Open Collections

True Creek Botanical Park : re-presenting the botanical garden

University of British Columbia

This design project extends VanDusen Botanical Garden into the city through a network of satellite sites that combine botanical information with site specificity. Once multiple sites are an option, and their locations a strategic decision, it is anticipated that a paradigm shift occurs. When the botanical garden becomes embedded into daily life with a broadened audience, new opportunities for design concept, layout, content and interpretation are created that reinforce the mission of a contemporary botanical garden, whilst contributing urban landscape experiences that are aesthetically captivating and engaging. True Creek Botanical Park is developed as one example of a satellite botanical garden. It is located on Vancouver's False Creek and combines environmental education with landscape experience. Situated within everyday activities, it engages visitors with the beauty and importance of coastal marsh and related upland ecosystems and processes, to connect people with plants. The design is fundamentally informed by the ecology and history of the site itself and foregrounds the impact of urban development upon natural environments. The project also makes a positive material contribution to improving the environment at and beyond the site. This site-determined botanical garden breaks with site-dominant tradition presenting a model for other sites in the VanDusen network and other botanical gardens.

Text

2009-12-11

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/16391

Landscape Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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