Museum of Vancouver's new exhibition to spark debate on city's future

A new exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver aims to tackle some of the mounting issues that could cripple Vancouver in the future.

Beginning on January 21, running until May 15, the museum will showcase Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver, a new unique exhibit to provide local residents with a glimpse of the possible avenues the city could take with addressing housing affordability, residential density, transportation, and public spaces.

A total of 23 future scenarios curated and designed by local architects, urban planners, and visionaries break all barriers in imagining the city’s future, ranging from a 2,500-foot-tall vertical city plopped in the middle of the downtown Vancouver peninsula, the creation of a bicycle-only post-disaster transportation network, and the creation of new park space on floating barges.

And to tie in everything together, there will even be a 1,400-square-foot ‘sales centre’ with infographics, animations, models, and images that provide a backgrounder on the state of Vancouver.

The exhibition is being organized in partnership with the Vancouver Urbanarium Society, a not-for-profit group of local architects, designers, planners and citizens led by Richard Henriquez of Henriquez Partners Architects.

“Vancouver is a city in flux, undergoing massive growth and redevelopment. With as many as three homes demolished each day, often to make room for denser living, we are experiencing a watershed moment in the history of the region,” says Gregory Dreicer, MOV Director of Curatorial and Engagement, in a statement.

“With everyone already talking about Vancouver’s sky-high housing prices, we want to shift the conversation from real estate to the state of the city. Your Future Home launches from a ‘presentation centre’ into an ‘urban grid,’ in which some of Vancouver’s most creative minds grapple with the city’s thorniest issues. We want to bring more people into debates about what their city might become.”

Complimenting the four-month-long exhibition, the group is also hosting a number of public debates about the issues at hand.

The first debate, being held tonight, quarrels over the idea of whether density should be introduced to all of the city’s neighbourhoods.

In each debate, teams of experts will argue their competing visions. Those in the audience will also vote before and after each debate, and the team that changes the most minds is awarded a prize.

The Urbanarium Society will host a total of six debates from now through June, in addition to a number of forums and a lecture series. The next debate on February 3 ponders over the question of whether the region should build fewer towers.

Your Future Home: Creating The New Vancouver Exhibition

When: January 21 to May 15, 2016

Where: Museum of Vancouver (100 Chestnut St, Vancouver)

Website: www.museumofvancouver.ca