Communal living for site in city centre
‘‘[Ota¯karo] ¯ are taking a bit of a gamble. It’s a non-traditional housing model.’’
Homeowners could share cars and bikes and co-own energy facilities in a new non-profit housing project announced for central Christchurch.
The 150-home development is planned for the taxpayer-owned 8000 square-metre demonstration village site opposite Latimer Square. The preferred developers are promising homes 10 to 20 per cent cheaper than than those from private sector.
It would be a definite change of approach for the now-vacant land, which the Crown has so far been unable to find developers for.
A attempt to develop the site as an anchor project failed when developers Breathe Ltd – chosen in an international competition in 2013 – pulled out, citing poor market conditions and the inability to secure funding.
After seeking other proposals, Crown company O¯ ta¯ karo has now announced the O¯ tautahi Urban Guild as its chosen developer. The group was formed especially for the project, and has an option to buy the land next year.
The group will be lead by Ohu – the Office of Holistic Urbanism – a trust that runs community development projects including the Collett’s Corner project in Lyttelton and the XCHC 2.0 complex in Waltham. Other parties to the project are Urban Apostles, an Australian business that has worked on similar concepts in Australia, the Viva Project, a finalist in the 2013 competition, and Matapopore Trust, which is Nga¯ i Tahu’s cultural rebuild consultancy.
O¯ ta¯ karo chief executive John Bridgman said the plan with its focus on sustainability and communal spaces was innovative and would ‘‘broaden the appeal of living in the central city.’’
O¯ tautahi Urban Guild spokesman James Stewart said the project would be based on the Nightingale apartments developments in Melbourne and Sydney.
‘‘[O¯ ta¯ karo] are taking a bit of a gamble. It’s a non-traditional housing model.’’
Their model would be very different from developments such as the Fletcher east frame housing across the road, but would not be incompatible with traditional private developments,
O¯ tautahi Urban Guild spokesman James Stewart
Stewart said.
He said he could not reveal everything about funding arrangements, but said a ‘‘social enterprisetype’’ backer would help fund the land deposit. Would-be buyers would get a chance to say what they wanted built, and would contribute their own deposits when they signed up, he said.
The development would have six or seven buildings with about 30 apartments each built with sustainable carbon neutral materials. It would be designed to encourage community living where people could ‘‘bump into each other’’ and be sociable, he said.
Residents would share a community-owned solar facilities, an embedded energy network, and bike and car sharing facilities.
The plan ‘‘came from a sense of frustration’’ at the lack of progress on repopulating the central city, Stewart said.
‘‘Central city living hasn’t taken off – there are relatively high land and construction costs and the land supply across Christchurch reduces pressure on the inner city.
‘‘We hope this will give the central city a shot in the arm.’’
City councillor Vicki Buck said she liked the sound of the concept, and thought the environmental and social aspects would appeal to people.
The development guild chosen for the project brings together a diverse group of people.
Viva attributed the failure of the Breathe project to the Government being ‘‘unwilling or unable to recognise that an insistence on a pure market approach would not deliver the innovative sustainable village asked for in the competition brief’’.
Ohu has several projects on the drawing board and has members including Gap Filler director Ryan Reynolds, Christchurch city councillor Raf Manji, several partners of local law firms, and Anna Guenther, who describes herself as chief executive and chief bubble blower of PledgeMe. Urban Apostles says its work ‘‘focuses on the intersection of the sharing economy and the art of city making’’.