Sustainable Region Initiative

The Future of the Region Sustainability Dialogues and Sustainability Community Breakfasts are outreach components of Metro Vancouver’s Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI). They involve a series of high-profile debates and discussions intended to help decision makers shape the future of the region by presenting a range of views and stimulating fresh thought on regional issues such as housing, industry, labour and immigration, drugs and crime, regional economy, transportation, energy and agriculture. Please check the web site often to find out about future dialogues in your community.

 

Sustainable Community Breakfast: A Morning of Storytelling … Create Memories, Not Garbage

The holiday season is fast approaching, which for many means very special and memorable moments with friends and family. Join us to hear about Metro Vancouver’s Christmas campaign – Create Memories, Not Garbage – which focuses on celebration and memories while encouraging citizens to reduce the amount of garbage produced during the holiday season. In this spirit, we gift you an early morning Christmas experience: three of Metro Vancouver’s premier storytellers will share their personal holiday memories. Check out how Metro Vancouver has been collaborating with The Flame to create a holiday television special. The program includes:

Speakers:           Gord Inglis, Division Manager, Multi-Media Services, Metro Vancouver

                               Lena Zordan, Communication Specialist, Metro Vancouver

Storytellers:      JJ Lee, fashion columnist, author and storyteller

                               Emelia Symington Fedy, performer, writer and storyteller

                               Deb Williams, creator and producer of The Flame

It takes place Wednesday, December 12, 2012,7:30 – 9:00 a.m. at British Columbia Institute of Technology Downtown Vancouver Campus, 555 Seymour Street. Register online at http://apps2.metrovancouver.org/sustainability/Smailing_list/EventRegistration.asp?EventID=182.

Visionary (re)Generation Design Competition

The University of Manitoba, in partnership with Manitoba Hydro, has launched an open international design competition seeking visionary design proposals for its 279-hectare Fort Garry Campus in Winnipeg. The campus includes the Southwood Lands, a 49-hectare (former golf course that will become a new “sustainable” neighbourhood within the university boundaries. The goal is to improve the campus experience and become a leader in innovative and sustainable environmental design. The competition involves a two-phases selection process. Up to seven selected finalists will advance to a second, more detailed design phase to fully develop their concept and vision. Eligible for participation are individuals who are entitled to use the occupational title “Architect”, ”Urban Designer/Planner“ and/or “Landscape Architect” in their country of residence. Participants must first register online at www.phase1.de/uom. Competitor anonymity will be maintained until all work is exhibited following the competition. Registration is now open, and concludes on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. The deadline for Phase 1 submission is March 11, 2013. Phase 2 entries are required by July 29, 2013. For additional information, please visit www.visionaryregeneration.com.

Oscar Niemeyer, Architect Who Gave Brasília Its Flair, Dies at 104

By Nicolai Duroussoff, New York Times
December 6, 2012

Oscar Niemeyer, the celebrated Brazilian architect whose flowing designs infused Modernism with a new sensuality and captured the imaginations of generations of architects around the world, died on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. He was 104. The medical staff at the Hospital Samaritano in Rio, where he was being treated, said on national television that he died of a respiratory infection. Mr. Niemeyer was among the last of a long line of Modernist true believers who stretch from Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to the architects who defined the postwar architecture of the late 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. More … http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/americas/oscar-niemeyer-modernist-architect-of-brasilia-dies-at-104.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121206&_r=0.

3 Civic Plaza Aims to Take The Suburb Out of Surrey

By Hadani Ditmars, Globe and Mail
November 30, 2012

On a clear day from the site of Surrey’s new civic-centre-in-progress, you can see all the way to downtown Vancouver. One of the highest points in the Lower Mainland, the site of the new Bing Thom-designed library and the city hall designed jointly by Kasian and Moriyama & Teshima is part of a brave new experiment in city-building. More … http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/real-estate/3-civic-plaza-aims-to-take-the-suburb-out-of-surrey/article5848320/