A cornerstone of Vancouver’s livability is a sustained municipal planning program focused on experiential planning. Through the Vancouver Lab, you will learn lessons from Vancouver and will practice strategies for advancing experiential planning in your city.
This course, in a studio format, brings together practitioners from around the world to study the Vancouver experience – in both substance and approach – and to compare and contrast it with conditions and initiatives in their home cities. Lectures and presentations will fully explain and critique the Vancouver model. These lectures articulate the theories upon which the Vancouver approach is founded and will contrast this approach with experiences from elsewhere. The urban environment of Vancouver will be toured with the assistance of knowledgeable guides. Vancouver design innovations emerge from a particular location and development context, yet there are underlying principles to the city’s success. We will explore these principles and how they might be advanced in your city.
By the end of the course, participants should be able to:
- Holistically frame the basic components of a successful city;
- Consider how these basic components may be applied in their own city;
- Understand how to express these components in effective policies and practices;
- Understand how to implement progressive urban policies and practices in terms of institutional programs;
- Understand how to operationalize progressive urban policies and practices in political activities to communicate and gain public involvement, building the constituency necessary to secure government approval and funding;
- Adjust their planning practice to incorporate an “experiential planning” approach.
Please note, participants must have a working knowledge of the English language. Rooms at the University of British Columbia can be reserved for those who need accommodation.