Share an idea was a conversation with our community to gather ideas on how they wanted their Central City redeveloped following the devastating February 2011 earthquake.

Share an idea word cloud of key themes

Ideas were shared at a two-day Community Expo, online, by leaving a message, filling out a questionnaire, posting a letter and there were more than 100 meetings involving 1000 people.

The result: 106,000 ideas from our community which are reflected in the draft Central City Plan.

Read the key themes from the ideas shared [PDF, 4.1 MB] [PDF].

View the draft Central City Plan(external link) and the Central City Recovery Plan.

Share An Idea Expo - 14 and 15 May 2011

Share an Idea videos of presentationsVideos of presentations(external link)(external link) by speakers at the Speakers' Corner of the Share An Idea Community Expo. 

Videos of share an idea participants(external link).

Photo gallery

Share an Idea session
Speakers at Share an Idea
Share an Idea City model
Share an Idea wall

 'Share an Idea' International co-creation award

The Christchurch City Council has been recognised internationally for its Share an Idea community public engagement campaign.

Share an Idea, which involved the community sharing its ideas for the redevelopment of the Central City following the earthquakes, was the “unanimous overall winner” of the 2012 Co-creation Award. The awards recognise and celebrate the most original and successful co-creation initiatives.

Share an Idea was a way for the public to tell us their ideas about how the Central City should be redeveloped to be a great place again.

A Community Expo started the Share an Idea initiative in May 2011. For six weeks in May and June we gathered people’s ideas for the Central City. These ideas were brought together to help inform the draft Central City Plan as a broadly agreed structure and direction for the Central City.

48 Hour Design Challenge

The 48hr Design Challenge, run by the Christchurch City Council and held at Lincoln University, provided an opportunity for Council to gain inspiration from the design and architecture industry, while testing the draft Central City Plan currently being developed. A total of 15 teams took part in the Challenge, with seven people in each including engineers, planners, urban designers, architects and landscape architects, as well as one student on each team. Participants came from Singapore, Australia and around New Zealand.

The four sites within the Red Zone included the Cathedral Square and BNZ Building; 160 Gloucester Street; the Orion NZ Building at 203 Gloucester Street; and 90 Armagh Street, including the Avon River and Victoria Square. The fifth site, which sits outside the Red Zone, is the former Christchurch Women’s Hospital at 885 Colombo Street.

The Central City Plan team ran a 48 Hour Design Challenge at the School of Landscape Architecture, Lincoln University on the 1 to 3 July 2011. The goal was to provide the design and architecture industry with an opportunity to put their best plans forward for specific parts of the Central City.  

48hr Design Challenge winner NZ Wood's presentation of the new Orion site

The category winners:

  • Orion NZ site category winner and supreme award winner – team NZ Wood
  • 160 Gloucester site category winner – team SoLA (School of Landscape Architecture)
  • Cathedral Square and BNZ building site category winner – team ARUP – OPUS 2
  • 90 Armagh St site category winner – team LandMARKS
  • Former Christchurch Women’s Hospital site category winner – team OMC

Additional winners:

  • Student prize – Ben Carter of team NZ Wood
  • Most inspired architect winner – team OMC

Presentations:

160 Gloucester Street: Team Creative Futures [PDF, 923 KB] [PDF 1.07 MB], Team Neo Metro Black [PDF, 701 KB] [PDF 28.8 MB], Team SoLA [PDF, 826 KB] [PDF 3.6 MB]
Cathedral Square and BNZ Building: Team ADNZ 2, Team ARUP OPUS 2 [PDF, 2 MB] [PDF 14.1 MB], Team OPUS [PDF, 1 MB] [PDF 7.6 MB]
90 Armagh Street: Team Unlimited Sepia [PDF, 2.6 MB] [PDF 26 MB], Team LandMARKS [PDF, 1.4 MB] [PDF 10.4 MB], Team CPG [PDF, 2.5 MB] [PDF 24.1 MB]
Former Christchurch Women's Hospital: Team Quakeone [PDF, 502 KB] [PDF 5 MB], Team Character [PDF, 787 KB] [PDF 29.1 MB], Team OMC [PDF, 1.1 MB] [PDF 5.61 MB]
Orion NZ site: Team ADNZ 1 [PDF, 2.2 MB] [PDF 13 MB], Team Verde [PDF, 3.4 MB] [PDF 9 MB], Team NZ Wood [PDF, 6.1 MB] [PDF 7.39 MB]