Acadia Pop Rocks

WORK — PROJECT

Collaborators: Sustainable Calgary, the Acadia Community Association, O2 Planning + Design, the bench project, Kilometre Design, the City of Calgary, Arusha, n+1 design, local volunteers, and the Acadia Art and Garden Society.

A prototype of the Acadia Pop-Up Plaza was made possible by the Alberta Traffic Safety Fund.  Part of the parking lot was turned into an “outdoor living room”, featuring designed-for-Acadia furniture, espresso, a pop-up bookstore, bocce ball, ping pong, board games, arts & crafts, snacks, and simple traffic calming along Acadia Drive.  Acadians also had the opportunity to weigh in on how to address traffic safety and public life in Acadia.

This project was rooted in community feedback. Since at least 2005, local residents have been concerned about speed on residential roads. They’ve also said there should be more local hangouts – places to run into neighbours, sit, chat, drink and eat. They suggested that the Acadia Pop Rocks site could be one of those places, and voted to make this project their top priority.