Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Wednesday <strong>November</strong> 2 <strong>2016</strong><br />
BAY HARBOUR<br />
PAGE 7<br />
help rebuild city’s communities<br />
There must have been some<br />
incredible projects in the likes<br />
of Paris?<br />
There was one project in Paris<br />
– it’s the only time I’ve ever cried<br />
when we lost a project. It still<br />
hurts to this day. I fell in love<br />
with it. It’s where I learned to<br />
dream with the intent to realise<br />
the dream. It’s easy to come up<br />
with an idea, it’s expensive to<br />
execute them.<br />
I’d imagine it would be. Have<br />
you been anywhere other than<br />
America, Europe and New<br />
Zealand?<br />
I’m also a Brazilian resident.<br />
My father lives there. I spend<br />
a bit of time there and I speak<br />
Portuguese as well. He lives in<br />
northern Brazil. He built a selfsustaining<br />
home in the middle<br />
of the sand dunes. He’s lived<br />
without electricity for the last 25<br />
years and now has solar power.<br />
He’s a hippy in the middle of a<br />
desert. So he’s my inspiration for<br />
a lot of things.<br />
That’s pretty incredible. Do<br />
you have a project that, once<br />
completed, you’ll be happy to<br />
retire and put your feet up?<br />
No. I don’t really have an<br />
end-game. I love seeing positive<br />
change. And I think we’re all<br />
inherently creative, to see that<br />
work done is the road and the<br />
Previously<br />
United Travel<br />
COMMUNITY BUILDER: XCHC is the first of many community projects Camia Young hopes to set<br />
up around Christchurch.<br />
end for me.<br />
Where did you spend your<br />
school years?<br />
Up through to secondary<br />
I was in Aspen, elementary<br />
and high school. Then I did<br />
my undergraduate at the<br />
University of Colorado and<br />
graduated as valedictorian and<br />
went on to get a masters in<br />
Los Angeles at SCIARC, the<br />
Southern California Institute of<br />
Architecture. In three years, I got<br />
two masters degrees, rather than<br />
two and a half for one masters,<br />
which it could’ve been. Then I<br />
practiced architecture in Europe<br />
for 11 years, across the board<br />
there.<br />
Do you have any family over<br />
here in Christchurch?<br />
No, no family here, I fly solo.<br />
I have lots of love. I miss them,<br />
miss the mountains, too. But<br />
some family has come out while<br />
I’m here, though. Mum and dad<br />
have been out. My sister uses<br />
the old ‘if you don’t eat your<br />
vegetables you won’t be able to<br />
go visit Aunty Camia’ on her two<br />
kids. They’re super-excited to<br />
visit as well.<br />
Was it always an intention of<br />
yours to come to Christchurch?<br />
FLY<br />
Not at all. I was looking for<br />
change from working in a<br />
corporate office. As much as I<br />
loved my life in Europe, I wanted<br />
to find somewhere I could do<br />
my own thing. A friend of mine<br />
who is a Kiwi offered to bring me<br />
in to teach at the University of<br />
Auckland, which was about three<br />
months before the February<br />
22, 2011, earthquake. Then<br />
that entire year course became<br />
focused on the earthquake and<br />
on Christchurch. I had never<br />
taught and I had never been to<br />
Christchurch, but I was looking<br />
for a new home and so I came<br />
a month before the course<br />
was due to start and I walked<br />
Christchurch for that month and<br />
then went up to teach the course.<br />
I knew in that month that I<br />
would stay here. I was looking<br />
at a couple of other countries<br />
around the world – Brazil,<br />
Canada – but I couldn’t do it.<br />
What are some of your<br />
first memories stepping into<br />
Christchurch post-earthquake?<br />
It was late 2011, so it was<br />
post-apocalyptic. I thought<br />
immediately I was in way over<br />
my head and I thought I was<br />
naive in the fact that I thought<br />
I could make a difference. But<br />
after phoning my dad about it,<br />
I decided I would stay. I started<br />
really walking the city and<br />
learning as much as I possibly<br />
could about it. I ended up getting<br />
my visa through the job in<br />
Auckland and now I’m here. But<br />
that month, it was really scary<br />
for me because I had never seen<br />
a crisis on that scale before and I<br />
didn’t know what to do.<br />
Had you experienced an<br />
earthquake before that?<br />
I think I remember maybe one<br />
earthquake when I was in Aspen,<br />
but when I was in LA there was<br />
a few. But nothing compared<br />
to when I came here, and they<br />
happened so often back then.<br />
Book selected 2017 APT<br />
Europe land & cruise holidays<br />
by 30 <strong>November</strong> <strong>2016</strong> &<br />
FLY FREE * to Europe!<br />
FREE*<br />
15-Day<br />
Magnificent<br />
Europe<br />
Budapest to Amsterdam<br />
$7495 *<br />
FLY<br />
from<br />
per person, twin share FREE *<br />
see us instore youtravel.co.nz<br />
03 384 2700<br />
*Terms & conditions apply, please ask us for details.<br />
YOU Travel Ferrymead<br />
960 Ferry Road<br />
melissa@youferrymead.co.nz
Change language