VANCOUVERISM – A LABEL THAT BECAME RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE MOST LIVABLE CITY’S IN THE WORLD
A CITY THAT BECAME
Vancouverism …. was once a concept credited or created by the Canadian Architect Arthur Erickson. An urbanistic visionary, who in the mid 1950′s visualized urban planning of a contemporary city with the highest density neighborhoods, high-livability, protecting view corridors, preserving this beautiful natural city’s scenic environment backdrop and taking advantage of the tremendous amount of our water fronts.
Vancouverism …. became more than just an urban development model, it became an urban trend, a unique lifestyle, an eco-density illustrated example and an iconic livable development with a great environment and sustainability.
Vancouverism …. is now a label that has gained around the world recognition and makes us proud as Vancouver is one of the most livable model city’s in the world.
THE SECRET CHARMS OF AN ‘UPCYCLED’ KITCHEN
MATERIALS DESTINED FOR LANDFILL SEE NEW AND BETTER LIFE AS CUSTOMIZED COUNTRY CHIC FOCAL POINTS
If you’re thinking of working with friends and family to build a custom kitchen from scratch, on a budget, and with recycled materials and salvaged hardware, suppress the idea and run – don’t walk! – to Ikea instead.
Just kidding. You can do it and it’s well worth the time and effort.
Here’s the story of our “new” kitchen and why I adore it. Almost everything in it – with the exception of the appliances, which are new and energy efficient – has been repurposed, recycled or re-imagined.
Much of the higher-end stuff (the stone and some lighting) was destined for the landfill. A few choice items were hauled out of the bush and a burn pile.
MTH WOODWORKS – DESIGN LIVES
A PIECE OF OUTSIDE – INSIDE
Today, mth woodworks’ mission is to connect people with BC’s beautiful surroundings by fusing together raw natural elements with organic resin. They strive to salvage all of the materials themselves and go to great lengths to retrieve these hidden gems. Every table is one-of-a-kind and comes with its own story. Some are 60 years old, some 600. Each have their own beautiful characteristics, and they see it as their daily gift to choose the best way to showcase them. The inspiration for their designs comes from, well, EVERYWHERE. However, nature and travel definitely fuel their creative minds. To them, these are the most important ingredients for all their creations. Guided by clean lines and functionality, they are proud to offer “the bloom collections” to a diverse clientele.
MADDOX DOWNTOWN – BY CRESSEY DEVELOPMENTS – VANCOUVER NEW DEVELOPMENT AND PRESALE
MADDOX DOWNTOWN – 725 ROLSTON CRESCENT – VANCOUVER V8V 3V4
“AT MADDOX OUR DESIRE IS TO DESIGN AND BUILD AN ARCHITECTURAL LANDMAREK TAHT IS DRIVEN BY A CLEAR FOCUS. WE ARE DETERMINED TO BRING TOGETHER THE ELEMENTS OF PLACE, FORM AND TRUST TO ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU”.
THE MADDOX FLOORPLANS
Plan A - 1 Bedroom 578 sf
Plan A1 - 1 Bed + Den 626 sf
Plan B - 2 Bedroom/2 Bath 844 sf
Plan B1 - 2 Bed+Den/2 Bath 978 sf
Plan D - 1 Bed+Den/1 Bath 633 sf
Plan D1 - 1 Bed+ Den/1 Bath 739 sf
Plan G – 1 Bed/1 Bath 535 sf
Plan J - Maddox Platinum Collection - 2 Bed+Den/2 Bath 1,156 sf
Plan M - Maddox Platinum Collection - 2 Bed/2 Bath 1,080 sf
Plan Q - Maddox Platinum Collection - 2 Beds/2 Baths + Den 1,144 sf
AT THE GATES OF RAPID TRANSIT – MARINE GATEWAY PROJECT
DEVELOPMENT’S EASY ACCESS TO THE CANADA LINE IS A MAJOR SELLING POINT FOR THE PROJECT
Bob Rennie and Tracie MacTavish – respectively, principal and president of Rennie Marketing Systems – have been spending a lot of time in recent weeks focusing on how to best address the intense demand for the Marine Gateway project.
Some 11,000 people have already registered their interest in the 415 homes at the site at Cambie and Southwest Marine Drive.
There has been a succession of phone calls from a wide variety of potential buyers, and a steady stream of people looking at the show suites in advance viewings. When sales formally open today, it would not be a surprise if there were people lined up outside. That was once a common sight on Vancouver streets for pre-sale projects, but has become increasingly rare in recent years.
VANCOUVER NEW DEVELOPMENT AND PRESALE – THREE HARBOUR GREEN – BY ASPAC DEVELOPMENTS
THREE HARBOUR GREEN - 277 THURLOW STREET - VANCOUVER V6C 0C1
When the first two towers at Harbour Green Place in Coal Harbour debuted, they set a new standard for luxury waterfront living in Vancouver – more spacious, more exclusive, and more luxurious than anything seen in the city to date. Each tower at Harbour Green Place features private, two-and three-car garages, a 25-metre swimming pool, and a virtual golf centre that lets residents practice on the world’s premiere courses at the touch of a button. And it’s host to two Canadian condominium “firsts”: ergonomically designed kitchens by Snaidero of Italy, and a full range of Miele kitchen appliances – from washers and dryers, to convection ovens and warming drawers, to built-in automatic coffee systems that make everything from espressos to lattes.
FATBOY
COMFORT + FUNCTIONALITY + FUN = FATBOY
ABOUT FATBOY
Since 1999, fatboy, a Netherlands-based company, has been outfitting rooms all over the world with their large, playful lounge bags. Currently available in over 50 countries and featuring a steadily growing product line, the name fatboy has quickly become synonymous with comfort, functionality and fun. And as opposed to the traditional beanbag chairs, the fatboy features large dimensions giving the user plenty of room to sink into it and completely drift away. Fatboy forms to the contours of the user’s body allowing for natural support and comfort in a vast range of different positions. Napping, studying, eating, and relaxing are always better when you have a fatboy around!
They work perfectly as multipurpose chairs and lounges in bedrooms, and are just right for relaxing in front of the TV or laptop. Also offered as a dog lounge in a variety of great colors, shapes, and sizes, there’s even a fatboy right for any and all of “man’s best friends.”
BEETLING DESIGN – A MAGICAL WORLD FOR CHILDREN
BEETLING CREATIONS – INDIVIDUALLY CASTED AND PAINTED THREE-DIMENSIONAL WALL MOUNTED WORKS OF ART
Beetling Design, created by Kristy Ilic in 2006, is the evolution of an artistic impulse to redecorate her kids’ rooms into something fun and whimsical. Not satisfied with simply painting the space or applying one-dimensional cutouts, Kristy wanted things to literally pop out from her kids’ bedroom walls, transforming the room into a spellbinding adventure. Having no luck finding anything at retail outlets, Kristy embarked on the laborious task of designing and building Paper Maché caricatures that would attach to the walls. After dealing with several gallons of glue and countless newspaper clippings, Kristy could not help but think there must be a better way, and, if there was – what a business concept it could be.
HIGH-TECH GREENHOUSE PLANNED FOR VANCOUVER DOWNTOWN PARKADE ROOF
UNDERUSED SPACE TO PRODUCE 95 TONNES OF GREENS A YEAR
The roof of a city-owned downtown parkade will be converted to a high-tech vertical growing space capable of producing 95 tonnes of fresh vegetables a year.
Vancouver-based Valcent Products has entered into a memorandum of understanding with EasyPark, the corporate manager of the city’s parkades, to build a 6,000-square-foot greenhouse on underutilized space on the roof of the parkade at 535 Richards Street, in the heart of the downtown core.
VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE – SIX-ACRE LIVING GREEN ROOF
SIX-ACRE LIVING ROOF IS NOW A THRIVING ECOSYSTEM
It’s been a record-breaking year for the Vancouver Convention Centre in more ways than one. Apart from being the most successful convention year ever, the Centre’s six-acre living roof has had an unprecedented year of growth.
“We’re excited to see that the living roof is truly flourishing in a short span of three years; and what’s more, doing what it was intended to do,” said Bruce Hemstock, landscape architect of the Vancouver Convention Centre’s living roof and partner at PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc. “The growing condition on top of the convention centre is very well suited for the planted coastal plants and grasses. The aster, in particular this year, is thriving beyond our wildest imagination with some up to eight feet tall. It provides the rooftop honeybees with an incredible source of food.”
BOWEN ISLAND HOUSE – BAI ARCHITECTS
BAI ARCHITECTS BRING A CRISP EUROPEAN MODERNISM TO CANADA’S WEST COAST
Burgers Architecture’s approach is that there is no limit to what can be bettered through design. Projects range from furniture to industrial facilities and planning. They oversee all phases of a projects development, and are often responsible for the construction. Over the life of the firm, Burger Architecture has completed community facilities, offices for BC Hydro, industrial facilities, and a number of a single-family residences. Their approach to design can be summed up as global ideas, local knowledge; meaning that ideas and products come from all parts of the world while the local offers unique opportunities for a distinct expression. The synthesis of these two forces is the dynamic upon which their architectural expression lies.
A WEST VANCOUVER HOME BY “THE OTHER GUY”
THE STAPLES RESIDENCE, WEST VANCOUVER B.C., DESIGNED BY BRUNO FRESCHI, ERICKSON MASSEY ARCHITECTS
“My parents were uncompromising: they never got talked into something they didn’t want,” recalls Kathleen Staples. She is speaking of the late Tom and Nancy Staples, whose architectural masterpiece of a family home is now on the market in West Vancouver. Tom Staples once told his daughter that getting the house built was the most difficult ordeal of his life, yet also the accomplishment of which he was most proud.
SCULPTURAL ELEMENTS FOR INSPIRED LIVING – COLLABORATION
THE PL SERIES, VESSELS HAND-MADE IN VANCOUVER
The PL Series is Collaboration’s début collection, a striking addition to the world of planters. With exceptionally fluid lines, these planters offer an irregular silhouette and a strongly relieved surface. Created by Marie Khouri, the PL Series may be used indoor or outdoor. Made of either light-weight concrete or fiberglass, in a number of custom colors, each unit shows the subtle traces of hand-casting. They are offered in six variations of scale and proportions.
AN ISLAND AERIE ON THE B.C. COAST
GALIANO ISLAND, BC HOME DESIGNED BY ARCHITECT JENNIFER MARSHALL OF URBAN ARTS ARCHITECTS
“It’s a privilege to work on a site like this one,” says architect Jennifer Marshall as she drives up from the main Galiano Island Road onto a steep gravel pathway that climbs through three distinct eco-systems. The first one is fern-laden and dark, the next a thick forest of fir, and finally, at the top of the hill where she has recently completed a residence for a family of three, a typical Gulf Island landscape marked by groves of arbutus trees.
SFU WEST HOUSE – THE SUSTAINABLE LANEWAY HOME
WEST HOUSE COMBINES INNOVATIVE BUILDING DESIGN, ADVANCED REVEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS AND INTERACTIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE LIVING
West House is a made-in-Vancouver demonstration of a sustainable laneway home. It showcases leading-edge small footprint residential design, energy efficient, integrated systems and interactive technologies that encourage a sustainable lifestyle.
via sfu
LANEWAY HOMES: A CREATIVE SOLUTION
VANCOUVER’S LANEWAY HOUSING INCREASES AFFORDABLE HOUSING WHILE MAKING TRADITIONAL NEIGHBOURHOODS EVEN MORE ATTRACTIVE AND LIVELY.
Vancouver has grown into a city where the housing market can be tight. Finding rental housing or a home you can afford is often a challenge. One of the ways the City of Vancouver is meeting this challenge is through a creative and green housing alternative – laneway homes. These types of small houses are built by homeowners behind a main house. Adding extra, low-impact housing to neighbourhoods not only provides more living space, but also fits with the City’s goals to be the world’s greenest City by 2020.
STRAIGHT LINE DESIGNS – INSPIRING AND UNIQUE FURNITURE
UNIQUE AND INSPIRING FURNITURE DESIGN BY JUDSON BEAUMONT – SQUIDDIES AT NIGHT
Straight Line Designs works with a variety of clients to create custom, one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and installations. Always keeping functionality in the forefront of his work, designer Judson Beaumont can add personality and life to any space.
ARCHITECT’S URBAN INTERVENTION IN SUBURBAN-STYLE HOUSING
LUCIO PICCIANO SOUGHT TO CREATE AN URBAN VILLAGE WITH HIS HOUSE DESIGNS IN VANCOUVER’S RENFREW HEIGHTS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
As you walk east from Vancouver’s 29th Avenue SkyTrain station, you are met by Renfrew Heights’s familiar mix of seventies-era Vancouver Specials and a few remaining prewar houses. The mix of stucco and brick Specials and fir-clad 1930s houses is what one expects in this family-oriented neighbourhood that borders Burnaby and features stunning mountain views.
But as you approach the intersection of Picton Street and Wellington Avenue, something entirely new meets the eye. A corrugated metal-clad house, set on a long, narrow lot, gleams in the sun, its upper balcony filled with lavender and its green roof brimming with plants. It shares its subdivided lot with a neighbouring three-storey house, clad in Galvalume and cement board, with roses running up a steel trellis. Across the lane, it’s met by a sister house in steel and concrete with a backyard canopied in grape vines.
TRASHBONBON – CONCRETE, INDUSTRIAL-CHIC FURNITURE FOR YOUR HOME
“… CONCRETE IS RAW, IT’S TRUE, IT’S REAL. I GUESS THAT’S WHAT IT IT. IF YOU LOOK IT IN THE EYE, YOU’LL SEE YOUR LIFE REFLECTED BACK.”
Grand Corps Malade, “Enfant de la ville” (city kid)
PHILOSOPHY
Here, everything is round. Round and colourful, like candy. The sounds, colours, contrasts and textures of the city are our inspiration. The adjectives unique, vibrant and playful are an essential part of our DNA. Trash conveys our passion for urban landscapes and raw materials.
TRASHbonbon is a company specialized in the design of urban furniture and accessories. Each piece, entirely designed and manufactured in Montreal, is handcrafted. By collaborating with artists and artisans who give our creations their distinct personality, we aim to showcase local talent. For us, art and functionality go hand in hand.
23.2 – HOUSE BY OMER ARBEL
23.2 IS A HOUSE DESIGNED BY AN AWARD WINNING DESIGNER OMER ARBEL
23.2 is a house for a family built on a large rural acreage outside Vancouver, British Columbia by a Canadian Designer Omer Arbel. There is a gentle slope from east to west and two masses of old growth forest defining two “outdoor rooms” each with a its own distinct ecology and conditions of light; the house is situated at the point of maximum tension in between these two environments, and as such acts at once to define the two as distinct, and also to offer a focused transition between them.
THE CENTRE FOR INTERACTIVE RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABILITY OPENS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
INSPIRING. WELCOMING. UNIQUE. A PLACE FOR WORLD-CHANGING EDUCATION AND RESEARCH. A LIVING LABORATORY WHERE SUSTAINABILITY IS ADVANCED AND STUDIED.
Built in response to the global challenge of creating a more sustainable society, the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is one of the most innovative and high-performance buildings built in North America today, demonstrating leading-edge green building design technologies, products, and systems. CIRS is a state-of-the-art “living-lab” in which researchers from leading academic institutions worldwide can conduct interactive research on and assessment of current and future building systems and technologies. Partners from private and public sectors share the facility, working with CIRS researchers to ensure study conducted is connected to real world needs of the community, industry, and policy makers. The outcome of research, product and policy development manifested from CIRS will play a fundamental role in accelerating the path to sustainability.
IDSWEST – OUR PHOTOS FROM THE INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW – PART II – VANCOUVER – 2011
DESIGN/ART/ARCHITECTURE
The Interior Design Show West, is taking over the Vancouver Convention Centre September 29th – October 2nd, 2011. Celebrate design in Vancouver and host over 110+retailers, 30+manufacturers and 75+independent designers. IDSwest is an edited event, showcasing contemporary, cutting edge and original design. Find the next design for your client or your home or become inspired by some of the world’s most creative people.
IDSWEST – OUR PHOTOS FROM THE INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW – PART I – VANCOUVER – 2011
DESIGN/ART/ARCHITECTURE
The Interior Design Show West, is taking over the Vancouver Convention Centre September 29th – October 2nd, 2011. Celebrate design in Vancouver and host over 110+retailers, 30+manufacturers and 75+independent designers. IDSwest is an edited event, showcasing contemporary, cutting edge and original design. Find the next design for your client or your home or become inspired by some of the world’s most creative people.
EVERGREEN – BOWEN ISLAND
EVERGREEN IS UNFOLDING
SIMPLY BOWEN
All too often, our modern lifestyle sacrifices “life” for style. Our families are burdened by the need for two incomes to afford our larger homes, our two cars, our frequent travels and more. Today, we are seeing smaller families living in larger homes with hardly enough time to sit down and eat together. We are surrounded by more roads, more traffic, bigger buildings, expanding to the very edges of their lots. Nature has become a travel destination more than an every day living environment. Our lives are being consumed as we race to pay for all the things we think we need. It’s a home for people wishing to step off the treadmill and come back to life, with time to go slow, to recharge, to connect with family and nature. When you arrive on Bowen, you feel the stresses of the city lifting. At Evergreen you’ll wind along our single lane road through the parkland that surrounds us, with views of ocean and islands, and join a community that retains its tranquility and vitality. Only four lots were released in 2008.
