From Rubble to Resilience: Ōtākaro Orchard’s Community Hub Nears Completion

What began as a grassroots response to the earthquakes is now on the verge of becoming one of Christchurch’s most visionary urban sustainability projects. The long-awaited Ōtākaro Orchard building—a hub for food resilience, community education, and local enterprise—is nearly complete, thanks to the tireless leadership of Hayley Guglietta and the dedicated volunteers of the Food Resilience Network.

Chairing the charitable organisation behind the orchard, Hayley describes the journey as “a bit like growing a garden”—one that’s required patience, persistence, and a community willing to roll up their sleeves. “We can’t wait. It will be so good to have it finished,” she says. “Then we can ramp up our work and deliver more, faster.”

🌱 Built by the People, for the People

The new building—situated on Cambridge Terrace alongside the Ōtākaro Avon River—will house a café, green grocer, information centre, demonstration kitchen, shared offices, and composting toilets, all surrounded by a thriving community food orchard tended by volunteers since 2016.

Construction has been anything but easy. After a funding shortfall stalled the project in 2019, the team revised the budget from $2.4 million to $1.2 million, relying heavily on donations, recycled materials, and volunteer hours to keep the dream alive. A recent PledgeMe campaign raised $60,000 to complete the exterior—just one of many bake-sale-style efforts that define the project’s people-powered ethos.

🌿 A Living Building with Purpose

The Orchard is also a model of regenerative design. Its blue-green roof—topped with native grasses and shrubs—stores water and insulates the building. Donated solar panels will provide underfloor heating and electricity. Wool insulation, handmade bricks, and a salvaged kitchen from Canterbury Museum are all part of the mosaic that makes this a truly community-built facility.

Landscaping is already underway, including a rainwater-swale system to manage runoff. Hayley and the team hope to open the doors when we get it finished..

🍎 Local Food, Shared Knowledge

Once open, the building will become a vibrant hub for public workshops, student engagement, community meetings, and food-focused education. The on-site grocer and kitchen will shine a light on local producers and growers, offering residents new ways to connect with food and with each other.

“This will really promote local food production,” says Hayley. “We’ll be able to highlight to our visitors, and people living in the city, how they can get involved in the area they live in.”

Interest from across the country has grown. “We’ve had a lot of visitors and spoken to people from other regions interested in what we are doing here,” she says. “We are a bit of an exemplar. It’s one of the good things to have come out of the earthquakes.”

🔄 Giving Back

Once fully operational, Ōtākaro Orchard aims to become self-sustaining by its second or third year, with ambitions to support other local food resilience projects across the city. “The funding pool is getting smaller,” Hayley acknowledges. “We want to be as sustainable as we can—and eventually be in a position to give back.”

 Link to the full Press article 

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350134388/urban-orchards-building-coming-fruition