Quake city demolition too slow, expert warns

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee watches demolition work on earthquake damaged buildings. Photo / Martin Hunter

Christchurch will face rapidly escalating costs if it doesn't speed up demolition in the central city, says a visiting international expert in disaster recovery.

Architecture for Humanity founder Cameron Sinclair is calling for a leader with a "gentle iron fist" to get things moving.

Mr Sinclair has led nine reconstruction processes over the past 10 years, each taking three to five years.

"The one thing in common is that the cost of reconstruction is exponential," he said. "The longer you wait the more it's going to cost you."

It's critical to get the reconstruction phase started quickly, said Mr Sinclair, whose organisation provides low cost architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and design services to communities in need.

Alongside the local construction boom that will occur in Christchurch, he said there will inevitably be a shortage of materials and labour. "The cost of materials is going to escalate - so in all of New Zealand there is going to be temporary, or sometimes permanent, escalation of costs."

Mr Sinclair said similar comments he made in May were misconstrued as criticism of how hard people were working.

"I was suggesting if you went to a seven-day week with rolling teams coming in on four day shifts, you could expedite the demolition process and go to a much smoother reconstruction phase."

He'd also like to see a more staged approach.

"If an area gets done, let's get the planning and the review process going. Reconstruction takes a long time because there are so many stakeholders you have to deal with."

Architecture for Humanity has raised some money to help with reconstruction and is, in conjunction with Auckland School of Architecture students, working with Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti, a secondary school in the city centre that was severely damaged in the February earthquake. The school has been temporarily shifted to Halswell.

"We need to help them figure out if they can stay, and if they can't, then what are the options," said Mr Sinclair.

"It was really hard to raise funds for Christchurch in the shadow of Japan, but we did raise a little bit of money," he said.

"At the moment, we have endless discussion with the community knowing we can't do anything until the demolition is done. So you have a community waiting and waiting."

Mr Sinclair also criticised the fact that the main message conveyed in international media after the February earthquake was that Christchurch's Rugby World Cup games would be played.

"To me that was not the message that needed to be said: 'Don't worry, we don't need your help, we're fine."'

Japan, he said, "reluctantly opened its arms" and asked those who could provide support to get in touch.

"We were doing little projects north of Sendai - rebuilding a small village and community facilities. Within months we were asked by the Japanese Government to meet the Cabinet - whereas here we have been left to local level intervention."

Based on the organisation's experience, including rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake and building with the United Nations in Sri Lanka, Mr Sinclair said leadership is key.

"There has to be someone who has a gentle iron fist - a charismatic leader who understands the will of the people, someone with vision thinking about the future of Christchurch and who is willing to be the bad guy when it comes to getting it done."

He said that during reconstruction somebody is always vilified for "just doing the tough stuff and then, once it's done, they are pretty much a hero."

As a sign of solidarity for the city and for morale, Mr Sinclair said the Rugby World Cup organisers could have done more - such as trying to organise the New Zealand and Japan teams to come together on one of city's still functioning rugby grounds for a practice game, "as a way to say we are not abandoning the city."

He said badly affected areas would benefit from community-based rebuilding centres - one-stop shops for anyone to drop in and get advice from building experts.

Crucial to the rebuild was lining up big business.

"Right now, if I was the mayor of Christchurch, I'd be going round and poaching businesses - offering incentives, rates holidays, whatever it takes to get strong anchor tenants in the city."