Looking at other models

A very interesting article by Trevor Boddy "Large-scale housing, done with panache, Lyons' La Cité Internationale may be a model for Vancouver's West Side redevelopment." Click here to read the article


For quite some time Vancouver has been praised as the youngest big city and had been looked at as a model city, almost an utopia. But Boddy's article is a wake up call for Vancouver, it need to know that there are more examples out of Vancouver that need to be looked at. In terms of densification the city has been adopting high-rises but no attention has been given to mixed housing. I think it is about time that city take an action and mix different kinds of housing. Different kinds of housing creates variety rather than a homogeneous neighborhood.

In my opinion it is not only the buildings that make a neighborhood a good neighborhood, but the use of buildings makes a neibhborhood lively and good.

Office Building to Residential

Vancouver downtown in the process of densification has converted some office buildings into residential. In my opinion the internal space of an office building for sure can be configured from office to residential by gutting out every thing and putting in new. But at the urban scale what does the surroundings of an office building offers to a residential building? The question is are the residential buildings in this way getting qualitative or quantitaive benefit?
To me it seems for developers it is more about quantity maximum utilization of available resources i.e. scarce land. But what kind/quality of product are they providing? Shouldn't the surroung of a residential building have a neighborhood feel to it rahter than a commercial?

Model City - Shaping the High Density City

I was reading an article by 'Trvor Boddy' "INSIGHT: Vancouverism vs. Lower Manhatttanism: shaping the High Density City" in it Trevor mentioned that Vancouver and Lower Manhattan have ideas that might well migrate elsewhere. I was wondering is it a good or bad thing for other cities to follow what Vancouver/Manhattan is about, in regards with densification?
But in case of Vancouver having to be used as a model city - Vancouver is responsible to find new ways and solutions to things. No wonder the city has a competition http://www.poto.ca/ where the podium typology used in Vancouver is being questioned. What effects would it have on long run?
In a way cities seems to be more watchful since they are questioning that how long a solution can last and when a new solutions is needed. Just thinking about this concept of new solutions and old solution, I find this phenomenon very interesting, as to the solutions are also in flux. With the changing times every things changes.