Creative reuse of Carisbrook after the rugby ends could include installing wind turbines on lighting towers and establishing a retirement village called "Carebrook", brainstorming university students suggested yesterday.
Five groups of master of planning students from the University of Otago geography department made presentations about their research on the options for reusing Carisbrook to a high-powered group of Dunedin City Council officials, including chief executive Jim Harland and several city councillors.
Cr Richard Walls chaired the 9.30am meeting at the Dunedin Municipal Chambers.
Dr Janet Stephenson, a senior lecturer in geography who co-ordinates a planning paper being studied by the students, said they had been given the scenario the proposed new Dunedin stadium was going ahead and a new use for Carisbrook would be required.
Most of the three-strong student groups suggested retaining the Carisbrook playing area as open space, including as a community park.
The existing layout of the stands was retained by many students, with the stands, in at least one case, being recycled as part of mixed residential and commercial development, with some shops on the ground floor.
The students had clearly heeded the advice to be "forward thinking and creative", with one group suggesting developing a transport hub in a nearby scrap yard.
Another group also strongly emphasised transport, with a railway station included in the complex and additional space provided for possible expansion by the Hillside Engineering Group and other commercial uses.
"The home and pride of Otago rugby, the House of Pain, will be no longer," Matt Brookes, a student in another group, said.
In a presentation with Tara Hotop, Mr Brookes proposed that Carisbrook, "this symbol of testosterone", be redeveloped as "Carebrook", a retirement village with on-site health-care facilities.
Course organisers required the proposed new uses to include some residential aspects, and places of employment, to be integrated with sustainable transport systems, be energy efficient and have low carbon emissions, and to consider heritage values.
Another group effectively argued to "bring back the brook" by allowing water currently piped under the complex to flow through it as a stream, as part of project landscaping.
