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B.C. is moving ahead with plans to build what is expected to be the tallest wood building in North America and possibly the world, Jobs Minister Pat Bell said Wednesday. The proposed 10-storey Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George will become a test case for creating a value-added forest products industry around tall wood building construction methods that would differ radically from the way traditional mid-rise and even highrise buildings are constructed ... »»»
Vancouver is more expensive than New York, more expensive than Paris, more expensive than London. But what we discovered was that in each generation, Vancouver has rebuilt itself to respond to some huge demographic shift. So how do we understand these organic trends and take the next step forward? How do we find space for our kids and our elderly so our community stays a real place? We came up with four basic strategies ... »»»
The arguments are all wrong regarding a development proposal in one of Vancouver's funkiest neighbourhoods. Nostalgia is not a reason to preserve an area of cheap, temporary and often ugly buildings. The fight shaping up over a development proposal in a funky Mt. Pleasant location says just about all you ever want to know about where the city of Vancouver is these days ... »»»
According to studies, 1.3 million tons of waste is generated annually throughout the Metro Vancouver region by construction, renovation and demolition activities. Last year, the City of Vancouver supported a pilot study in which two Vancouver homes were deconstructed, rather than demolished. It entailed the systematic disassembling of a building in order to maximize diversion of building materials. The result: 93% of the building materials were salvaged for reuse or recycling ... »»»
For a guy whose name has lately been splashed all over the local media after being fired from his role as planning director of the city of Vancouver, Brent Toderian is eager to talk up his city. We met to talk and tour the city about a week after the news became official that Toderian’s contract had been ended “without cause,” a high profile change in city administration that has left some urbanist-types worried about the city’s future (and some developers in a state of relief or even celebration) ... »»»
The City of Vancouver issued a news release on January 31 stating: “Today, City Council endorsed and confirmed that Brent Toderian will be moving on from the position of Director of Planning at the City of Vancouver.” An international search will be conducted for a new director, according to the release. Murphy already has one suggestion for the chosen successor. “First of all, I think we need to look at what the existing zone capacity of the city is." ... »»»
To redress this lack of information, the architecture firm Perkins+Will went about creating a free, online database – called Transparency – of building materials that contain substances known or suspected to be harmful to health. The database is geared towards the consumers who most often specify what materials should be used in a building project: architects and interior designers ... »»»
Why should tree metaphors appeal to architects? Tree metaphors refer to the experience of living in a body on earth. Trees are static, stable objects. Someone connected to a community is “rooted” there; a psychologically sturdy friend’s feet are firmly “planted” on the ground. We use trees to describe human bodies and souls: the area from our neck to pelvis is our “trunk”; someone reliable is “solid as an oak”; someone exploring a new area of inquiry is “branching out.” ... »»»
We don’t think of condo dwellers as pioneers, but that’s what they are, some of them, anyway. Moving into the urban wilderness, clearing the land and cleaning the soil, they have opened up the city in ways that would never have occurred to their forefathers. More remarkable, they have accomplished all this in living units so small that breakfast in bed is a necessity, not a Sunday morning luxury ... »»»
This is what I see when I gaze into my crystal ball at the future of health-care design: a free-flowing Canadian hospital tuned into the needs of women, with a luminous pavilion marking its front entrance; a rehabilitation centre in Europe set in the quiet of a forest; and in Africa, magnetic neighbourhood centres of wellness to help stem the onslaught of chronic disease. In fact, I'm not dreaming, it's here ... »»»