Reanimating the urban village: An architectural intervention for Gastown, Vancouver

• Main Author: Dodman, Morley Kelly, IV
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: architecture; urban and regional planning
• ISBN: 0494204958; 9780494204955

The focus of this thesis is threefold: devotion to the concepts of infill architecture, preservation of historic properties with an understanding of their social worth, and the application of sustainable design in breaking free of the "cradle to grave" practices of a culture fixated on the accumulation of material wealth. This thesis proposes to explore urban infill and renovation to an existing city block to create an urban village program where parts of the block have a symbiotic relationship to the whole.
With available technologies and through their application in areas like that of Vancouver's East End, the birth of a hybrid building strategy emerges to which the 'true' title of sustainability may be given. As the West Coast continues greening cities in the same ways used by many of our European counterparts, it seems that new land must be attained to erect these environmentally friendly structures. Is this necessarily the case? It is with the application of grafting on structures and breaking up scale in relation to existing fabrics that I hope to unearth a sustainable building practice that is sensitive not only to our environment but also to our social and historic makeup, a holistic approach to the rehabilitation of Vancouver's East End, its history, and its people.