Grandstandium

A relocatable mini-grandstand for adding an extra sense of spectacle to a range of event and happenings. Complete with awning for sun and rain it seats 30 people and is available to hire.

Just add spectacle

The Grandstandium was created in 2015 for the Festival of Transitional Architecture in October of that year. Designed concurrently with our Retrosports Facility, the Grandstandium was designed to be a useful amenity as well as critique the Government’s stadium anchor project. 

The Grandstandium seats 32 people and comes with a retractable awning to protect from sun and rain. It comes with a commentary box for added hilarity and can be towed by a 4WD or ute and put in place at a range of events around the city. It adds added spectacle to whatever it is placed alongside. 

 

Fit for any location

Gap Filler was interested in how, with relatively minimal infrastructure, one could define and create public space, almost instantly. We dreamed of spontaneous sporting moments on different spaces around the city or transforming some of the extraordinary construction or demolition projects around the city into crowd-worthy events.

Originally designed by Gap Filler co-founder Andrew Just (FIELD) in conversation with Luis Castillo and Matt Brown, engineers at Aurecon, the project developed further in June 2015 after a conversation with Alejandro Haiek-Coll, a visiting Venezuelan architect and community activist (an artist in residence with The Physics Room and Elam School of Fine Arts in 2015). Alejandro was also intrigued by the way people would stop to watch or photograph building demolitions around Christchurch – often stopping in the street to do so. Together with Gap Filler he developed an instant-grandstand project, which, for one day, provided some infrastructure from which people could observe the (controversial) demolition of Centennial Pool earlier in 2015. The Grandstandium built upon that experiment.

Who, what, where, when

Date: October 2015 – present

Locations: Wherever you want! But often it lives at 70 Kilmore Street

Client/Funder: Christchurch City Council, Freemasons

Key people: Andrew Just (FIELD), Rodney Hern, Luis Castillo, Matt Brown, Rikki Berger

Values: Experimentation, Collaboration

Support/Sponsors: FIELD Achitecture Studio, Aurecon, Steel & Tube

Hire me!

The Grandstandium is available for hire to community groups, events, schools and more. It can be towed by a 4-wheel drive or two tonne ute. Seats up t0 32 people with roof for sun/rain.

For more information and to arrange your hire, please contact filltehgap@gapfiller.org.nz