Party for Architects

Reading Vancouver Lights as I do, I found out that Vancouver Special is hosting a second Party for Architects. Too bad that it is at the same time as Cantu/Living Space/Midland event. How is a girl to decide?

By the way, more posts about actual buildings are coming up. Stay tuned.

Que Sera, Surrey

If any of you have been keeping an eye on this city then you know that for a while Trevor Boddy has been insinuating that he is working on a top-secret significant competition for some time. Well - the cat's out of the bag! Inspired by Formshift in name - and more? - Townshift was announced early this week.

Trevor Boddy presenting Townshift.

The competition's prizes will total $75,000 distributed among 11 winners. There are five different design areas as challenges. I will not provide much more detail as I would be competing with an exceptionally thorough overview by the re:place magazine.

Additional good sources of info since townshift.ca is not quite useful yet:
- GlobalBC story complete with a video
- BC Local (more details specifically regarding the competition)
- “Never having to say you're Surrey” « Price Tags

The notion of addressing suburb cities in a design ideas competition is interesting, although it is not as much a design problem as it is a planning, zoning, infrastructure, and economics problem. Let's design away anyway - so that they can be prize-ponied during the Olympics and then shelved (see referenced links above) - for the glory of it all!

Events _White, Pallasmaa, Sabattino

Three lectures coming up, all very exciting!


First:
Mason White this Wednesday, October 22, at 6:30 pm in UBC's Lasserre 104.



Next,
Juhani Pallasmaa on November 2, Playhouse Theatre, 6:30.




Lastly,
Michelangelo Sabattino on Arthur Erickson on November 22, Vancity Theatre, 7pm. $75 (students $25)

...and we are back!

That was one looooong vacation.

Prefab 20*20 Competition

June 15th is the deadline for the early bird registration. So... tomorrow. Hurry, this is yet another fantastic international/local opportunity to showcase your talents to the world. Blurb:

As part of LivingDensity Exhibition and Forum, and in collaboration the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, Azure Magazine, and Interior Design Show West, Architecture For Humanity Vancouver proudly presents PREFAB 20*20: Visions For 400 Square Foot Homes, An International Open Ideas Competition.

Open to all designers, architects, engineers, artists and students around the world, PREFAB 20*20 challenges you to propose a free-standing, prefab dwelling unit for a footprint no more than 400sf (37.5sm) in an urban setting anywhere in the world. Fit for two adults, its basic program shall include sleeping, bathing, cooking, living, working/studying, and storage areas. Entrants are free to deviate from the basic program but justification must be included.

Click here to learn more.

'tis the season of the tour announcements!

West Van Tour 2008 - Ron Thom's Baker Forrest House:
The ultimate wine reception destination

Yay! Tours!

Heads up came from Vancouver Lights Blog today on the big modern residential tours of Vancouver. One is organized by the West Vancouver Museum and the other by Vancouver Heritage Foundation.

The West Van one runs on July 11 and all visitors will be bused around and there is a wine reception at the end with door prizes . $100.

Vancouver Heritage has theirs on October 3, as well bus and wine here too. $100. + 4 Core LUs.

Last year's West Van tour was fantastic, I architecture-geeked out every second of it. I really recommend it . Unfortunately, I missed the other tour, but it is praised highly by Vancouver Lights.

Lastly, I have no idea as to the line up of either(other than Harbour House by Helliwell+Smith: Blue Sky Architecture is the headliner for the West Van tour), but watch this space - who knows I might be able to shed some light on this later...

International competition: Self-sufficient City

Not Vancouver-related, but fun. This landed in my inbox today and I am passing it on:

We are organizing the 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest, envisioning the habitat of the future. The aim of this international competition is to promote online discussion and research through which to generate insights and visions, ideas and proposals that help us envisage what the city and the habitat of the 21st century will be like.

The competition is open to architects, planners, designers and artists who want to contribute to progress in making the world more habitable by developing a proposal capable of responding to emerging challenges in areas such as ecology, information technology, socialization and globalization, with a view to enhancing the connected self-sufficiency of our cities.