The Compost Collective
06 December 2021
Ōtākaro Orchard has been part of the rebuild vision from the first public consultation, and is the only community led anchor project.
Co-created through community consultation, Ōtākaro Orchard will be a living learning hub for growing food, a local food information centre, with café, office and event spaces, and HQ for the Food Resilience Network. Outside will host a food forest, a free edible garden, living classroom, outdoor amphitheatre, and garden venue in the heart of the city.
SHARING FOOD
40% of Cantabrians struggle to afford healthy food. Ōtākaro Orchard will produce 1,000 kg of fresh produce each year, a free edible landscape for everyone.
GROWING KNOWLEDGE
Ōtākaro Orchard is a living learning environment where people can grow, cook, and preserve their own fruit and veggies. Community experts will share their skills, teaching us where our food comes from and how to grow it ourselves.
CONNECTING PEOPLE
Ōtākaro Orchard connects people interested in food and community, encouraging inter-generational knowledge transfer.
- Improves wellbeing
- Supports social good
- Attracts visitors drawn to Christchurch’s living laboratory
- Community in the heart of the city
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING
At the heart of the Orchard will be our local food hub, a beautiful space created to the world’s most rigorous standards for sustainable building. When the building is finished it will the first Living Building in Christchurch, a space that gives more than it takes from our environment.The building includes green roofs, solar energy, rainwater tanks, grey water recycling, composting toilets, and is built with entirely non-toxic materials. Reclaimed elm from Hagley Park, and the walls will be built with 4,000 adobe bricks handmade by 109 volunteers.
A TRUE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Once Ōtākaro Orchard Hub is built it will be self-funding. We’re creating a new model for charities, breaking the cycle of hand outs, freeing Ōtākaro Orchard from continual requests for public funding, and making a space for business opportunities to blossom.
