The Vanier Place / Urban Landscape complex is located at the heart of the Vanier community, beside the Rideau River, in Ottawa, Canada. This community lacks connection to the vital urban experiences provided by other public spaces along the Rideau waterfront considering that this location is only 10 min drive from downtown Ottawa. Therefore, the proposed Vanier Place – an urban landscape complex, is aiming to provide potential public spaces for local residence and enhance human-nature interactions. The Project has two portions, a net-zero workshop complex building and an urban landscape park around it. The landscape part of this project includes five aspects as below:

First, a grey water filtration to re-circulate and used around surrounding existing buildings and the proposed net-zero buildings. Water collected will be used for designed water features for both social interactive activities and indoor-outdoor climate; second, a Kayak club: Wasted water collected and released into a proposed reservoir on the Rideau River, once reaches the designated water volume and level, the water will be released instantly and create artificial wave for improving kayaking experience; third, a fishing platform on the exiting island on the Rideau River adjacent to the lot, reducing non-native species such as carp in the Rideau river; forth, a funnel rainwater collector and a bird habitat on the island for enhancing human-nature experiences, hence achieve sustained aesthetics; and last, a reflective pond in the center of the site for summer activities and winter ice-skating experiences.

The Vanier community is considered by many Ottawa natives to be a “forgotten neighborhood”. This is directly related to the failure of public space development in the area. This project aims to provide a more sustainable and healthy public landscape infrastructure for the community.