Sydney
Burstein
My name is Sydney, a Bachelor of Interior Design graduate hanging out somewhere in the intersection of hard work and good humour.
I chose design because it cannot be captured beneath one definition. I’m fascinated by the idea that in one moment it can be lighthearted, conceptual and exploratory, and in the next it’s changing the world. When I’m not hunched over my desk doing design work, I can often be found hunched over my various other surfaces watching nature documentaries, embroidering, or sketching birds.
Good Creature Collective
The intended purpose of Good Creature Collective is to act as a hub for the Vancouver sustainability movement. In this context however, sustainability not only pertains to the natural environment that surrounds the city, but to its cultural and economic elements as well.
It is a space with purity of character and intention, with each of its facets designed in order to facilitate either social or environmental sustainability under a singular, easily accessible roof. These features will include environmental and cultural driven amenities such as local markets, waste free grocery store and café, tool sharing spaces, clothing swap areas, bike parking, community gardens, bike repair space, beehives, public gathering space and artist studio spaces.
In our conscious selection and design efforts, our first decision was to make a statement about the space. 75% of the space was to be deconstructable and built heavily around a modular system intended to provide physical and economic flexibility to the vendors that are housed within the project. Because there is no textbook definition on how this translates within the built environment, we decided to define this as FF+E that could easily be reconfigured or removed with minimal damage, and either reused or sold following the end of the building’s life. This meant avoiding built in furniture, heavy components and the application of small-scale material, all within a space that still feels harmonious.
In a large city, it is hard to support your value system, however strong it may be. Because of this, oftentimes convenience takes precedence. From this stems a sense of guilt that many young Vancouverites face – a strong set of moral guidelines to the ways in which you consume washed away by the factors that make up a big city, such as long hours, longer commutes, and multiple locations to visit within the dwindling hours between work and home.
Above all else, Good Creature Collective’s main intention is to help foster the good intentions that are already present within our city.
