The Raft: New Brighton

VISION

The coastal front of New Brighton, the small seaside village located east of Christchurch within Pegasus Bay, was once a vibrant lively beachfront generating activity and promoting growth. Throughout the 20th century, it was a place for recreation and leisure. A commercial hub where various growing businesses could take part in an act of trading with the locals of the rapidly expanding Christchurch. As time passed, enhancements within New Brighton could not compete with the overall expansion of Canterbury moving inwards into the lower plains. This lead to closing of tram systems, relocation of businesses and overall decline in activity along the once vibrant beachfront. This decline in activity was even more prominent after the 2011 earthquake, leaving New Brighton in a vulnerable position in which it currently rests. New Brighton Needs a meaningful intervention to keep itself afloat. 

The once bustling and vibrant costal front of New Brighton will be rediscovered and reinvented with a bold new character. The community and landscape will be connected together with a series of meaningful interventions, generating growth, prosperity, establishing resilience over the seafront and overall improving the quality of life for the local residents and tourists.

CONNECT

Establishing a strong connection within the community that is well connected with the wider city.

• Extend and direct existing walking and biking tracks into New Brighton and throughout the central domain.
• Improve public transport within New Brighton by relocating bus stops and reintroducing the tram system into the central domain.

ACTIVATE

Provide a variety of multiuse spaces across different scales, that are exciting, stimulating and have a sense of safety.

• Construct a lively and compact commercial/residential complex to concentrate activity within the central domain.
• C.E.P.T.E.D principles will be incorporated when constructing a variety of comfortable and safe public open spaces.

PROTECT

A resilience strategy that ensures New Brighton’s economic and ecological future.

• Construct new green infrastructures, integrated with the existing water network to improve water quality and promote ecological growth.
• An adapt/mitigate strategy, consisting of proposed sea walls, expanding and enhancing sand dunes and constructing an adaptive wetland to increase protection against sea level rise and coastal hazards.
• Increasing local resilience and promoting social interaction by allocating building and land use that complement each other.