Interlude: Performative Architecture in the Transitional City

Abstract

Two years of earthquakes and man-made disasters have left Christchurch divided, conflicted and uncertain. With over eighty percent of the central city cited for demolition there is a radical shift in civic identity and a need to reconcile the relationship between people and their city. Such disruption exemplifies Christchurch as a concentrated study of global changes, where new urban forms must evolve a social and political response to contemporary desires for mobility and community. This thesis explores a public right to the city in Christchurch’s present transitional city phase, as a response to modernist urban planning. It argues that for architecture this period represents an opportunity to engage with the ephemeral and stimulate social participation, performing to new cultural demands and creative identities. To support this emerging creative identity in Christchurch, this thesis focuses on the interactive relationship between theatrical performance, architecture and public space. The design-led research reworks the theatre as a cultural site for social interaction and the temporary activation of urban space. A methodology of interdisciplinary studies between architecture and performance explores avant-garde theatrical movement and visuality extending space-making beyond the aesthetic, forming a dynamic response to users. Drawing influence from performative qualities in case studies and current practice, this research develops through a series of theatrical spaces on the contested edge of the central city red-zone. The Free Theatre and Arts Circus proposal form the site and festive programme for a succession of architectural interventions that blur the definitions between audience and performers to enable everyone as spatial actors. Conclusions acknowledge theatrical space as not only a container of performance, but a performative architecture within the politicised urban context. Research seeks to illustrate architecture’s role in forming spatial and social interactions between people and events. This thesis aims to affirm the value of temporary and artistic interventions in activating urban space and constructing a renewed sense of place, relevant to both a local and international 21st century city.