Vancouver enjoys one of the most beautiful settings in the world. Surrounded by water and lush mountain greenery it has been named one ofthe three most livable cities in the world. The ethnically diverse population is very cosmopolitan with English spoken as a second language. Vancouver has previously been called a "city of neighborhoods" each with its own distinct ethnic character and mix.
In response to growth in the population, planners seeking to codify compact, pedestrian scaled urbanism via the Podium Tower Typology are well intentioned, but this has resulted in the ubiquitous residential towers set upon impenetrable podiums. While the facades of these grid-block towers read as tartan patterns with a mind-numbing repetitiveness, opportunities for irrational and sensorial architecture has not been explored.
This proposal calls for modifications to the current planning codes that would allow for a more porous pedestrian experience so that residents, tourists and the like could 'explore' the block, take detours from the perimeter sidewalk and find surprising spatial volumes both within an open block and up inside publicly accessible 'community rooms' in the towers. The podium would be eroded from the center The new sidewalk perimeter would consist of 4-story live/work units that are capable of incubating business for a multi-ethnic society at the street. The upper levels of the tower type would be required to include neighborhood gardens, cinemas, galleries, and event spaces so that residents from the live/works, the public and tourists can mix with residents who live in the towers.
(From competitor's text)
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