VIVA Vancouver is opening its magnificent 800 Robson Street space to designers with Robson Redux, a design-build competition that invites emerging and professional designers to submit their design ideas related to the theme of “connection”. The winner will make their design a reality, building and installing it for the 2014 summer in the 800 block of Robson Street.
VIVA Vancouver’s Robson Redux design-build competition is aimed at temporarily transforming the iconic 800 block of Robson Street into a pedestrian plaza. This block is located in the heart of downtown Vancouver, Canada. Installation would take place in early summer, with hopes to open it for Canada Day long weekend (June 28-29, 2014) and would remain up until the end of Labour Day long weekend (September 30-31, 2014).
Winners will be selected by a jury made up of Matthew Blackett (Founder and Publisher, Spacing Magazine), Amber Frid-Jimenez (Principal, AFJD and Associate Professor Emily Carr University of Art and Design), Nick Milkovich (Principal, Nick Milkovich Architects), Margot Long (Principal, PWL), and Ken Lyotier (Founder, United We Can). The winning team will be provided a small design honorarium and up to $37,500 to cover costs of materials, fabrication, construction, installation, and de-installation for their projects.
Anyone may enter this competition; however criteria and submission requirements lend themselves to expertise in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, industrial design, and other related fields.
Teams can submit their designs online at www.vivadesigncomp.ca for a small fee. Submission deadline is March 21, 2014.
Past temporary public space designs at 800 Robson Street include
- 2011: PICNURBIA – designed by Loose Affiliates
- 2012: Pop Rocks! – designed by Matthew Soules, Amber Frid-Jimenez and Joe Dahmen
- 2013: Corduroy Road – designed by Hapa Collaborative
VIVA Vancouver is a public space program that specializes in turning road spaces into people places. Working with various community partners, the program is aimed at re-purposing road space to create temporary or semi-permanent public space.
