A photo of the Christchurch Timezone which has caught the internets attention Photo: u/chestertravis
A piece of "accidental architecture" in Christchurch is creating a global buzz, attracting thousands of comments on Reddit.
The building in question is a 28-metre-high concrete wall with the entrance to the TimeZone video arcade at the bottom, and not much else.
Senior writer at The Spinoff, Alex Casey, was so baffled by this slightly dystopian-looking building that she decided to investigate.
The first time she saw it she was "staggered by it," she told RNZ's Nights.
"It looks like something out of Blade Runner. And as it turns out I'm not alone in being captivated."
The structure has popped up on various Reddit threads, she said.
"It even made it to the front page of Reddit at some stage last year, which got, hundreds and thousands of likes and comments, people saying, where is this? What is this? And why does this exist?"
The wall resembles a portal, she said.
"There's this just enormous, flat, really severe concrete wall, which people have likened to kind of a Soviet prison.
"And then in the middle of it, just at ground level, there's a little door into a kind of glowing neon Wonderland."
She sought the help of Dr Jess Halliday, an architectural historian in Christchurch to find out more, who put her on to architect Richard Dalman.
"Who was delighted to find out that this wall, had been embraced the way that it had, because it actually was never supposed to be seen by anybody.
"The truth is that there was supposed to be a building in front of it, so they had never actually planned for it to be seen or to be exposed in this way. But, the rebuild being what it is, and the market being what it is, the plan for a building in front of it fell through, so they were left with this exposed concrete facade."
Dalman calls it "accidental architecture", architecture that was never supposed to be seen or appreciated by anybody.
Behind the facade is the building Dalman designed, she said.
"Because this giant concrete facade gets so much attention, people fail to actually go around the corner and look up at the actual designed part of the building.
"So if you are in Christchurch and you head to Hereford Street, I recommend you go into that area and have a look up, because Richard Dalman designed these beautiful curved black panels, which are supposed to speak to the eels and the Avon just down the down the way."
The facade has caught the eye Christchurch's creative community, she said, local noise band Le Fuzz Manu feature the wall on their latest album cover.
"It's really become this cultural phenomenon down here. And there's a beautiful irony and kind of sadness in it that it might not be forever. It's not supposed to be there. And if a building, gets signed off, there will be something going in front of it."
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