_Slide/images/uploads/20090307-form-shift-a.jpg "20090307-form-shift-a")
“The Architectural Institute of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver are pleased to announce a jointly-sponsored open ideas competition.
Over the past 20 years, the approach to community planning, zoning, density, transportation and housing in Vancouver has yielded substantial improvements. Continued improvement, however, requires ongoing innovation and creativity. Good intentions need to be reflected in tangible urban design.
The City of Vancouver has developed Climate Change Action Plans as well as the EcoDensity Charter – policies and principles to guide greener and denser development, improve building performance, reduce carbon emissions, and improve the city’s overall livability. Vancouver was the first city in Canada to adopt The 2030 Challenge for green house gas reduction, committing each of us to reducing our collective environmental impact. Vancouver City Council has taken that commitment a step further with the stated goal of becoming “the greenest city in the world”.
FormShift Vancouver challenges you to give shape to these goals through ideas and design solutions that will help shape the future of the city. Be it by expanding upon Vancouver’s traditional design solutions or offering an entirely new perspective, this is your chance to build a hypothetical form of the future, one that is in keeping with the vibrant, ecologically-friendly and sustainable city to which we aspire.
FormShift Vancouver includes three competition categories:
1. Vancouver Primary – design for a mixed use primary (arterial) site along a major Vancouver street that includes a rapid transit station. A generic drawing and existing zoning data are included in supporting documents.* Participants are not bound by the zoning, but should offer a rationale for any departures.
2. Vancouver Secondary – design for small secondary (residential) site in an established Vancouver neighbourhood near public transit. A generic drawing and existing zoning data are included in supporting documents.* Participants are not bound by the zoning (including the possibility of non-residential use), but should offer a rationale for any departures.
3. Vancouver Wild Card – a design that pushes the envelope of sustainable design and community building for Vancouver. This may be an aggressively imaginative, speculative and/or futuristic concept that suggests a radically new model of sustainable design for Vancouver, even not currently viable. Solutions that are adaptable to other sites are strongly encouraged.
All submissions must be designated for a single award category. Entrants are invited to enter more than one category. A separate entry fee is required for each submission.
FormShift Vancouver is an open competition; anyone may enter. However, the competition categories lend themselves expertise in architecture, urbanism and sustainable design.
Jury:
• Chair (non-voting): Peter Busby, Busby Perkins+Will, Vancouver
• Ian Chodikoff, Architect / Editor-in-chief – Canadian Architect, Toronto
• Stan Douglas, Photo-based Artist, Vancouver
• David Miller, Principal – Miller Hull Architects / Chair – University of Washington Department of Architecture, Seattle
• Nancy Knight, Vice President Campus and Community Planning – University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• Brent Toderian, Director of Planning – City of Vancouver
Jury Facilitator:
• Gordon Price, Director – Simon Fraser University City Program, Vancouver
Professional Advisor:
• Walter Francl, Walter Francl Architecture Inc., Vancouver
Prizes
• A $6,000 prize will be awarded to one winner in the Vancouver Primary category and a $4,000 prize will be awarded to one winner in the Vancouver Secondary category.
• A $2,000 prize will be awarded to one winner in the Wild Card category.
• The jury reserves the right to identify additional submissions worthy of recognition as it sees fit.”
Registration deadline is March 20th 2009 at 5:00 pm PST, submission deadline is April 6th 2009 at 5:00 pm PST.
(Source: Adele Weder, journalist)