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CityUps live tomorrow night at FESTA in Christchurch!

Tomorrow night (Saturday 25 October) CityUps is live in central Christchurch. The Festival of Transitional Architecture invites people of all ages to join in for an incredible night out at the city of the future, designed and created by the next generation of architects, and have the city humming with people, colour and excitement.

Over the past week, a diverse range of installation partners have helped ready the vacant sites and build the twelve metre scaffolding frames on the corner of Manchester, High and Lichfield that support the students’ towering, glowing installations. Led by Studio Christchurch, over 250 students from CPIT, Unitec and The University of Auckland transform two blocks of Christchurch’s central city tomorrow night with outrageous designs and create their vision of a future city.

The students explore the theme of The Future Will Be Live with live, light architecture that regenerates the centre. There are thirteen designs that invite interaction from the public including ScopeCity, a twelve metre walk-in kaleidoscope where new patterns are created by the public’s movement; the geometrical structure Synthesis, which creates light pulses when the public activates the heart rate monitor in its interior; Equilibrium’s kinetic sculpture that uses pre-recorded and live digital projections so that the audience both experiences and participates in the installation; and Continuum where the public can eat under a canopy of floating light shards. These are just some of the incredible futuristic installations the students have created.

Local businesses, artists and innovative individuals have partnered up with student studios, so that each spectacular design has a buzzing urban space associated with it. Anissa Victoria’s Vintage Twilight Market, Twisted Hop, Cassels & Sons, The Food Collective, Cake by Anna, Street Games, a dance hall, an all ages youth venue, RAD Bikes bike disco and much more add to the atmosphere.

There is also a digital dimension to the city of the future: CityUps+ is a special digital app, created on a platform developed by HIT Lab NZ, which allows the public to view virtual future Christchurch created by architects from across the globe. The free app can be downloaded from Google Play and Apple App Store. Visit the Visionarium during CityUps if you need help.

All are invited to participate in this free, urban-scale public event. Be part of CityUps and help to animate these creative and temporary city spaces. Come in for a great night out and make Christchurch feel like a city again.

For FESTA 2014’s full programme, which includes a range of projects and events that explore future scenarios, please visit www.festa.org. The rain day for CityUps Sunday 26 October.

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Please contact emma@festa.org.nz for interviews, images and more information.

A brief guide to the installations and creative partnerships at CityUps:

Led by Studio Christchurch, 13 studios have formed from participants from The University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning, The University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts, Unitec Architecture Department and CPIT’s School of Architectural Studies. They have responded to the theme The Future Will Be Live and partnered up with local businesses, performers, innovative individuals and groups.

From CPIT:

Synthesis – a geometric structure formed from a multitude of elastics, which create an interior space where a heart rate monitor resides. When touched, this monitor initiates pulses of light. A dance hall and live music groups fill the space with activity.

From The University of Auckland:

Equilibrium (UoA)– a kinetic sculpture that makes use of digital projections. These are both pre-recorded and live, so that the audience can both experience and participate in the installation. White Elephant, the youth organisation, provides DJs to animate its all ages youth venue.

Upload– a temporary utopia and visual representation of the invisible digital world. Using floating, ethereal fabrics in combination with projections, sound, light and movement, this is a responsive installation. Chirney Coffee serves up the good stuff.

Orbis – glowing orbs hanging from a canopy create an undulating field and a new terrain for Christchurch. The Twisted Hop shares the site and serves up craft beers.

Continuum – an extreme perspective is created with an array of floating light shards that are pulled back to a single vanishing point. The public is invited to enter the frame and enjoy Excuse My French crepes under a canopy of lights.

CHCH2061 – the frame is both time gate and main stage. Different speculative futures for Christchurch are activated at intervals throughout the night and combined with music and projections. DJ JAB provides the sound.

Antigravity – this gravity defying installation uses the humble road cone to create a visually stimulating installation that challenges and inverts the way people see things. The studio’s partner is Cakes by Anna, which combines art and fresh, local produce to make delicious cakes.

Elam School of Fine Arts – this studio presents performances and small, artistic interventions at different points and places throughout CityUps.

From Unitec:

Aurora – luminous and colourful ducting tubes, with their qualities of flexibility and strength, are used to represent Christchurch expanding and reaching for a lively future. Black Betty’s are working with this student team.

Glow City – A multitude of interconnected, glowing strings represent hope and a brighter future. Street Games, a sports charity focused on community and sports suited to the neighbourhood environment, run beneath this installation.

The Daze Maze –a labyrinthine structure that offers the public the chance to relive the city laneway experience. Images of heritage buildings that once stood on High St line the maze, and spaces are filled with live music curated by Knightlife. Young people and children can sketch ideas for the future.

ING – reused bottles in their thousands create this visually powerful installation, which showcases the unlimited potential of thousands of pieces uniting together.

Influx – this installation makes use of radiating light to draw people in and waves to represent the seismic events. RAD Bikes, the community bike workshop, shares this site and is celebrating CityUps with a bike disco.

ScopeCity – this walk-in 12 by 4 metre kaleidoscope brings light and colour to the city centre. When people walk through it, new patterns are created. ScopeCity has partnered up with Cassels & Sons.