March 20 12
The Thin Green Line that defines the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) is a boundary that frames our attempts to mitigate growth, preserve arable land and maintain an agrarian landscape character in municipalities undergoing a massive transformation from rural to urban form. The ALR boundary establishes a wonderful edge in many places – a stark contrast [...]
March 20 12
As Vancouver expands eastward, facing established neighborhoods such as Strathcona, Chinatown and Gastown, will it continue it’s pattern of erasing and replacing, or is it possible to consider the existing fabric as something to be built within, around and on top of? Tangential Babel is an argument for a dialog between what was and will [...]
March 20 12
So what else is new? In my earlier posts, I wanted to observe aspects of the existing legislative system that limit architecture’s agency or at least fail to enhance its relationship to the public good. I wrote about the Tariff’s admission of architecture’s weakness in the face of the economy; that the AIBC’s mandate advocates [...]
March 20 12
Animated Publics versus Damp Subjects Rain, Rain, Go Away Not a chance, not in Vancouver at least. Of the 36 cities in North America with populations over two million, Vancouver has the most days with measurable precipitation. It rains more of the time here, than anywhere else on the continent. And meteorological data suggests it [...]
March 13 12
The definitions section appended to the Vancouver zoning bylaw helpfully illuminates terms such as “family” and “adult magazine,” but fails to define the pervasive term “character,” a term which has an outsize presence in the district schedules and design guidelines, and countless discussions between architects and planners. The fact that there is no explicit definition [...]
March 11 12
Introduction Vancouverism 2.0 should attempt to reflect the perspective of its citizens. Through mobile photo capture and sharing, Vancouverites and visitors document their perspectives on the city every day. Massive amounts of geo-referenced data are gathered, and the data depicts a unique image of Vancouver. Through this project we have sought to explore geotagged photo data [...]
March 11 12
In Vancouver, the public discussion around densification and architectural design is often limited to the form and height of proposed new developments. Less attention has been given to understanding what makes a neighborhood feel like a neighbourhood and what creates a connection between people and the place they live.
March 9 12
If you ignore the cost of real estate, Vancouver could be a great place to innovate. It’s not a head office town. It is made of a diverse profile of businesses with a median size of four people. It’s a destination for people entering Canada and has an abundance of under-employed immigrant professionals – they earn [...]
February 18 12
Vancouverism 2.0 should attempt to understand the city from the perspective of its citizens. Through mobile devices, Vancouverites and visitors document their perspectives in the city thousands of times each day. We tell friends and followers where we are, we tag the locations of our photographs, and we document our interactions with the places around [...]
February 13 12
East west section of Vancouver studying the threshold between downtown and East Vancouver. The diagram indicates the insertion of a fantastical infrastructure that argues for an improved alternate to the current Georgia Viaduct.
