CREATING AN EXPERIENCE ECONOMY IN CHRISTCHURCH

-THESIS FRAMEWORK

GENERAL RESEARCH

ANALYSIS/ INVESTIGATION

DESIGN

Map vacant sites from demolished buildings listed on CERA and identify trend. What is Experience Economy? Satellite Event Hubs and Event Corridors connecting the west to the east and the north to the south.

The Use of Architecture to stimulate Citys Tourism Economy

How do cities shape events and how do these events in turn shape cities A City with Events VS The Eventful City

SPECIFIED REGION

GLOBAL

EVENT ARCHITECTURE-> IMAGE ENHANCEMENT-> TOURISM-> REGENERATION (envisaged mechanism) Historic timeline of event architecture and their consequences on cities

The creation of visibility of attractions or events within the urban fabric and level of permeability of creative enterprises for the consumer How the Experience Economy can develop outside tourism zones and how less familiar areas can cater for demands of some segments of the visitor population

URBAN SCALE

Curation of the Festival of Transitional Architecture working in conversation with the River of Arts. Investment of temporary/pop-up businesses Short-Term Fixes, Long-Term Cures

PAST
Christchurch Events Strategy Tourism Policy TOURISM NEW ZEALAND

NODE OF INTEREST

Gaps and Lack of Experience as Catalyst for Regeneration identify potential sites as case studies. A catalyst to stimulate the experience economy locally, making links to other nodes to generate a potential network/strategy that could be applied to any area of Christchurch to encourage regeneration and reactivation of city as a whole.

CURRENT AMITIONS
Available Accommdation Event Venues/Events Christchurch Council Draft Plan Pop-up Innovations Gap-Filler Initiative

TOURISM CHRISTCHURCH

LOCAL

Hospitality Food Services Events Retail

Transitional Architecture

ARCHITECTURAL SCALE

CASE STUDY

Transformative Architecture Working with other sectors e.g. hospitality, food services, available venues for events and retail elements to support creative tourism

FUTURE
How to re-activate vacant sites during Restoration and Reconstruction Phase.

rience Production Expe

TOURISM ECONOMY
(Tourist and Visitors)

CONSUMER

EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

SYMBOLIC ECONOMY
(Cultural Activities/ Events)

PRODUCER

Pr o s

u m p tio n a n d C

at o c re

ion

Figure 1. Relationship between Experience Economy, Tourism and Symbolic Economy. (Austin, 2012) Source: Pine and Gilmore, 1999. FUTURE CHRISTCHURCH: AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY TO RECOVERY ERICA AUSTIN 4917481

THESIS STATEMENT
The impact of collaborative investigation on architectural practice is becoming gradually more apparent and these have reconstructed the process of design, establishing new developments and methods of fabrication, and influencing how architects work today. This thesis will especially focus on the collaboration between architects and other creative disciplines, and how the creative arts industries can contribute in terms of the regeneration of Christchurch through event making and its required architectural demands to increase the economic impacts on communities. Seen as a primary driver for Christchurchs rebuild, it can be a catalyst for creating an Experience Economy and attracting capital and private investments back into the city, while also creating employment opportunities. Secondary sectors such as hospitality, food services and retail shops can then be brought back to ultimately revitalize the city as a whole. The aim of this thesis is to identify potentials inherent in the existing economy framework in Christchurch, and to develop an economic strategy supporting Christchurchs proposed urban plan to provide a long term economically based design solution for the future of Christchurch through event making and the creation of an Experience Economy. This thesis starts with a comprehensive economic understanding of the Tourism sector and event making in Christchurch, and a strategic intervention will then be developed including an urban scale design strategy as well as a building scale design that exemplifies the urban scale framework. THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY What Pine and Gilmore(1999) proposed as the Experience Economy suggests that the Tourism Economy will not satisfy the consumers today alone. Essentially what this implies is that consumers are now looking for experiences in additions to the existing services provided by the Tourism Economy. In order to create a better Experience Economy, a combination of the Tourism Economy and what is referred to as the Symbolic Economy must be applied. Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between these economies, where Richard and Palmer(2012) states the definition of Symbolic Economy as the process through which wealth is created from the cultural activities including art, music, dance, crafts, museums, exhibitions, sports and creative design in various fields. TOURISM ECONOMY New Zealand Concluding my economic research, there seems to be a need to strengthen the tourism share of GDP in New Zealand despite the increase of other economic sectors. From peak figures around 10% GDP contribution in 2003, a steady decline of more than 1% of is seen with reduced tourism spending in recent years after the Global Financial Crisis. A drop in Accommodation, Cafes and Restaurant contributions from 2003 to 2007 is notable, which concludes a better structure is required to attract tourists and visitors to stay in the country. This drop is also visible within the Cultural and Recreational Services and the Retail Trade components. This suggests New Zealand was not focused on developing the tourism aspect of its economy, and with the impacts from the earthquakes, stronger emphasis and work need to be put on tourism in New Zealand to compensate the decline of this economy. Christchurch As the South Island tourism gateway, Christchurch originally had a busy events calendar before the major earthquake in September 2010, full of community-oriented events and a smaller range of visitor-oriented events.(Be-there, 2007) Many event venues were affected by the earthquake and are unable to be utilized because of restoration, such as the Cathedral Square, Christchurch Art Gallery and the City Hall. A further influence on tourist accommodations such as hotels, backpackers and motels are evident with the previous number of around 400 accommodation businesses including 228 guest facilities distributed throughout Christchurch accommodated 1.8 million guests annually. More than 50% of these were wiped out or closed because of the earthquakes. Although there is not a significant drop in the number of events, but 10% decrease in visitors to the Canterbury region is difficult to ignore. CHRISTCHURCH ART SCENE The key idea is to enhance and build on the basis of the proposal of the River of Arts by the Arts Voice Christchurch, in search for an opportunity for events to help rediscover the city and offering the wider community the chance to participate in the regeneration of Christchurch. The idea of the River of Arts is based on a series of interconnected arts-based initiatives and new spaces that integrate the arts into the citys urban fabric where it relies on a co-ordinated and collaborative approach by the arts community and related industries and businesses in Christchurch.(Arts Voice Christchurch, 2011)
FUTURE CHRISTCHURCH: AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY TO RECOVERY ERICA AUSTIN 4917481

As these events and arts initiatives act as the producer in the Symbolic Economy, tourists and visitors will start to consume through experiencing them. This is a great chance to propose a series of connected initiatives, like the Gap Filler, Arts Circus or projects like the Art Box that would link with the river concept and further encourage investments on the relevant architectural demands that are required, eventually building up communities around these events and this notion of Experience Shopping can start to develop outside tourism zones and less familiar areas can cater for the demands of some segments of the visitor population. The emergence of pop-up innovations can be thought as a tool to suggest a second phase of pop-up used to test ideas and to encourage a fresh, uncompromised look in a place. By working with local residents, and creative arts industries, these projects can start to re-activate vacant sites during Restoration and Reconstruction Phase. URBAN STRATEGY The ultimate urban strategy is heading towards designing an Event Hub with satellite facilities distributed around the various neighbourhoods in Christchurch to achieve the notion of de-cluttering to reduce duplications or multiplications of attractions in single locations which leads the city to create its own Experience Economy as a whole. The idea is to tie in with the proposed River of Arts and connect the east to the west and the north to the south. It was said that the River of Arts may extend to the Airport and connecting the south to Lyttelton and Sumner. A network system has emerged from mapping vacant sites from demolished buildings in Christchurch listed on CERA up to date until 9th May 2012, and potential hubs or corridors are evident. (Figure 2) There also seems to be an opportunity to aid New Brighton through the use of arts and event making in terms of boosting its economy or help raise its land values as the east side of Christchurch is mainly seen as low socio-economic. After various conversations with Coralie Winn from the Gap Filler initiative, Ryan Reynolds (Life in Vacant Spaces), Andrew Just from the Art Box project, George Parker and Jason Mill involved in the Art Circus and architecture historian Jessica Halliday in Christchurch, a great opportunity has come forward. As part of this thesis on the generation of the Experience Economy in Christchurch and how events can attract people and business back to the city, I will have the chance to curate LUXCity as part of the Festival of Transitional Architecture. This will involve identifying potential sites working in conversation with the proposed River of Arts and Gap Filler locations to bring life back to the city and involve the community in the construction of a sense of place and community. Possible scenarios of how the event could populate the city centre demonstrate the first approach of the curation. This festival will act as a seed in the vital Transitional City phase of the draft Christchurch City Plan to test our ideas and involve the community in the creation of the Experience Economy in Christchurch.

Vacant Sites

Emerging Network from Vacant Sites Connection with Available Event Venues

Figure 2. Network of Vacant Sites and Connection with Available Event Venues. (Austin, 2012) Source: CERA, 2012. FUTURE CHRISTCHURCH: AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY TO RECOVERY ERICA AUSTIN 4917481

BUILDING DESIGN PROPOSAL Instead of the idea of being modular, like the Art box, this design proposal is related to the notion of embracing the transitional, where the next phase is not an end result, rather it continues to transform, where the architecture responds to the programme needed.

Vertical Sliding Transformative Actions

Horizontal Sliding

Pivoting

Hoisting

Rotation

Rotational Sliding

Revealing

Similar to the Dallas Theatre for Performing Art by OMA, the aim is to re-think the idea of conventional event architecture and introduce a second phase to LUXCity, where the system of the design can be reconfigured both internal and external. The idea is to create architecture that re-choreographs the usual event experience to encourage public engagement allowing them to experience something unexpected each time a new event is scheduled. People become the curator, exhibit designer, and potentially the performer of each transformation. Arts Circus, one of the main projects listed on the CCCs proposal, is part of the Transitional City concept. This is seen as an opportunity to propose an architectural system which allows adaptability and flexibility for future implementations to the city fabric. Why not propose an Arts Circus that can physically or architecturally transform? Making the Arts Circus the headquarters of events, various facilities can be released to different parts of the city, popping-up wherever theres an event. These pop-up facilities act as the offspring result of the Arts Circus. When temporary events are over, they will return home to the Mother. Circuses are known to be exciting, creating surprises and anticipation. The strategy of de-cluttering is recommended to reduce duplications and multiplications of events and attractions. Utilising this transformative system, Christchurch will turn itself to an eventful city. This Anti-Bilbao Effect approach is a good opportunity to work with local residents, and creative arts industries to contribute in terms of the regeneration of the city. Client Arts Circus George Parker Site Description Tuam Street
DISPLACED ARTIST CORNER

MADRAS ST

TUAM ST

HI

GH

ST

ST. ASAPH ST

ARTS CIRCUS SITE

EPIC TEMPORARY BUILDING

Sites of Demolished Buildings

FUTURE CHRISTCHURCH: AN ECONOMIC STRATEGY TO RECOVERY

ERICA AUSTIN 4917481