Q Commons Vancouver

The first Q Commons event in Vancouver will be held at Regent College on September 24. Q Commons, an event organized by Q Ideas based in New York City, convenes local leaders to think, learn, and work together on common topics and issues in our cities. The conversation in Vancouver will centre around issues of home through a variety of different lenses: housing affordability, building community, and infusing more happiness into a city sometimes described as fostering loneliness.

The evening will include presentations by local and gloabl leaders and thinkers, including:

• David Ley
• Karen Reed
• Omar Dominguez
• May So
• Os Guinness
• Dr. Caroline Leaf

Date: September 24, 2015, 7 pm
Location: Regent College, 5800 University Blvd, UBC Campus, Vancouver
Tickets: $29
To purchase: http://host.qideas.org/cities/vancouver/view

For more information, visit the Regent College website.

Peter Wall Downtown Lecture Series Fall 2015: “Forensic Architecture”

Can architecture provide new tools of political analysis and intervention?

This question is central to the work of Eyal Weizman, Israeli architect and scholar.

By examining buildings, ruins, maps, satellite imagery and citizen images and video, his research teams investigate the sites of contemporary conflicts and monitor the crimes of states. Weizman unpacks state violence from the frontier regions of Pakistan, through the forests of South America to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Date: October 15, 2015, 7:30 pm
Location: Vogue Theatre, 918 Granville Street, Vancouver. Doors open at 6:30 pm.
Cost: Free but reservation required, limited supply
To register:
https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/942589?utm_medium=bks

For more information, visit the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies website.

Vancouver Trees App Launch at Dr. Meg Lowman Lecture

The UBC Botanical Garden is officially launching the Vancouver Trees App at an upcoming lecture with ‘Queen of Canopies’ Dr. Meg Lowman. For details on the lecture and to purchase tickets, see below.

Vancouver Trees is a locally developed mobile app that describes commonly cultivated trees in the Metro Vancouver area. As the multidisciplinary development team included landscape architects and horticulturists, this app includes the technical information required by those specifying trees. Users of the app can browse the extensive catalogue of nearly a thousand different trees, each one accurately described by its identification features, ecological needs and availability.

Users can:

• search a library of tree images
• view tree locations on maps
• create plant lists for specific situations or projects
• share lists or make a personal archive for quick reference
• perform advanced tree search based on characteristics and landscape uses

The app is a comprehensive resource for students, landscape professionals, gardeners, arborists, or anyone else with an interest in Vancouver’s trees. The Vancouver Trees mobile app is available in a professional version (Vancouver Trees Pro) with all of the above features, and in a no-frills basic version (Vancouver Trees Basic) for casual users.

For more information on the Vancouver Trees App, visit http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/vancouvertrees

Date: October 2, 2015, 5:30-7 p.m. Reception to follow
Speakers: Dr. Meg Lowman, Chief of Science and Sustainability at the California Academy of Sciences, Douglas Justice, UBC Botanical Garden Associate Director, Horticulture and Collections and Daniel Mosquin, Research and Biodiversity Informatics Manager
Location: The Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, Jack Poole Hall
Cost: $10 plus applicable taxes and fees. Free for UBC Students with valid ID
For tickets: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/wharton-lecture

TREEHOUSING International Wood Design Competition Winners Announced

(Image: In the tall wood housing category, co-winner of the Grand Prize was Ayla Harvey (South Africa), an architectural student. Her design “Jungle Gym” was praised by the jury as “playful and imaginative capturing the dynamic spirit of urban life.” Courtesy of Ayla Harvey and DBR | Design Build Research School.)

The winners of the TREEHOUSING International Wood Design Competition were recently announced at the XIV World Forestry Congress in Durban, South Africa.

More than 200 projects by teams representing 60 countries were submitted for the contest, which was jointly organized by the Canada-based DBR | Design Build Research School and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Housing for the world’s growing urban population and the threat of deforestation are two of the most significant issues facing humanity today. The competition challenged architecture students, professional architects and engineers around the world to develop innovative wood housing and affordable urban building solutions for Africa and beyond. Entrants were required to use any sustainably harvested wood material or product as the primary material for their designs.

For more information and to view the complete list of winners, visit the TREEHOUSING website.