IMAGEN

Type of organisation architecture; art; Charitable Trust; community; cultural; transitional Scope of organisation Christchurch

Set up in response to EQs Yes

Established October 2010

Gap Filler is a creative urban regeneration initiative started in response to the September 4, 2010 Canterbury earthquake, and revised and expanded in light of the more destructive February 22, 2011 quake.

Active in Sept 2013? Active

Objectives A creative urban regeneration initiative activating vacant sites in Christchurch with creative projects for community benefit.

Description Gap Filler aims to temporarily activate vacant sites within Christchurch with creative projects, to make for a more interesting, dynamic and vibrant city. Gap Filler will see vacant sites - awaiting redevelopment as a result of the many earthquakes or otherwise - utilised for temporary, creative, people-centred purposes. We work with local community groups, artists, architects, landowners, librarians, designers, engineers, dancers - anyone with an idea and initiative! We lower the barriers, by handling the legal contracts and liability insurance, to help ideas become a reality.

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Gap Filler is temporary in nature, seeking to activate vacant sites for relatively short periods, to demonstrate that the city can grow in important ways without large capital expenditure or major construction. Gap Filler projects can pop up as spaces become available around the city. All projects will be able to occupy or vacate a site quickly.

With smaller-scale temporary projects, the community gets to try out new ideas and create a dynamic for experimentation. Together, we can work out what works by actually doing it, not just talking about it. Some projects might disappoint, but an unsuccessful project on this level costs relatively little time and money, and can help avoid a much costlier failure in the city rebuild. So, in addition to enlivening and enriching the cultural life of the city, these projects are utterly practical.

We seek to involve members of the community and volunteers in our projects at any stage, from suggesting ideas to the design, preparation, installation and maintenance of sites. In this way we hope to help connect people with their city and provide opportunities to have a stake in the city right now.

Christchurch needs our help! There are wonderful ideas for the future of the city, but that's a long way off and many people need reasons to stay now. Gap Filler gives everyday people a way to contribute to the city's regeneration instead of passively waiting for the professionals to do the job. Site-specific projects can help us celebrate, mourn and criticise all that we've lost; can help us play, experiment and toy with ideas for the future; can make otherwise empty areas active; and can ultimately pave the way for the revitalisation of the city (without using pavement).

Activities  The Arcades Project

 Anissa's Vintage Market (monthly)  book fridge

 Cycle-powered Cinema  Dance-O-Mat

 Gap Golf: http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/gap-golf

Gap Filler’s Gap Golf project came from humble beginnings – a thin strip of donated, used, artificial turf, some wood and waratah off-cuts, an empty baked beans tin and a bit of land from a Greening the Rubble project – and “Skinny Limits” was born in mid 2012. It is a short par 2 between the first Gap Filler office site (404 Colombo Street) and Coffee Zone in Sydenham.

There are now 7 holes in the inner-city, please see below for info on locations. With the grand plan to launch a multi-hole course around the city by the end of 2012 delayed due to the construction and activation of the Summer Pallet Pavilion, Gap Filler are now pleased to announce the course is officially open. Each hole is located on different sites around the inner city.

The holes will remain in place for as long as landowners are happy for Gap Filler to use their sites. The mini-golf holes can be used by anyone at any time. Where possible nearby businesses will put a club and balls out each day during the week for the public to borrow, otherwise come prepared with your own putter and ball.

 Gap Map: http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/our-projects/

 13 April 2013: Hidden Talent Show  mural painting

 music events  Pallet Pavilion  pop-up soccer pitch

 April 2013: Rock on Eastside (rock painting) - in collaboration with Youthtown

 Transitional City Audio Tour: http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/apr-8-the- transitional-city-audio-tour/

Coordinated by Gap Filler co-founder Ryan Reynolds this project offers locals and visitors to the city alike the opportunity to explore part of what was once the CBD on foot, linking selected sites, buildings and landmarks – both notable and obscure – into a trail that takes participants from Gap Filler’s Summer Pallet Pavilion in a loop around the central city.

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The motivation for this project came from a group of people who were keen to explore and demonstrate their shared interest in the Transitional City, and a desire to critique the top-down, “Master Plan”/Blueprint process. The project brought together people involved in fine arts and creative arts disciplines, geography/planning, architecture, and landscape architecture from CPIT, Lincoln University, and the University of Canterbury.

Their personal stories and historical and contemporary geographical and architectural information provide the listener with what feels like a personalised commentary of the current Christchurch city experience.

Key figures Ryan Reynolds

Contact information [email protected] Website http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GapFiller?ref=ts&fref=ts  Facebook page created 14 November 2010  6061 ‘likes’ as at 7 July 2013

 Very active - posts every few days

Keywords - concerns architecture; arts; Christchurch Central; community; culture; land; morale; ‘pop- up’; recreation; space; sport; tourism; transition; University of Canterbury; urban renewal; volunteerism

Keywords - target groups artists; Cantabrians; non-Cantabrians; residents; residents - Christchurch; tourists; volunteers