Why isn’t New Zealand part of Australia anyway?
This is a very interesting short video about why New Zealand is (not!) a State of Australia… Read more…
Public Microclimates
I have recently published a book chapter entitled ‘Public Microclimates: Thermal Outdoor Expectations in Post-Earthquake Christchurch (New Zealand)’, in the book ‘The Urban Microclimate as Artifact: Towards an Architectural Theory of Thermal Diversity’ by Sascha Roesler and Madlen Kobi. Read more…
Guest editorial for Landscape Review
I have previously shared here a recent publication entitled Urban Comfort in a Future Compact City: Analysis of Open space Qualities in the Rebuilt Christchurch Central City. That paper was published in an special issue which collected papers from the SoLA Symposium, which happened in October 2016 at Lincoln University.
As I was in the editorial board, I have also contributed to a guest editorial piece entitled Integrated Urban Grey and Green Infrastructures, co-authored with Dr Andreas Wesener, Dr Wendy McWilliam, and Professor Janis Birkeland (this piece is available here) Read more…
Urban comfort in a compact city
Things have been quiet around here as I have been travelling for several weeks, and now I am trying slowly organising ‘normal life’. Even the ‘month in review’ posts, which are so important for me, my sanity and production, and which I hope you also like to read, haven’t been published since October. So I leave a promise here – for you and for me – that the next one, which will be published in the beginning of February, will have a full November, December and January summary. I can assure you some interesting things have happened so far.
Coming up next week: Presentation at the 10th International Urban Design Conference
Next week I will be presenting the study ‘Urban Climate Adaptation through Design and Planning: A New Zealand Perspective’ at the International Urban design Conference, which will happen in the Gold Coast here in Queensland. Read more…
Urban Comfort: The physical and social landscape as constituent of the climate experience
I recently published a paper entitled “Urban Comfort: The physical and social landscape as constituent of the climate experience” (original in Portuguese: Conforto Urbano: A paisagem física e social como constituinte da experiência climática) in Cadernos do PROARQ. This is a Brazilian journal published in Portuguse by the Postgraduate Program in Architecture at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Read more…
Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial
On the 22nd February 2011 a large earthquake hit Christchurch (New Zealand). The earthquake took the lives of 185 people and destroyed large parts of the city. Exactly six years later, on the 22 February 2017, the ‘Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial’ was inaugurated. Read more…
SoLA Symposium and the memories of what I have not seen
The relationship with a post-disaster environment is a strange and powerful one. I arrived in Christchurch on the 15th February 2011, exactly one week before the earthquake that would extensively damage the city and its CBD. Read more…
Turning up the heat on climate change strategies
Lincoln University has recently published a media release about a project that is bringing a New Zealand perspective to an international study on how urban planners and designers are dealing with the threat of climate change. Read more…
Accessible cities and Christchurch: Moving in opposite directions
Christchurch Central City is largely a one-way system, intended at freeing the traffic and letting it flow. But it has just been decided the Central City is now going to have a speed limit of 30km/h. Read more…
SILVIA TAVARES 