Abstract:
The Canterbury Employment and Skills Board has expected there will be approximately 36,000 workers coming to Christchurch to help with the rebuild in the following 10-15 years. In housing terms, that number roughly equates to 15,000 new households. The lack of accommodation has become a crisis for workers and their families moving into the city. The current plan is to house these workers in “migrant workers’ camps or working men’s villages” in central Christchurch. This thesis investigates how the design of temporary housing for the workers can be integrated into the community, making it a place where there is a sense of dignity and pride. It explores what the worker housing community can potentially be, shaping it into a more productive environment and following the adage that, “happy workers are productive workers”. The aim is to create an environment that could motivate the workers, not only benefiting the workers themselves but also their employers. Research covers the use of prefabrication techniques in designing housing for the workers and extends into the notion of mass customisation to give opportunity for the workers to express their identity and to adapt the units to suit their own lifestyle. The aim of this research is to give workers the freedom to personalize their own space, so that they will feel like their new house is like a home. Prefabrication also plays a part in the second life of the building - the reconfiguration of the structure to adapt to a future use - when the workers have left. The thesis looks on what will happen to the worker housing after the 10-15 years of “rebuild” period, whether or not the temporary housing units become permanent, or whether the housing units be recycled or reused – looking at their second life. It will be the first for Christchurch and will also benefit the workers. The research proposes three second life exemplars and tests one by a detailed design. Exemplar 01 is a backpacker hostel in Bangor St, Christchurch Central (inner city site); Exemplar 02 is a live-and-work building next to Eastgate Shopping Centre, Linwood (integrated site); Exemplar 03 is community housing in Farnborough St, Aranui (residential development site). Taking Exemplar 01 to be further developed, the design research shows that the design of the worker housing (first life) and the backpacker hostel (second life) need to be predetermined in the early design stage. Internal walls that can be rearranged are the essence of the transition of this proposal. The wall panels are designed to be mass-produced in a few varieties, allowing for mass-customisation.