Co-presenters Museum of Vancouver and Vancouver Urbanarium explore challenges and solutions relating to citizens’ greatest concerns
From the Museum of Vancouver (MOV), in partnership with the Vancouver Urbanarium Society, comes a provocative and timely exploration of the future of Vancouver. In response to mounting concern about a rapidly changing region, Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver, on display at MOV from January 21 through May 15, 2016, will immerse visitors in an experience that spotlights 20 visions for tomorrow’s city, while focusing on four topical issues: housing affordability, residential density, ease of transportation, and quality ofpublic space.
“Vancouver is a city in flux, undergoing massive growth and redevelopment. With as many as three homes demolished each day, often to make room for denser living, we are experiencing a watershed moment in the history of the region,” says Gregory Dreicer, MOV Director of Curatorial and Engagement. “With everyone already talking about Vancouver’s sky-high housing prices, we want to shift the conversation from real estate to the state of the city. Your Future Home launches from a ‘presentation centre’ into an ‘urban grid,’ in which some of Vancouver’s most creative minds grapple with the city’s thorniest issues. We want to bring more people into debates about what their city might become.”
More than 20 of Vancouver’s leading architects, urban planners, and visionaries will create multimedia scenarios that ask visitors to stop and rethink what they want in their hometown. These scenarios will include a model for a 2,500-foot vertical city that will have visitors challenging customary notions of scale; a strategy for a post-disaster transportation network that caters to bicycles; and a proposal for a network of floating barge parks.
Your Future Home will also contain a fascinating series of case studies that will highlight the role that individuals and communities play in building Vancouver. Stories will speak to the Arbutus Lands redevelopment, upcoming decisions that may transform places like Granville Island, and changes to how we heat buildings downtown.
Visitors of all ages will discover astonishing facts about the unceasing change that has resulted in today’s Vancouver—a city with fewer native residents than any other in North America. Your Future Home will feature a mock 1,400-square-foot ‘sales centre,’ including infographics, animations, dramatic models, panoramic images relating to the downtown core—and the until-now suburban neighbourhoods that make up 95 per cent of the city. People will be encouraged to discuss the exhibition’s future scenarios, give feedback, and propose their own ideas.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, Vancouverites will be invited to participate in a number of complementary activities, including walking tours, discussions, social events with drinks, and workshops developed to spark conversation about the environments in which we live. A series of hard-hitting debates will focus on public transportation, taxation of vacant properties, affordable housing solutions, and more.
The Vancouver Urbanarium Society and Museum of Vancouver are grateful for the support of Rositch Hemphill Architects, Marcon Investments Ltd., Wesgroup Properties LP, Macdonald Development Corporation, Glotman Simpson, Richard Henriquez, Henriquez Partners Architects, Rethink, Adera Development Corporation, BTY Consulting Group, Brooks Pooni Associates, PFS Studio, Bruce Haden, Andrew Gruft, Leslie Van Duzer, and Marta Farevaag. Additionally, the Museum would like to thank its institutional funders: City of Vancouver, Province of British Columbia, and BC Arts Council, and the exhibition media sponsor: CBC Vancouver.
LISTING INFORMATION
Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver
Date: Jan. 21-May 15, 2016
Venue: Museum of Vancouver 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC
Website: museumofvancouver.ca/ urbanarium.org
