earthquake

Respecting our resources: the Christchurch team working to save timber from landfill

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A small but dedicated salvage team based in Christchurch, The Silvan started out life as an art gallery and café. When their building was lost in the 2011 earthquakes, the team came back fighting, shifting their focus to saving and repurposing beautiful timbers, hand salvaged from damaged buildings. Founders Debra and GT believe in minimising waste and reusing everything they can to make pieces that are practical, beautiful, and full of soul.

Container Love in Sumner, Christchurch

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When you don’t like the way your surroundings look, you have two choices. You can either live with it, or you can do something about it. Technically speaking you could also move, but that’s not an option for Christine Reitze who lives in Sumner, Christchurch, because she loves being near the sea.

“I was looking at the containers which are being used to protect our streets from falling rocks and finding them really unattractive in that context. Normally I quite like shipping containers, but in Sumner they are just an ugly reminder of the June earthquake, when the cliffs started to come down. I decided I needed to do something,” says Christine.