Yes yes - I am still in the land of the living.
So too, fortunately, is the home I built in Christchurch. In fact it took no damage whatsoever. As it should, because it was built like the proverbial brick shithouse!
A large portion of the city is a real mess though, and it will be 20 years before we are fully recovered from two devastating earthquakes. Another relatively strong aftershock hit about 2 minutes ago.
What's interesting is that if you owned a wooden home, on a concrete slab, with a tin roof, your house was almost undamaged - even in the very heavily hit areas. (Provided the earth under the home did not split or move vertically more in one location than another.)
Just about every home with bricks as cladding has lost the bricks on at least two sides. The homes which were CONSTRUCTED of bricks have mostly collapsed. But it's been 50 years since it became illegal to build things using bricks. (I call the modern fascination with covering wooden buildings in brick; "Brick Veneereal Disease". I rate it about as highly as I rate columns at the front of a home, holding up nothing at all.
Concrete block buildings faired pretty well.
The kiss of death to a home though, has been concrete tiles on the roof. I have no idea how many tons of tiles a 240sq.m home has, but what I do know is that the answer is "too many". All that weight at the top of a building causes either the building to collapse, or the roof to self-destruct and fall into the home, or create an avalanche of concrete which can kill you as you run from the home.
Damage to sewerage and water mains, and roads will take many years to clear up. Roads next to the two main rivers through town have been, in many cases, completely destroyed, with earth movements of up to 2 metres in any direction.
The liquefaction which spewed out everywhere is estimated to have been around 2-3 million tons worth for both earthquakes. That's a very large pile of it, believe me!
Oddly, the material (mostly sand mixed with silt and mud) when it dries out smells exactly like a pig farm - which shouldn't be a surprise I guess.
Fortunately, the area I am living in now was unaffected by the quake, except we had no more than a tiny dribble, or no water at all, for 9 days afterwards. I never complained about bathing out of a bucket, but I can confirm that hot and cold running water and a functioning sewer system is the greatest luxury there is.
I am in design mode again now, for my next new home, and this one will not be based on an FLW design, but be an entirely new design based on tilt-slab concrete. It will however retain some FLW design cues: large overhangs, clerestory windows, flat rooves on differing levels, large living areas and modest bedrooms. It will be remarkable simple, yet cunningly detailed, with simple motifs repeated throughout the design.
I have established a basic design around an asymmetric Cruciform shape, with the home itself being the familiar L-shape of many of FLWs Usonians. The "Baselines" of the cruciform will be individual slabs extending right through the entire home, and obviously visible as such. They continue out from the home and into the gardens and entryway area, and form the basis for several large cantilevers to provide shade and rain cover for occupants and visitors.
I will post some drawings when I am satisfied I have something to show you, which won't make you feel ill!