So Wen and I have been living in Vancouver for a little over a year now and are learning all about Vancouver exceptionalism. Vancouverites feel qualitatively different from the rest of Canada, driven largely from living in a tiny-but-spectacularly-beautiful setting that is hemmed in by ocean, mountains and an international border. You’re essentially cut off… Continue reading Vancouver Exceptionalism, Part 374
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The World Without Us – Vancouver Edition
A few years ago, Alan Weisman wrote a little book called The World Without Us . In it, he detailed what would happen to the the earth if humans suddenly disappeared. There’s a captivating chapter where he describes the decay of Manhattan as it’s buildings begin to collapse: In the first few years with no… Continue reading The World Without Us – Vancouver Edition
Trapped in Hidden Architecture
There’s a great exhibit on right now at the Charles H. Scott gallery at Emily Carr. Babak Golkar’s Grounds for Standing and Understanding rethinks our everyday relationship to architecture. At the end of the gallery sits an afghan rug; the patterns have been perfectly extruded to create a speculative cityscape. To get to the rug… Continue reading Trapped in Hidden Architecture
Articulating Your Idea
I gave a talk today at ProductCamp Vancouver (well done organizers!) called Articulating Your Idea. It’s a 12 step process for taking your thoughts/visions and turning them into one or two concrete sentences that people can understand. Here’s a link to the slides: On a different note, the event was in the SFU Business School,… Continue reading Articulating Your Idea
Signs in the ‘Hood
One of the little joys of living in my neighbourhood is watching the subway ads get defaced. If it was just a matter of people tagging the ads, I’d consider it vandalism, but the locals have turned it into an art form (I think there are some very creative but underemployed folks in my hood… Continue reading Signs in the ‘Hood