Central Library of Vancouver, Canada
The Central Library of Vancouver, Canada opened in 1995. It was created by the architectural firm Moshe Safdie & Associates with Downs/Archambault and Partners in a cylinder form recalling the Colosseum in Rome, an ancient giant open-air venue used for entertainment events. The Thammasat University Libraries own an informative book about the Colosseum and buildings like it. The message was that the Vancouver library was also meant to be a place of entertainment, and the striking building has appealed to Hollywood, appearing in the fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and the TV series Battlestar Galactica and Caprica. One of the particularly admired features of the library is its rooftop garden designed by the Canadian landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander. It is planted with ornamental grasses that are found in the southwestern area of British Columbia, Canada. The specific grasses were chosen in part because they require very little watering or tending, and little maintenance. In addition to minimal watering, the grass-covered roof does not need fertilizing or cutting. Dead grass is removed after each winter. For reasons of budget, the roof cannot be visited by library users or staff, but there are environmental benefits nevertheless from this choice. On green roofs, as another book in the TU Libraries collection explains, birds, bees and butterflies are given a place to rest; air pollution, especially carbon monoxide, is reduced; rain may be absorbed; and heating and cooling the building can be less expensive. The library took 26 months to build. As its website explains:
The structure is a rectangle within an ellipse.
The library building has nine floors, 7 of which are occupied by the library. Levels eight and nine will be leased by the provincial government for 20 years. This allows for further expansion of the library.
The library building is 37,000 square meters (398,000 square feet) of which 32,500 square meters (349,100 square feet) are occupied by the library.
Books and materials are moved through the building by vertical and horizontal conveyors provided by Translogic.
51 kilometers of cable were laid in the library, including a vertical fibre-optic backbone.
There are 35 concrete columns per floor.
The seating capacity of the library is 1,200…
The first book to arrive at the library: the World Bibliography of Bibliographies.
Also on the library website, the architect Mr. Safdie explains that the library committee informed him:
We don’t want this to be just a library, but we want to create a place where you can come, have a cup of coffee, you can buy some flowers, you can read the newspaper, you can go into the library, you can get a book, you can bring it out, and it’s open all the time. So we created an urban room.
Inside the library, windows go from floor to ceiling, offering natural light and a dramatic view of Vancouver.
Thailand and Canada
The website of the Embassy of Canada to Thailand explains:
Canada and Thailand have a dynamic and cooperative relationship, and bilateral relations continue to expand and deepen. Canada’s first Ambassador to Thailand was appointed in 1961 and the first resident Ambassador established the Embassy of Canada in Bangkok in 1967. Canada is also represented in Thailand by a Consulate headed by an honorary consul in the northern city of Chiang Mai. For its part, Thailand is represented by the Royal Thai Embassy in Ottawa, with Consulates-General in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal. The Royal Thai Consulate-General in Vancouver dates to 1924.
The website further suggests that a possible Canada-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
would further enhance Canada’s bilateral commercial relationship with Thailand and would generate increased export and investment opportunities for both countries, including in the agriculture, oil and gas, sustainable technologies and services sectors. Two-way trade between Canada and Thailand exceeded $3.5 billion in 2013, making Thailand Canada’s second largest trading partner in Southeast Asia. People-to-people ties are strong. Approximately 10,000 Thais visit Canada annually for tourism, study, or work. An estimated 5,000 Canadians reside in Thailand and approximately 230,000 Canadians visited Thailand as tourists in 2013 – a 5% increase over 2012. Academic relations are also an important part of the bilateral relationship, with many Canadian universities having long-standing cooperation agreements with Thai academic institutions. Canada has taken an active role in assisting Thailand’s economic, social and democratic development.
On the same site, His Excellency Philip Calvert, Canada’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand, declares:
Canada and Thailand enjoy a deep and enduring friendship and more than 50 years of formal diplomatic relations. Since the 1970s we have cooperated bilaterally and regionally in the areas of community, rural and industrial development, governance and human resources development. Our current relationship is dynamic and growing, encompassing commerce, regional and multilateral cooperation, security/policing, defense, education, culture, tourism and people-to-people ties. In particular, our countries enjoy a dynamic and growing commercial relationship. Bilateral merchandise trade reached over $3.3 billion in 2012, making Thailand our largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, and we have an active services trade and significant and growing bilateral investments. Canada and Thailand are committed to seeing this key trading relationship expand… Canada has been delivering aid and technical expertise in the region for more than half a century. This support includes projects funded by Canada’s Southeast Asia Regional Development Program focusing on disaster risk reduction and strengthening human rights for women, children, migrant workers and ethnic minorities, and official development assistance through multilateral organizations…In 2012, more than 218,000 Canadians traveled to Thailand…
In an interview in 2013 with the Thai-Canadian Chamber of Commerce (TCCC), Ambassador Calvert offered further details:
The TCCC has a good role to play here as a partner to the embassy in promoting business and raising the profile of Canadian companies operating here… Trade [between Thailand and Canada] has actually gone down.. but we do have some big Canadian companies working here such as Magna, Celistica, Scotiabank and CAE and we have smaller niche companies like Smiling Albino and Siam Wheels. Our big export is wood pulp, but there’s a lot of potential for growth, so again it comes back to where is Thailand going and how can Canada fit into that growth; I’m particularly thinking of the infrastructure projects the Thai government has planned in and outside Bangkok where we can help with engineering, equipment, software and systems management. As mentioned, we can also contribute further in Thailand’s energy and automotive sectors. One of the reasons I want to sign a FTA is that the FTA does more than just lower trade barriers and address obstacles to trade, it sends a message about the trade relationship, it boosts confidence on both sides and it sends a political message about the state of relations between the two countries, which in turn reinforces trade between the two. I’d also like to see more Canadian food products come into the country, especially wine, and we will be having a food promotion in August.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).