In the aftermath of Christchurch’s 2010 earthquakes, Greening the Rubble assembled in December of that year to help the Placemaking group Gap Fillers organize a pop-up outdoor movie screening with live music on a recently demolished building site. Since then, the group’s focus has grown to include not just experts in site preparation, insurance, and permitting, but also landscaping, design, and construction. From modest beginnings focused on small space events coordination, Greening the Rubble has gone on to create temporary public parks and gardens on vacant land left fallow in the wake of the quake.

By combining the landowners’ permissions and financial support with extensive sponsorship opportunities for materials vendors, Greening the Rubble finances their projects through their value-added services to not only the local economy, but the enhanced aspects of community. In line with these business-oriented incentives, Greening the Rubble places a majority of its installations along commercial corridors, where retail foot traffic populates the parks in a mutual strengthening of the area’s identity as a vibrant destination. 

Photo credits, from left: Jocelyn Kinghor via Flickr, Steel Wool via Flickr, Joceylyn Kinghor via Flickr

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Website: greeningtherubble.org.nz/wp/