Roundtable Statement

Roundtable: ADA Mesh Cities: Network, Space and Memory in the Transitional City

The intertwined issues of water and archives and memory provide a perfect ending point here. One of the things that is resonant about Waiariki is the surfacing of water, because one of the big problems in Christchurch is that the European settlers covered over all the water when they filled in the swamp and then built a city upon it, made of unreinforced masonry. So the city is full of water that is invisible and covered over, and there is a metaphor in that for the sort of things that come up, the things that are hidden within a city and released by the trauma of an event like the earthquake, and then the demolition of the city in its wake. There is genuine trauma arising from the loss of people, homes, jobs and the familiar environment that many of us can barely acknowledge even now.

• Zita Joyce, Department of Media and Communication, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ

Full text (PDF) p. 293-294