From Street to Plaza with Modular Timber Technologies

We know it’s so important to have parks and open space to meet our friends, relax, play, and have room for other creatures like plants and animals. But public space in cities is limited - particularly in older, built up areas.  One way that cities are approaching this challenge is by transforming streets into plazas.  In Vancouver, to help keep these new plazas beautiful, agreements are made with local groups or businesses to maintain them.

Ethos Lab has committed to re-designing and stewarding 3rd Avenue, the street block right outside Ethos Lab’s space. In this studio, we dreamed big, thinking about what we and our friends would like to see and what other living things in our cities would like to see. Using sustainable materials like mass timber and  modular systems could help bring our visions to reality, and allow for flexibility and change over time.

This Studio was part of a week-long camp that explored natural sciences, and design, concluding with model building and presentations to city staff.  The Studio was be the first chance to brainstorm ideas and get the design process rolling for a creative and pragmatic idea for a youth-led plaza design.