FormShift Vancouver: 2030 Challenge Architectural Competition
The architectural Institute of British Columbia together with the city of Vancouver recently held a competition to develop and improve the city’s livability through greener, denser development known as the 2030 Challenge.
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’.
What is EcoDensity?
‘EcoDensity is a concept currently being discussed with the Vancouver community. In brief, EcoDensity is an acknowledgement that high quality and strategically located density can make Vancouver more sustainable, livable and affordable. It has been illustrated as a tricycle, where the driving wheel is environmental sustainability, while the side wheels that keep it up and allow movement, are livability and affordability. The right kind of quality density in the right places can help lower our ecological footprint.
In depth, EcoDensity is an idea (that density, done well, reduces ecological footprint) and a dialogue with Vancouverites on ideas as well as concerns about densification, but always with the goal of environmental sustainability as a starting point. EcoDensity can also be defined as a project type and a pattern across the city.’
FormShift Vancouver challenged 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.
The 2030 Challenge:
Credible scientists give us 10 years to be well on our way toward global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. Yet there are hundreds of coal-fired power plants currently on the drawing boards in the US. Seventy-six percent (76%) of the energy produced by these plants will go to operate buildings.
Buildings are the major source of demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases (GHG). Slowing the growth rate of GHG emissions and then reversing it over the next ten years is the key to keeping global warming under one degree centigrade (°C) above today’s level. It will require immediate action and a concerted global effort.
To accomplish this, Architecture 2030 has issued The 2030 Challenge asking the global architecture and building community to adopt the following targets:
* All new buildings, developments and major renovations shall be designed to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type.
* At a minimum, an equal amount of existing building area shall be renovated annually to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type.
* The fossil fuel reduction standard for all new buildings and major renovations shall be increased to:
60% in 2010
70% in 2015
80% in 2020
90% in 2025
Carbon-neutral in 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG emitting energy to operate).
These targets may be accomplished by implementing innovative sustainable design strategies, generating on-site renewable power and/or purchasing (20% maximum) renewable energy and/or certified renewable energy credits.
2030 Challenge Targets by Building Type.
In accepting the 2030 Challenge and adopting its own Climate Change Action Plans and EcoDensity Charter, the City of Vancouver has also set out ambitious goals for densification, energy codes, building performance and other concrete measures to reduce carbon emissions and improve the livability of the city.
This is where architects, designers, planners, developers, builders, and even ordinary citizens have a chance to shine:
‘By demonstrating your ideas, convictions, creativity and skills, you can help shape Vancouver’s sustainable future.‘
The competition FormShift Vancouver included 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.
2. Vancouver Secondary – design for small secondary (residential) site in an established Vancouver neighborhood near public transit.
3. Vancouver Wild Card – a design that pushes the envelope of sustainable design and community building for Vancouver.
Judging Criteria:
• originality and innovation
• new ‘built form’ ideas
• integration of sustainable design strategies and technologies
• urban environment synergy, including both living and working
• artful response to site and context
• sensitivity to cultural and climate factors
• aesthetics
• adaptability to other sites and situations
• potential to inform future city development
The contest attracted 73 entrants and 84 submissions, including some from as far away as San Francisco, New York, Paris and Rotterdam. ‘Considering that the competition welcomed entries from architects and non-designers alike, the overall quality of the submissions was very impressive,’ says Chodikoff. ‘While some lacked a methodological rigor, the intent was certainly there.’
In addition to the three first-place finishers, the jury identified eight submissions worthy of honorable mention.
The winners:
Vancouver Primary: Sturgess Architecture – Calgary:
Vancouver Secondary: Romses Architects – Vancouver:
Vancouver Wildcard: Go Design Collaborative – Vancouver:
Honorable Mention:
Vancouver Primary:
*Garon Sebastien & Chris Foyd – Vancouver
*Romses Architects – Vancouver
Vancouver Secondary:
*Acme Architecture – Santa Barbara, California
*CMO (Miller / Miller / Cavens) – Vancouver
Vancouver Wildcard:
*GBL Architects Inc. – Vancouver
*Public Architecture + Communication – Vancouver
*Idette de Boer & Magali Bailey – Vancouver
*Wang Yiming – Burnaby
All winning entries: www.formshiftvancouver.com.
All entries: www.formshiftvancouver.com.
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