13 WAYS

Thinking about Catton's extraordinary achievement had me reflecting on my brief but honestly exquisite summer time spent flitting in and out of the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) here in Wellington.

Earlier this year documentary film-maker Richard Riddiford released his examination of the community that is the IIML and Victoria University Press (VUP, the publishers of The Luminaries). The strength of the community - and its outputs - are evident in various ways throughout the film. 

Particularly poignant is Eleanor Catton’s discussion of her own progression as a writer - analysing herself and the changes which occur to the creative individual during the process of creation. Catton muses on the distance  that can exist between who you are when you compose one work, versus who you become during the next.

For a more in-depth review, see here.

PLANNING CITY CULTURE

An opinion piece in today's Dominon Post entitled 'Lack of Planning hurting Wellington' is an interesting read, providing some thoughtful, grounded consideration of where Wellington City is going. The author's focus on public events, activities and use of space seems to highlight the lack of discussion of people we usually hear in planning conversations.

However, the piece got me thinking, and I had a few queries. I noted down the following, intending to post in reponse to the piece. However, my thoughts got out of hand, and before long I had well exceeded the maximum character limit. So, I thought I'd post it here instead.

'I am somewhat concerned that your suggestions for change focus on new buildings primarily located on the waterfront. This response echoes two urban issues Wellington encountered in the 1970s and the 1990s. In the 70s, a large amount of the building stock was demolished to pave the way for the new with the dream that this would fix the urban issues of the time. The learnings from that were that new was not neccessarily better, and that in establishing the new, much of what was held dear as quintessentially Wellington was lost. In developing culture, we have to take care not to abolish culture.


Members of the public seem to understand that new doesn't solve everything: in the 1990s, there was much public outcry about council plans for doing exactly what you suggest: building large facilities (some public, some private) on the Waterfront. The result of years of public dissent was Waitangi Park - a lively, variable terrain which acts as a connective tissue between the cultural institution of Te Papa (which, sadly, turns its back to the Waterfront) and the leisure precinct of Oriental Bay.

If you look at Wellington more broadly, you'll notice that it's not so much places, but the linkages between them which we struggle with. While our compactness lends us the title of a 'pedestrian friendly city', wide vehicular streets, large block sizes, and few direct accessways from the city to the waterfront limit pedestrian exploration and engagement. (In this sense, to praise Jervois quay as a necessary 'strong boundary' seems ill-considered.) If I could walk the short distance from Courtney Place up Taranki St to the Film Archive without getting drenched, having my skirt blow above my knees, my ears blown out by four lanes of traffic and nothing to look at but a blank facade than perhaps I might be more inclined to spend more time - and money - there. Why confine your conceptions of 'performance' and 'culture' within four-walls, or outdoor amphitheatres? The city as a whole deserves to be considered as a site of our cultural endevours.

The suggestion is that 'our planning needs to bring them together'. Close, but not quite. Rather, I suggest, our planning needs to promote active, connected, and accessible cultural institutions which are not neccessarily 'together' geogaphically, but which, through consideration of wider urban planning issues such as Jervois Quay and Taranki St, are accessible as a group, and indicate their individuals roles within the broader cultural climate you wish to promote.The distribution of cultural institutions throughout Wellington allows a broader range of individuals to come into contact with them everyday; rather than relegating them to the role of weekend or tourist fare that is the waterfront.

The answers are not as simple as : but then, our creativity should make Wellington well placed to develop innovative, long-term propositions. Wellington 2040 - and the creative public marketing of this vision - was surely a good start. '

HOMETOWN BOOMTOWN

MY TOWN.

Following the Christchurch Earthquakes, and subsequent demolition of a large number of historic buildings which were severely damaged in the quakes, there has been a continual mumble going on in Wellington about our own historic buildings. A number of them are categorised 'earthquake prone' - meaning they must either be seismically strengthened or demolished in the next 15 years.

It is interesting to see that our current policy is not unlike that of the 1970s, when a significant number of historic buildings were demolished. Many of these buildings were landmarks, whose titles, despite the  buildings having been gone for over 30 years,  I have used to denote places in the city my whole life. Places like 'Perrett's Corner', and 'Dukes' retain their titles, but the beautiful buildings which developed them as special spaces in the City are no more.

This wee film makes my heart ache with the concern of what my city will be like in another 30 years if this process is repeated again in the post-Christchurch hysteria. At one of the 'Talking Cities' lectures, someone made the point that numerous lives were saved by street awnings which stopped bricks from historic facades falling on to pedestrians. Perhaps this, rather than demolition, is an interim response worth pursuing.

PIGEON PARK

Always interesting to see how defunct public spaces were dreamed up.

Always interesting to see what people you have been reading look and speak like.

MINI-CITY

Having seen these tilt-shift photos by Ed McGowan a week or so ago, I was inspired to try my hand at tilt-shifting Wellington. Though I didn't have much time, or really know what I was doing, I was quite excited by the results of my five-minute snap on a rare sunny-and-still(ish) day. The images tend to be more believable as 'miniatures' when taken from above, so I'll have to find more high spots. I'm quite in love with how the water shots turned out.