Archinect - City of Glass

A little Party for Architects—Some Notes on Creativity

2012-09-19T02:44:00-04:00

Vancouver Special is a store on Main St. But it's more than a simple store. In fact, it may just be the most amazing, magical, wondrous store in all the land that is Vancouver.

A couple of Thursdays ago, it hosted “Party for Architects”, a forum/networking event for architects, designers and groupies. Ian Ross MacDonald from Bruce Carscadden Architect gave a lecture on Thrift (but not necessary on “being cheap”) and discussed some of his most recent work. There is little doubt that his work is fascinating—but it was his discussion of his love of spreadsheets and lists that really got me thinking. Like myself, Ian comes from a starkly different background than what is thought of as the typical route into the profession. In fact, it's clear that his “uncreative” past of statistics helped him become such a highly successful architect.

This brings me to my blog focus today: the limiting nature of creativity. To someone looking out, Ian may not exactly possess the traits of a “s...

Repost: A Modest Proposal (for Housing in Vancouver)

2012-09-02T17:01:00-04:00

For those of you who do not know, housing in Vancouver is beyond ridiculously expensive. Here's a little post my friend Nick Thornton of Unboring Learning wrote up for the UBC Terry Blog. I thought it was relevant for any one in or thinking about going into architecture. Affordable housing is one of my recent obsessions and is quickly becoming one of the largest challenges facing humankind.

Enjoy!

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great city or travel in the GVA, when they see the streets, the bike lanes, and coffee shops, crowded with hipsters, upstarts and twenty somethings, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for a latte.

Our fair city has blessed upon us highly valued real estate and there are those among us that, instead of appreciating what fortune has brought, insist on degrading and bemoaning the lack of “affordable” housing in this, Captain Vancouver’s City. To these wretched souls who canno...

The New Student Union Building Project and Community Chosen Design

2012-08-31T22:03:09-04:00

The project that has undoubtedly “changed my life” is the New Student Union Building (SUB) Project at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. A mammoth of a project, it’s 255,000+ square feet of complex program, multiple stakeholders and varying politics. Oh, and did I mention it’s lead by a revolving door of twenty-something-year-olds?

I became involved in the project at the moment in which the project was stuck in a year and a half long deadlock. The University and the Student Union I was an executive of could not agree on terms outlining the project. The biggest argument was who would be in charge of hiring the project manager and architect. The Alma Mater Society, the Student Union, wanted control over both project manager and architect. The University, having their own project management/development arm, wanted UBC Properties Trust (UBCPT) to take on the project instead. Essentially, the Project was in legal limbo despite best efforts on both sides to kee...

You too can be an Architecture Critic!

2012-08-24T23:34:00-04:00

Vancouver. What’s the first thing that comes to mind?

For some of us it’s the spectacular natural beauty. For others, it’s the yoga-doing, sushi-eating lifestyle. Heralded as the “California” of the North, it’s a gem of a city on the verge of global recognition.

Architecturally though, it’s a little boring. After all, with such natural splendour, why bother with varying form? Apart from a lucky few, the skyline is dominated with repeating steel and glass monoliths, boxes housing expensive condo units the size of my drawer.

And yet, there seems to be something brewing; at a Westbank lecture by Bjarke Ingels (yeah, he's a babe) of BIG Architecture this past spring, Vancouverites asked themselves why their city fails to deliver world-renowned form. Is it due to the lack of local talent? I doubt it. Has it to do with the interplay between local economy, developer-centric penchants for quick profits and “new money” coming in from all over the world? Possibly. While we can...