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Coastal rural village planning with visual simulation at Miners Bay, Mayne Island

University of British Columbia

This project describes different possibilities for compatible development in a small rural coastal community, Miners Bay on Mayne Island, and uses computerized 3D tools to depict the development options in order to develop, test and revise the design. The site is the core of Miners Bay where the commercial and community center of Mayne Island has been located for more than 100 years. Mayne Island is part of the southern Gulf Islands chain of British Columbia. Its geographical location is in Active Pass, a busy waterway between Vancouver Island and the lower mainland. The community is rich in historical features and presents unique beautiful ocean views. The residents have desires for a more sustainable form of development. Information from a previous project in Landscape architecture at UBC provided an understanding of landscape features at the local level (Mayne Island). General landscape character and building character, circulation and orientated ocean views established the key criteria for landscape conservation, view protection, and community development to be explored in the design. Two community development scenarios were developed to examine expansion of shoreline-oriented commercial tourism development while protecting rural character and ocean views, under existing and alternative planning resolutions. 3D modeling and computer animation were used as a major tool in the stages of project inventory, site analysis and conceptual design and processed vital in demonstrating and testing the spatial results of plans. Recommendations for revising current planning policies include more specific protection of key view corridors to the ocean; clustering of new commercial tourism development to protect key views, improving building orientation to the ocean, and creating a denser commercial area and dispensing building pattern in the village; as well as other community design options to increase community viability while retaining the rural character.

Text

2011-02-23

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31694

Landscape Architecture

University of British Columbia

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