Styles of the times: liberal and neo-conservative landscapes in inner Vancouver, 1968–1986

Abstract

The paper adopts Bernice Martin's argument that two major ideologies may be traced in western culture over the past two hundred years: the rational (or instrumental) and the romantic (or expressive). Their appearance has been intermittent and is closely related to broader trends in society. The argument may be extended to the built environment, where planning and architectural theory reflect the same flux (and conflict) over appropriate landscape styles. The modern movement in architecture and planning projects a functional and universal rationality to space; in contrast, post-modern currents pose a more personal and contextual design solution. These ideologies are placed in historic contrast as responding to particular societal challenges: modernism from the 1910s to the 1960s has responded to the challenge of establishing social order for a mass society; post-modernism since the 1960s has responded to the challenge of placelessness and a need for urban community. These themes are particularized through an interpretation of two emerging landscapes in inner Vancouver, initiated by different levels of government. The first, begun in the mid-1970s, is a self-conscious attempt to build a post-modern landscape sired by a municipal reform movement of liberal professionals, the so-called new class who have been identified as receptive to expressive values. The second landscape is a product of a neo-conservative provincial government. In its attempt to re-establish appropriate icons for a mass society rooted in the market place it has revived some of the precedents and solutions espoused by a rational ideology carlier in this century.