False Creek South: It's near perfect, and it's mine - Vancouver Sun article by Daphne Bramham

Forty years ago, Stanley facilitated the community engagement for many neighbourhoods in Vancouver.  Two of these places were formerly devoted to cars:  Robson Square used to be a huge parking lot, and False Creek was a "car graveyard".  His data revealed that ordinary citizens preferred to turn these areas into car-free spaces.   Daphne Bramham interviews Stanley in the Vancouver Sun:


"It’s hard to believe that not that long ago serious consideration was given to filling in False Creek and paving it over with homes and roads.  Architect Stanley King was among the first to challenge that idea and to imagine a residential community with a public market as its centrepiece built along the creek’s south shore on derelict industrial land..."Read more: False Creek South: It's near perfect, and it's mine - Vancouver Sun article by Daphne Branham

Biodiverse-City at the Beaty Museum

Beaty Biodiversity Museum had their Urban Festival today. Their flagship specimen is an enormous blue whale skeleton.   Imagine your city respects biodiversity.  What would you be doing? Families, teens, toddlers, and fellow Beaty volunteers co-designed "biodiverse-city".  Two 17 year old visitors from Ontario expressed great concern for their ecological future.  They were interested in biology, ecology and art. One drew a mermaid on the "Day in the Life" timeline.  The conversation made me reflect on how a combination of passion, leadership, creativity and technical expertise will be required of youth to face challenges they never chose for themselves.  They were fascinated by the museum, biodiversity and the challenge of designing a biodiverse-city.  

 

Co-design Demo at the Viva Vancouver Street Party

There will be Brazilian martial arts, dance food and... co-design! Click on the image below to get the schedule.  photos of event here.

Early work, 1970s

Some photos of early co-design work pioneered by Stanley King.  In this case, the site was a huge parking lot in downtown Vancouver.  Stanley organized a "City on the Wall" and also a "Design- in". During the site walk, teens analyzed the car lot for sight, smell, sound, movement and circulation.  The resulting drawings illustrated public desire for activities supported by abundant green space, a dome with a skating rink, outdoor eating, water features.  

People asked for car-free pedestrian spaces for relaxing, socializing, eating.   The ideas, drawn from ordinary citizens, demonstrate how co-design can sensitively tap into citizen's desires for how they wish to live.  Drawings were given to the design team led by Arthur Erickson who designed Robson Square.  Erickson asked Cornelia Oberlander to design the landscape:  the first roof garden in North America. 

These still shots are from Chairs for Lovers, a documentary film directed by Barrie Howells for the National Film Board of Canada.

Robson Square Before

Robson Square (after) designed by Arthur Erickson

children ask the artist to draw a dome with skating underneath

the parking lot that became Robson Square: view of the law courts, now the Vancouver Art Gallery

Stanley King starting the "city on the wall": "imagine you were here when the land was new...."

Stanley encourages kids to draw anything they want in a city

crowdsourcing

I attended the lecture on Crowdsourced Cities conducted by SFU.  Lukas Biewald of Crowdflower explained the background and trends in crowdsourcing, Darin Dinsmore of Crowdbrite showed how an international competition led to innovation in design., and Colleen Hardwick of PlaceSpeak demonstrated the use of pioneering software for location-based community consultation.

Each speaker spoke of their innovative use of the computer to reach people to collect many human judgements on planning issue. The large numbers of opinions, and the speedy gathering of them, were seen as advantages over traditional methods of public design dialogue.

Plan-It Earth, planned by youth for youth

200 people were in attendance at Plan -it Earth 2011 on April 15th.  This event enabled 120 youth to draw, write and describe their sustainable region.  Planned by a core group of five dedicated youth and an action team of about 30 students, all from Churchill, Prince of Wales, St. Pats and Kitsilano Secondaries. Participants came from throughout Vancouver, and we warmly welcomed the presence of Windermere Secondary and Magee Secondary youth leadership groups. Students from David Lloyd George Elementary attended the Children's program.  Plan-it earth was a collaboration of Vancouver youth with a passion for the environment.  This event was hosted once again by Prince of Wales Secondary.  Thanks  PW admin team!

We are very grateful for support from Bruce Ford and Vanessa Lee (Metro Vancouver); from Amanda Mitchell (the City of Vancouver); from Kevin Millsip, (sustainability coordinator, VSB)  and Stanley King from the Co-Design Group who donated facilitation services.  We accepted funding, with thanks from  Architecture Canada: The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Vancouver Foundation Youth Philanthropy Council, and the Vancouver School Board through Kevin Millsip's project eco-logo contest.

Tesicca, youth co-design artist, plan-it earth core team

day in the life of a sustainable region

day in the life graffiti wall

Stanley King, The Co-Design Group, and Architecture Canada (RAIC) representative

Bridging the generation Gap

North shore news featured youth co-design in West Vancouver:

"Through outreach, the co-design process adopted by Grosvenor attempts to bring in voices from different demographics, says Michael Mortensen, Grosvenor Americas’s senior development manager. It’s a unique opportunity for youth to be involved in a process that usually takes place among adults.  Co-design forums were pioneered by Vancouver architect Stanley King, who is leading the Ambleside forums. He created the concept while working on Granville Island and Robson Square.

In the end, the youths’ ideas became a big part of Vancouver’s identity. It was their suggestion to place a skating rink in Robson Square; famous West Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson was inspired by their sketches filled with greenery when designing the provincial courts."

Full article here:  "Bridging the Generation Gap" by   Rebecca Aldrous, North Shore outook

UBC SCARP community engagement and "neighbourliness"

This video summarizes a design event focused on co-designing the future of the Britannia Centre. Facilitated by Maged Sembel's classes from UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning.  In part, it features the co-design work of Stanley King. 

Note the richness of citizen ideas as partcipants express a desire for an integrated  neighbourhood of  diversity, creativity, and affordable living.  Co-design images emerge showing pedestrian spaces for every age group, and activities relating to art, food security and community. 

At the end of the video, a cameo of Ray Spaxman, former director of planning for the City of Vancouver, and a champion of "neighbourliness":

"Ray Spaxman was recruited as city planner by Vancouver's leadership in 1973, when the public was in full flight from the excesses of modernism and out-of-control development.  Only a decade and a half previously, the tallest building in the West End was the Sylvia Hotel. ("Dine in the Sky" said the sign on the roof.) And not many people thought several hundred concrete slabs had really improved our urban ambience all that much.  

Spaxman was responsible for changing the way planning and development was done in this city -- and he summed it up in one word: "neighbourliness." A building had to be respectful of its neighbours, and of the citizens on the street.  

Buildings, in other words, had to be more than sculptural objects on vacant plazas -- "pigs in space," as some planners call them. It didn't matter how "iconic" a building was if it selfishly ignored the urban environment in which it dwelt."

        

 -- Gordon Price, "It Takes One Icon to Know Another", Vancouver Sun, Web.


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