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Actual property commentator Michael Geller displays on 1976 contest and appears ahead to an upcoming model match for apartment dwellers
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In the course of the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, most Vancouver residences featured a small galley kitchen and a dreaded “L-shape” eating/residing area, which residents discovered awkward to furnish. This prompted The Vancouver Solar Leisure part to sponsor a “What the L” inside design competitors. The thought was to encourage Solar readers to submit images of the varied methods they’d furnished and adorned their L-shaped residing areas.
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For the reason that Canada Mortgage and Housing Company financed many of those residences, as its newly arrived assistant architect/planner, I used to be invited to be one of many competitors judges. Fifty years later, I can nonetheless vividly recall lots of the inventive concepts submitted by readers.
The grand prize winner was a Burnaby bachelor’s pad remodeled right into a jungle. It featured darkish inexperienced and mirrored partitions, bamboo furnishings and many stuffed animals. The partitions and ceiling had been barely seen via all of the vegetation. It wasn’t simple to think about that this had as soon as been a typical beige Metro Vancouver residence.
Different submissions recreated the inside of a rural farmhouse, a sublime Cote d’Azur pied-à-terre, and the within of an industrial manufacturing unit.


The competitors entries provided newspaper readers a glimpse into how different folks lived. It additionally impressed some readers to fully redecorate their houses.
Not too long ago, I’ve been desirous about this competitors since former Vancouver metropolis councillor and B.C. social service company S.U. C. C. E. S. S CEO Tung Chan launched me to Shasha Liu and Lillian Dong.
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Lui is an acclaimed tv producer and the founding father of The Life-style Basis. Dong, a graduate of Parsons Faculty of Design with expertise in vogue model advertising in Shanghai, is the inspiration’s CEO.
The Life-style Basis is a non-profit group headquartered in Vancouver that promotes life-style trade, high quality residing and philanthropy. It advocates for extra enriching, fulfilling and significant methods of residing. Its main viewers contains those that lately moved to Vancouver from China and different Asian cities.
The muse desires to supply these newcomers insights into completely different Vancouver life. Like The Vancouver Solar’s “What the L” competitors, it additionally goals to offer a glimpse into peoples’ houses as an example how different Vancouverites stay.
On Sept. 24, the inspiration is organizing a Life-style Award Ceremony on the Vancouver Artwork Gallery. It’s meant that this would be the first of many such occasions in Vancouver and Los Angeles.
One goal is to spotlight the perfect in Vancouver life and foster connections amongst company from numerous industries. The occasion will embody a collaboration with iQiyi, certainly one of China’s largest non-public web TV networks, which is able to additional improve its attain and impression.
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As a part of the occasion, the inspiration is organizing a design competitors to spotlight three points of up to date Vancouver life.
The primary class is how householders and tenants make their houses extra pet pleasant. In spite of everything, thirty-five per cent of Vancouver households have a canine, and Coya, a pet meals firm, has ranked Vancouver as top-of-the-line cities on the planet for canine.
The second class is how folks use vegetation to make their houses extra engaging and more healthy. Having a home plant, or many vegetation, could be a stunning technique to deliver life into our houses, enhance the air high quality and scale back pollution.
The third class is how residents design balcony areas to make them extra attention-grabbing, usable and livable. Whereas many Vancouverites by no means use their balconies, others have remodeled them into engaging extensions of their residence.
Anybody can submit entries to the competitors. There is no such thing as a value to enter, however entries ought to embody no less than three digital images, a written description (not more than 700 phrases) and an non-compulsory quick video if desired. Additional particulars may be discovered on the inspiration’s web site.
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The muse will announce the profitable submissions on the Sept. 24 occasion, which shall be videoed and posted on-line. Successful entries and honourable mentions may even be featured in a future version of The Vancouver Solar’s Westcoast Houses part.
The occasion may even acknowledge people and organizations selling different fascinating life. They’re anticipated to incorporate these advocating for the conservation of heritage houses and residing in smaller areas, together with laneway and coach homes.
Simply because the “What the L” competitors provided Vancouver Solar readers a glimpse into how others lived and impressed readers to revamp their very own houses, the organizers of this competitors are hopeful that the identical will occur once more — practically 50 years later.
Michael Geller is an city planner, actual property marketing consultant and property developer. He serves on the adjunct school of SFU’s Centre for Sustainable Improvement and Faculty of Useful resource and Environmental Administration. His weblog may be discovered at gellersworldtravel.blogspot.ca.
— With analysis from Postmedia librarian Carolyn Soltau
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