Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

No. I'm not refering to my site. But I am talking about the hot labour market and the potential effect it has had on the design industries in Vancouver. VBD knew something was up when designers across the board - architects to fashion designers - were complaining about how difficult it was to staff all their projects. That was the topic On The Coast with CBC Radio host Belle Puri. Listen to today's column: The Design Deficit featuring communication designer Todd Smith , Stephen Webster of the Vancouver Film School , and Stantec Vice President Brian Johnson .

How is one of the world's most ancient building materials getting a high-tech makeover? VBD found out with a visit the Architectural Centre Gallery in Vancouver and the exhibition, " Future Wood ". The exhibition features building designs and concepts that use wood with a high-tech treatment. Whether it involves laser cutting or computer-aided wood routing, the projects are intended to show off wood as a material of the 21st century. Oliver Neumann curated the show. He's a professor of architecture at the University of British Columbia and practices architecture in Vancouver. And he gave VBD a tour .

A decade ago, Jill Anholt, an instructor at Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design , Greg Boothroyd of Patkau Architects , and Alex Percy of Acton Ostry Architects graduated from architecture school in Vancouver. In a three-part interview, Vancouver By Design, spoke with these three young designers about the past, present, and future of architecture in Vancouver and the role they think they should play. VBD met them in a busy Five Acres pub at the nexus of Gastown, Chinatown, and the Downtown Eastside and bought them a few rounds and recorded Minus Ten Plus Ten .

Received a nice note from Dave. A fellow architecture/design blogger: Pacific Northwest Regional Architecture . Verdict on his site: like it. Here's Dave's mission: "This is a blog about a style of architecture found in the Pacific Northwest. The style is often referred to as Westcoast Contemporary or Northwest Regionalism. My plan for this blog is to just post as many pictures and information as I can. If you have any pictures of houses or buildings that fit this style or you have any info to share about this subject, send me an email: dave@pnwra.com" But WHO is Dave?

On Friday, Nick Sully and Hannah Teicher won the Cleveland Design Competition - Project 2007. The architectural designers received the nod for their proposal for the down-and-out neighbourhood of Irishtown Bend in Cleveland. Described by organizers as, "unused, overgrown, and largely inaccessible," Sully and Teicher proposed turning the abandoned riverside site into an urban agricultural wetland that would bridge two adjacent neighbourhoods with walkways. Check out their winning project . And here's Teicher beginning the interview with a d escription of the project . Note: Nick Sully recently started his own architectural practice in Vancouver. To find out more visit nicksully.com . Hannah Teicher is an architectural intern with a diverse developing practicing combining sociology and architecture.

Last year the Vancouver Art Gallery mounted a major exhibition on the works of architect Arthur Erickson. Never thought of as a retrospective, the show focused on Erickson's continuing investigation into certain themes: light, concrete as a poetic material, and nature and the landscape. Here is show curator Nicholas Olsberg, former director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, in conversation with Vancouver By Design (16 minutes) .

Mike Chadwick's recent book, Vancouver In Focus: The City's Built Form is an opportunity to consider the art of architectural photography. While Chadwick's images were taken with a Pentax SLR, the more common professional photographer's choice for architecture is the field camera. It's the camera with bellows and requires a tripod and makes large negatives. More importantly, field cameras have a complex structure, an architecture even, in its design that compensates for distortions which occur when one shoots with an SLR camera. And to help us understand the art of architectural photography, VBD interviewed Simon Scott. Simon Scott is one of the city's best (highly recommended by architects who know) and he agreed to join VBD in front of Arthur Erickson's MacMillan Bloedel building in Vancouver to talk about his art and craft.

Just announced in Canadian Architect , Vancouver firm Acton Ostry Architects have won two awards for their use of wood in their design. At the BC WoodWorks Awards, they received the Institutional Wood Design Award and the Architect Award. Check out, their website and also listen to my previous interview with Mark Ostry (not "Ostrey") on design and religion for CBC special series, Sacred Spaces .

An interview that will prick up your ears: psycho-acoustics. It's the art and science of how sound and space effect our health. A forum took place in March at UBC on the topic. It's part of the dWellbeing lecture series at Green College. VBD had a chance to speak with a presenter before the event. Murray Hodgson is a professor of engineering and an acoustic designer. Here's his interview with VBD. For more information on the next (and final) dWellbeing lecture visit http://www.dwellbeingforums.net/forum3.htm .

(This Vancouver by Design column originally aired On The Coast on CBC Radio One in Vancouver) One of the original partners in the design company behind BC Place's roof told Vancouver By Design he left the company precisely because of a dispute over the design of such structures. Horst Berger was one half of Geiger Berger - the company which designed the stadium's air supported roof; it collapsed last week after tearing. Described by local engineers, as "daring, innovative, and pre-eminent" in the field of fabric roofs, Berger ended his partnership with David Geiger in 1983, the same year BC Place was completed. Berger, 80, spoke to VBD by phone from his residence in New York state. When told about the tear and subsequent deflation, Berger said, "I'm not surprised." "The air-supported structure depends on a mechanical system and that is it's Achilles heel." Membrane roofs like the one on BC Place require pumped in air to keep the dome inflat...

It was two years ago this month that a massive tsunami off the coast of Indonesia killing nearly 200 000 people. The regions affected have been on a long road to reconstruction and BC design and building technology are having an impact in the effort. Britco , a prefabricated and modular home builder in Langley, BC, have been contracted by Save The Children USA to build housing elements that will make up 300 homes in Aceh province. And if things go well, it will lead to the construction of 3000 homes where it's believed 160 000 people died in the tsunami. The other player in this story is the BC Institute of Technology . They're providing training and design experience and skills to Indonesian builders in the region with money from BC's Forestry Innovation Investment, Wayne Stevens, director of Canadian Housing and Construction Centre at BCIT, says BCIT instructor Doug Betts "just finished up teaching a three-week course in platform frame construction in Indonesia for ...

Sacred Spaces is a special series on CBC Radio One looking at the idea of spiritual places in the Lower Mainland. I focused on the design of religious spaces. Mark Ostry of Acton Ostry Architects met me at the first religious building they ever designed, Har El Synagogue, where he gave me a tour of the building. For more info on Acton Ostry, check out their site .

I've lately been thinking about Raymond Moriyama of Moriyama & Teshima Architects I interviewed him for The Current just before the opening of the World Urban Forum this summer. We spent a great couple of hours together talking about a sensitive topic. Moriyama designed hundreds of buildings around the world but one of his most important recent works is the Canadian War Museum which, as Anna Maria Tremonti said, is "a bittersweet irony considering-- as a boy--- he was one of the 20,000 Japanese-Canadians interred by the federal government during World War Two." Well, Moriyama and I toured his old neighbourhood. We started our trip into the past in a taxi headed to a part of the downtown eastside that used to be known as Japantown. It's after the letters section of the June 15, 2006 edition of The Current Listen. I think what he had to say about Vancouver was absolutely reasonable, valid and understandably tinged with his personal experience. Local architects, how...

Mary Beth Rondeau is an architect with the City of Vancouver. She believes design decisions can help fight crime. Hear Rondeau's CBC interview with JJ Lee. It aired as part of a special series called, "On the Case with On The Coast." Listen.

Last week, Vancouver by Design reviewed an exhibition called, Some Assembly Required . The Vancouver Art Gallery is presenting the traveling show from the Walker Art Center, Minnesota on contemporary pre-fab housing (that review will be posted soon). One of the goals of the show was to feature architects who designed contemporary or modern-styled prefabs. It also underscores how modern design ideas are at work in new smaller homes and suites no matter what style the come in - neo-Craftsman, Palladian stucco, or high-rise slick - it doesn't matter. Open plans, which means not parceling space into small rooms (living, dining kitchen) and the extension of visual space by using lotswindows and views to bring the outside into the home are two obvious examples of modern architectures contribution to domestic home design. But what are the other ways to make small homes, both apartments and single-family residences, look and feel bigger? This is especially relevant to the Vancouver market ...

According to the blog http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com, Lloyd Kahn is on his way to BC. Kahn is best known for his advocacy of do-it-yourself homebuilding. He will be documenting structures for his upcoming book, Builders of the Northwest Coast . In 1973, Kahn published the iconoclastic work, Shelter . It captured the world of counter-cultural constructions of the 1960s, including yurts, sod roofs, geodesic domes, and recycled shacks, decades before "green" architecture became a catch-phrase. Along with building theorist, Christopher Alexander, Kahn exerted a powerful influence on socially-conscience architects and architecture students at the University of British Columbia. Keep visiting for updates as Vancouver By Design is working hard to bring Lloyd Kahn "On The Coast."

(A radio version of this column aired "On the Coast" on February 6.) Last week, John Furlong, chief executive of the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC), said the cost of venue building for the 2010 Olympics has gone up by $110 from $470 million to $580 million. Furlong wants B.C. and the federal government to cover the shortfall. Furlong also added that VANOC had already cut $85 million to keep their building projects under control. They already stopped the construction of an international broadcasting centre in Richmond, B.C. Instead, it will be rolled into the press centre housed in the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. But what impact will cost increases and project cuts have on the design of the remaining Olympic buildings to be constructed in Vancouver and Whistler? Their costs are going up. Will it lead to weaker design? It may be hard to calculate. For example, take the Richmond Olympic Oval which many consider the signature building of the Vancouver Olym...