FILE 07 · Urbanism

Rooted

Year: 2025
Course: DES 302
Location: Carrall Street, Gastown, Vancouver, BC
Program: Community garden, food commons, and vendor corridor

Project statement01

Carrall Street runs directly along the seam between Gastown's tourist economy and the displacement of the Downtown Eastside. Rooted reads that seam through a socioeconomic divide index and a long section of the four groups that occupy the street - the displaced, the police, the Gastown Business Improvement Society, and the tourists - and then proposes a continuous green corridor that gives the street back to the people who live on it. Food sovereignty, dignity and sustainability, economic empowerment, and a community building organize the plan into community gardens, ornamental gardens, and vendor gardens, anchored by a multipurpose stage at Water Street, a circular community table at Maple Tree Square, and a resource centre holding a soup kitchen, craft room, washroom, and storage.

Context02

Socioeconomic divide

A 1:7500 context map indexes affluence against displacement across Gastown and the Downtown Eastside, locating food programs, homeless shelters, GBIS buildings, and the chosen site along Carrall Street.

Analysis03

Who occupies the street

A long section along Carrall Street plots the displaced, the police, the Gastown Business Improvement Society, and the tourists against the statistics that shape their presence on the block.

Long section along Carrall Street comparing the displaced, the police, the GBIS, and the tourists with supporting statistics — Long section - occupation of Carrall Street

Plan04

Annotated site plan

The corridor runs from E Hastings Street to Water Street, threading a vendor corridor, maple tree grove, community table, multipurpose stage, and a resource centre with soup kitchen, craft room, washroom, and storage.

Detail05

Isometric studies

Two isometrics test the corridor at eye level: the stage and community table at Maple Tree Square, and the vendor stalls set into productive planting beds.

Isometric of the multipurpose stage and circular community table under a maple grove — Isometric 01 - stage and community table

Isometric of the vendor stalls with canopies set into productive planting beds — Isometric 02 - vendor stalls

Close isometric detail of a raised community garden bed being tended — Community garden bed detail

Final06

Rendered perspectives

Render of the vendor corridor with string lights, canopies, and planting beds — Vendor corridor

Render of the circular community table with a shared meal under the maple grove — Community table - shared meal

Render of residents watering planting beds along the Carrall Street corridor with a piano in the plaza — Carrall Street corridor

Outreach07

Community pamphlet

A trifold pamphlet designed to be handed out in Gastown, introducing the four phases - germinate, cultivate, bloom, thrive - and inviting residents, vendors, and businesses into the corridor.

Trifold Rooted pamphlet mockup showing the phasing spread and cover panel — Rooted pamphlet - trifold mockup

Project metadataColophon

Year: 2025
Course: DES 302
Location: Carrall Street, Gastown, Vancouver, BC
Program: Community garden, food commons, and vendor corridor
Tools: Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Enscape
Collaborators: Yumnna H., Winnie Z.

Next filesSame folder

FILE 06The Unseen2025 →