The Canterbury Employment and Skills Board has expected there will be approximately 36,000 workers coming to Christchurch to help with the rebuild in the following 10-15 years. In housing terms, that number roughly equates to 15,000 new households. The lack of accommodation has become a crisis for workers and their families moving into the city. The current plan is to house these workers in “migrant workers’ camps or working men’s villages” in central Christchurch.

This thesis investigates how the design of temporary housing for the workers can be integrated into the community, making it a place where there is a sense of dignity and pride. It explores what the worker housing community can potentially be, shaping it into a more productive environment and following the adage that, “happy workers are productive workers”. The aim is to create an environment that could motivate the workers, not only benefiting the workers themselves but also their employers.

Research covers the use of prefabrication techniques in designing housing for the workers and extends into the notion of mass customisation to give opportunity for the workers to express their identity and to adapt the units to suit their own lifestyle. The aim of this research is to give workers the freedom to personalize their own space, so that they will feel like their new house is like a home.

Prefabrication also plays a part in the second life of the building - the reconfiguration of the structure to adapt to a future use - when the workers have left.

The thesis looks on what will happen to the worker housing after the 10-15 years of “rebuild” period, whether or not the temporary housing units become permanent, or whether the housing units be recycled or reused – looking at their second life. It will be the first for Christchurch and will also benefit the workers.


The research proposes three second life exemplars and tests one by a detailed design.