Featured Events: Tangential Vancouverism and Technology

Rain Urbanism by Matthew Soules

We arrive at the first weekend in March with not one but two interesting events to profile. Good news for urbanists and city-lovers out there!

First up is this evening’s launch of the Tangential Vancouverism project at the 221a Artist Run Centre. As its name suggests, the exhibit riffs off of the notion of Vancouverism – which, in its most laudatory definition is a celebration the post-1980s podium-and-tower transformation of downtown Vancouver.

Taking as its starting-point the idea that “a city…is much more than a collection of buildings or the rules by which it builds,” the exhibit aims to initiate a bit of conceptual re-framing – shifting the focus from towers of glass to the more human dimensions of life in our city.

The event features five Vancouver-based design practices, each of which have developed new ideas for enriching Vancouver’s urbanism. Topics covered include mobility, communication, food, event and education. Three urban thinkers have, in turn, developed initial responses to the ideas through a series of essays and images.

The exhibit opens at 8:00pm at 221a East Georgia (at Main). Check it out and develop your own response to the ideas. Let us know what you think. Visit the tangentialvancouverism.ca website for more info.

Later, on Sunday afternoon, you can treat yourself to a matinee courtesy of UBC’s School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture and the Museum of Vancouver. The two have combined forces to showcase presentations by AnnaLisa Meyboom and Oliver Neumann.

The MOV website describes it thus:

Addressing the theme of “technology”, Annalisa Meyboom’s presentation will consider the emergence of revolutionary technologies and its impact on infrastructures of the future/city. Oliver Neumann will discuss computer-controlled fabrication as generators for new ways to think and build.

The event starts at 2:00pm at the Museum of Vancouver, 1100 Chestnut Street (near Vanier Park).