for the launch of Once in a Lifetime:
City-building after Disaster in Christchurch on the final night of the
Christchurch WORD Writers and Readers Festival.
The interest in and need for Once in a Lifetime was attested to by the numbers that turned out
to the launch and panel discussion earlier in the day. The book, conceived of
and published by Freerange Press, is the first substantial critique of the Government’s recovery plan for Christchurch, presents alternative
approaches to city-building and archives a vital and extraordinary time.
As
members of the editorial team gave speeches in the warm central city space of
the Physics Room, all the authors present at the launch stood behind them,
providing striking visual proof of the range of voice in the book’s pages,
which one editor said reflected the ‘many voices that make up a city’. From
publican to citizen, from journalist to designer, they had contributed
‘considered, multi-disciplinary perspective on post-disaster urban recovery’
and had helped to make critique a ‘creative and positive process’.
The
panel also demonstrated the fruits of a discussion that involves a variety of
perspectives. It featured contributors journalist Rebecca Macfie, Councillor Raf
Manji, academic Dr Suzanne Vallance and co-editor and Gap Filler co-founder
Ryan Reynolds in discussion with co-editor Barnaby Bennett. As Giovanni Tiso
observed in his recent blog: ‘It was, like the book itself, a blueprint of the kind of
discussions that need to be had. If the panel and how it was received by the
packed room are any indication, Once in a Lifetime will become a
significant tool with which to think again about the task and find new forms of
engagement.’
A great
celebratory weekend for Once in a Lifetime, amidst a festival programme that
celebrated not only literature’s liberating potential, but also that of
Christchurch. In essence, Once in a
Lifetime is about discussion and part of a wider one, and every discussion
is infused with its moment. The energy and direction of the book comes from the
city around us, and in the contributions you can hear that distinctive
Christchurch mix of disquiet, careful hope, frustration, sadness and desire
combined with the strains of promise and potential.
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