Concept Vision For the East Side by Chris Doray Studio

January 27, 2012

Posted by Vancity Buzz | 5 »

Chris Doray Studio Inc, a local design studio submitted this stunning concept design for reCONNECT Vancouver competition. The aim of this proposal is to reconnect Vancouverites with water by reclaiming some of False Creek that was paved over a long time ago. The concept didn’t win the contest but nonetheless it’s beautiful.

The aim of reConnect was to reduce the divide between the west side and the east side. Part of that may mean tearing down the viaducts. You can see of the great submissions here.

Here’s the description of the concept design by Chris Doray via World Architecture News:

It will provide badly-needed recreational facilities in this part of the city and return some ‘authentic life’ to the easterners, with eight kilometres of shoreline amenities and a sandy beach in a 90 ha park. It also includes an ecological plan that converts ocean and grey waters using 12ha of reed-bed natural reserve to purify the water.

A simple formula and sleek design means water becomes a focus in this proposal. Water is a precious commodity, a vital resource – we are dependent on water but also endangered by it. With rising water levels and the increasingly heavy inland rains urban living faces new challenges. The designers at Chris Doray Studio felt that it is essential to integrate water dynamically in living space, wherever and however it may occur.

The challenge is combining striking design with sustainable water management in usable urban spaces. Another bold aspect to this new ‘Urban-Pluralism’ is mapping the intangible through the act of annulment and reconstituting this disordered east side through the introduction of three new geometries: a 40ha Aquatic Landscape – Water Town, Aqua Towers, Reed Bed Natural Reserve, Marina; a 90ha Natural Landscape – Park Residences, Beach; and a 30ha Urban Landscape – Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver Art Gallery + Residences, VAG Sculpture Garden.

The architects’ purpose has been to envision an urban way of living that frees individuals within a community from restricting conventions of thought and action, in order to realise more fully than is presently possible to answer the question, ‘What is Human?’ Hence adopting a Free-Zone Space: an urban planning approach that aims at inducing the sensory experiences. Both vivid and lucid, each is in a constant state of flux: first in time, then in place and finally in human state.

Keep in mind this is just a concept, however, how great would this look in the city’s east side. A place where, nature, industry and residents live in harmony. However, I feel the residents of Strathcona, Mount Pleasant and Olympic Village would probably not be too happy.

Here are a few more concept renders:

Kev

Meh
http://twitter.com/sicklove Dylen Durret

I would sea-doo drunk late at night in there
B Urban

It’s a huge improvement on what is currently there, imo.
Bbehnia11

There is already a plan at the City to develop the False Creek Flats, which is the same site as the RFP here! They are thinking of creating an ecological urban trail going through the site and incorporating this with some mixed-use developments (mid-rise I believe)! I’m not sure if it’ll be easy to open the flat to water, although it used to be part of the creek back in the day, so maybe this design is a good way of recreating the original extent of False Creek! Expensive, and with the City running a deficit, this is going to be sitting somewhere on someone’s desk for a long long time!
MAIBC

Chris Doray holds himself out on his own and other websites to be an architect in Vancouver and British Columbia, but he is not. This is illegal practice contravening the Architect’s Act of BC.

Signed,

A British Columbia registered architect, MAIBC.