The Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan or DTES LAP is a comprehensive plan for a significant area of downtown/East Vancouver. It goes before City Council this week, where Council seems likely to pass it despite significant opposition.

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Vancouver artist Ken Lum took the opportunity of a Pecha Kucha appearance to talk about the his city, its history and its habits, and its demolition and disappearance. Though he said little about his own work, none of the concerns or ethic of his art were missing.

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The post Ken Lum’s Pecha Kucha talk in Vancouver appeared first on Ouno Design.

In case you think that what follows is an exaggeration, please take a quick look at the recent articles listed below. They are only a small selection from a rising wave of articles on gentrification and the new super-rich. 

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The post Interior design and architecture in a world gentrifying at a surreal pace appeared first on Ouno Design.

This is a parody artwork at Vancouver’s 221A Artist-Run Centre, parodying the “Micro Loft” building being erected next door to it in the current lightning-fast condo land rush taking place in Chinatown.

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The post Everybody works but the vacant lot appeared first on Ouno Design.

The post Condo marketing company’s own employees posing as buyers from China to drive condo sales; busted by blog appeared first on Ouno Design.

Photo by Dan Toulgoet , Vancouver Courier – Elvy Del Bianco presents rare films shot in Vancouver between 1964 and 1988 at the Waldorf Hotel in 2011.

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The post Art and cooperatives in the economy appeared first on Ouno Design.

From my friend Jonathan, who posted this Google Maps screenshot along with the assessment “No comment.”

It would please me to blame this sudden proliferation of sports bars on the damn Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

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The post The steady creep of sports bars across Vancouver appeared first on Ouno Design.

Borgen is a Danish political drama sent in Copenhagen. Despite being a subtitled Danish show loosely based on complicated domestic Danish political events, it grew to unexpected popularity throughout Europe.

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The post Borgen, popular political drama set in Copenhagen appeared first on Ouno Design.

Vancouver, is that your motto?

Out with the old, in with the new?

Meanwhile, this questionable object will replace The Ridge Theatre, one of Vancouver’s few historic repertory cinemas:

Apparently this passed a City of Vancouver design panel.

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The post Ecce Vancouver appeared first on Ouno Design.

There is a particular type of contemporary design that I deeply despise but for which there is no terminology. About six years ago, out of frustration, I started calling it “contempo.” It is a deliberately cheesy term for a cheesy aesthetic, an aesthetic of dumbed-down, cutesy faux-modernism.

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The post “Contempo” – my term for the insincere faux-modern design style infecting our lives appeared first on Ouno Design.