Steel & Tube is helping to bring a little colour and life back to Christchurch city’s vacant blocks as part of our on-going commitment to the earthquake recovery effort.
Gap Filler is a charitable trust that aims to temporarily reactivate Christchurch’s post-quake vacant sites with creative projects for the benefit of the community. It aims to make the city a more interesting, dynamic and vibrant place, by working with local businesses, community groups, artists, architects, landowners, librarians, designers, students, engineers, dancers – anyone with an idea and initiative.
Many Gap Filler projects require additional support from local businesses and community organisations, and Steel & Tube is pleased to have been able to assist with several community projects, most recently the Dance-O-Mat and the Summer Pallet Pavilion.
Dance-O-Mat is a dance floor with a coin-operated lighting and sound system courtesy of a converted washing machine (a laundromat, hence the name). Anyone can use the site, plug in their MP3 player and start dancing. Organisers say the project was created in response to the loss of many of the dance studios and performance spaces around the city.
Steel & Tube was able to support the project by donating materials and expertise during the installation of the Dance-O-Mat on a vacant site on Oxford Terrace in the central city.
It needed to be a robust, outdoor installation so we provided galvanised pipes and fittings to house the electrical cables connecting the dance floor, lighting and sound systems, and sections of bent steel plate to serve as ramps over the pipe.
“Steel & Tube was incredibly helpful in getting the project up and running again in the city,” says Richard Sewell, Gap Filler Project Coordinator. “Your support is greatly appreciated.”
The Dance-O-Mat has proven so popular that this is the second installation of its kind to appear in Christchurch. The original amassed over 600 hours of use in the three months it was operating and organisers say they expect even larger numbers this time around.
“It has been receiving increasing use as people discover its new location and has already had over 80 hours of dance time,” says Mr Sewell.
The Dance-O-Mat even received royal approval when Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, visited the site in November, with the Prince accepting an invitation to dance from a local woman. Organisers say the exposure has been invaluable for Gap Filler and Christchurch city.