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J UNE 2019 | 7 space2place design inc. "To be able to feel like you can contribute to something bigger has always sparked something in me," says Cutler, who refers to Garden City Play Environment in Richmond B.C. as one of his early projects that truly demonstrates this. The park is an organic, flowing space where the structures and systems create a setting that celebrates the natural world and the regional character of the Pacific Northwest. Cutler wanted to create a more open-ended play experience and help children reconnect with the natural world. This was accomplished through creat- ing opportunities for children to interact with water, stone, sand, salvaged tree limbs and ribbons of perennial vegetation. The result was a diverse experience that fosters children's physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. "A lot of playgrounds in Canada before that time focussed primarily on safety, which meant designers were afraid to do something a little different as there was this huge perception around liability associated with these projects. So landscape architects would often rely on the equipment from suppliers, but the result was playgrounds that were generic and not engaging for children. Also, for these projects the parents would be engaged during the design process and they would default to focussing on getting the most amount of equipment and consider that as the play value that was being delivered. "Instead we wanted to do workshops with the children, to draw on our experi- ence from working on the skateparks. I think I also had more of a risk tolerance because of our work with skateparks; it was really about distinguishing the difference between a risk and a hazard," says Cutler. As a result of this new way of thinking, space2place set a new bar for play areas across Canada and began winning awards for its extremely forward-thinking design. It was inevitable then that space2place would become known as a firm that was not averse to shaking up traditional design thinking. Another great example of this is the People, Parks and Dogs strategy in Vancouver; a movement adopted by the Vancouver Park Board in the fall of 2017 with the idea to promote the comfort and safety of all park users. The need for the strategy emerged as a result of the growing urban dog population and the recognition that "recreating with a dog is a legitimate park use." For its scope of work space2place was involved in public consultation, research and analysis, concept development, and the guidelines. The existing 36 dog off-leash areas in Vancouver were mapped, evaluated, and their park visitors surveyed – creating a view of how off-leash areas, licensed dogs, and people are distributed across the city. This analysis made clear where the demand for more off-leash areas lay, both now and in the future. Another example of space2place's work with the community is the Spirit Trail in North Vancouver, which integrates a series of isolated public spaces in an effort to forge social, cultural, and ecological connections between communities and their surroundings. When complete, the Spirit Trail will consist of a 35-kilometre greenway that stretches from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Deep Cove in the District of North Vancouver. This long-term phased effort involves the partnership of the City of North Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver, the District of West Vancouver, and the Squamish and Tsleil Waututh First Nations. As the prime consultant for planning and design, space2place collaborated with the City, the District, key stakeholders, local business owners, and the public in order to create a community-supported vision and set of design criteria. A series of workshops and open houses helped the design team understand the ideas and concerns from a range of interest groups. But it's not just in B.C. that space2place has been making its mark. The firm has leveraged what it has learned and its unique experiences and become involved in numerous projects across Canada, including Queen Elizabeth Park in Edmonton, Prairie Winds Park in Calgary, Kinsmen Park in Saskatoon, and the Victims of Communism Memorial in Ottawa. Today, space2place has grown rather organically and consists of Cutler and 11 employees, all busy working in their downtown Vancouver office on some rather impressive and ground-breaking projects. The rebuild of the Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Richmond, B.C. is perhaps one of the largest for the firm currently. "It's the largest plant in the region and largest project in Metro Vancouver's history. The island has a public park, so our role is integrating the plant with the park. To me it's the most exciting and fascinating project we are working on right now, and is the third wastewater project for us," says Cutler. Due to its location on an island, it has a complex mix of challenges including ecological, cultural, geotechnical, and environmental. All of these are in fact topics that are very close to Cutler's heart and his current passion: the evolution of landscape architecture and its role in working alongside nature and not acting as a barrier. "A big role we have to play in the future and that we are getting involved in is climate change adaptation," he says. "The future is now and we are starting to see real changes and impacts. In the past the common approach to address climate change was through mitigation of emissions and embodied carbon, which is important, but science shows some of the climate changes are locked in and we need to adapt our current designs to address climate induced challenges. That means working with, and not against natural systems. As a company we have definitely developed an expertise in creating solutions to complex challenges," explains Cutler. A Prairie Winds Park, Calgary, AB. Garden City Play Environment, Richmond, B.C. (Shortlisted submission rendering) Victims of Communism Memorial, Ottawa, ON.

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