Sea2City Design Challenge

Sea2City Design Challenge
Client: City of Vancouver
Dates: 2021-2023

EcoPlan was on the consulting team for this award winning  [W1] city of Vancouver Project.

The Sea2City Design Challenge (see video) was a collaborative design challenge focused on reimagining the future of the False Creek shoreline. Over a 12-month period, the project united two multi-disciplinary design teams, City staff, local coastal adaptation experts, and Host Nation representatives and knowledge keepers from the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh, along with designers, to reimagine key sites along Vancouver’s False Creek shoreline.

The teams demonstrated how these sites can adapt to rising sea levels while supporting urban development and fostering ecological revitalization. Their work will also contribute to the next phase of our Climate Adaptation Plan and Coastal Adaptation Plan.

Guided by Host Nation values, community values, and design principles established through earlier engagement, the Sea2City initiative offered a platform for collective learning and capacity building. This benefited us, our project partners, and the design teams, enabling us to:

• Increase public awareness of sea level rise and coastal flooding, along with opportunities to address these challenges.
• Explore and develop a coastal adaptation approach that centers reconciliation with Host Nations, who have stewarded Vancouver’s coastline since time immemorial.
• Investigate coastal adaptation approaches that respond to the social equity, economic, and ecological challenges posed by sea level rise and coastal flooding.
• Examine options for addressing sea level rise scenarios, including those projecting an increase of at least two metres.