elementslab provided workshops to City of Vancouver staff using UD-Co-Spaces and CityEngine.  We then developed urban design metrics and visualizations of contemplated land use planning in support of the ongoing Marpole Community Plan (2014) process. The work assisted staff, city council, and community stakeholders to understand the degree to which the plan helped the city to meet its larger sustainability goals.

This was a uniquely collaborative process between UBC researchers and City of Vancouver staff including two interactive workshops to test and measure alternative planning scenarios. An initial workshop used Co-Spaces to test urban design parameters for focused study areas. A second workshop played out the plan in 3D across the entire neighbourhood in City Engine and enabled the planners to adjust built form while concurrently viewing key metrics such as land use, transit density and energy conditions of the neighbourhood. This allowed comparison of existing to proposed conditions and comparisons of one scenario to another. Based on a finalized land use plan (by the City), elementslab developed visualizations of the metrics for public consumption at the Marpole Community Plan Open Houses.