Timothy

Fallow is a cafe rooted in the sustainable farms of Indonesia, Vietnam, India and the Philippines where the coffee beans are grown under the shade of mature trees, free from pesticides, cultivated with natural fertilizers and harvested with the caring hands of the owner-farmers. Sustainable and ethical practices encompass the values of Fallow as it opens its first cafe in North America in an endeavor to share good coffee beans from across the world complimented by local, homemade desserts and savoury creations. The cafe offers a small seasonal menu carefully prepared to celebrate the bold taste of coffee and accentuate its nuances as it is paired with a variety of local and international cuisines. Located in an iconic building on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, the cafe serves as a gallery that tells the heritage, history, and culture of the families and farms that grow these coffee beans and their journey to the hearts and memories of every Canadian.

With an organic and novel form, this development brings a new attraction to the neighbourhood to help revive economic activity, provide a new venue for social and cultural events, and to help address the housing problems facing the area. The graceful form is a deviation from the typical rectangular shapes found in the area. The building provides a new attraction to help enliven the economic, social, and cultural life of the local downtown eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver.

The lack of social and cultural facility in the node of Victoria Drive and 41st Avenue is the basis for proposing this development: a local community centre for the residents of Kensington Cedar Cottage and Victoria - Fraserview neigbourhoods. Included in this development are commercial spaces, a gymnasium, one- to three-bedroom apartments, and an outdoor covered civic plaza that accommodates cultural and social activities throughout the year. The new centre will not only improve the urban quality of the district, but will create a distinct and remarkable identity that speaks about the rich history, culture, economic activity and future of the two neighbourhoods. The centre will generate a sense of place and community through the different uses and programming of the building: social and cultural gathering spaces for all, commercial spaces to help enliven the streets, and residential developments to help address the housing problem of the city.

The mission of the development is to create a compact and sustainable neighborhood that will address the economic and demographic growth of the City of Airdrie in the next 20 to 50 years, where residents can live, work, play, and age in place in a community that promotes high standards of living through excellent residential design, varied typologies of livable dwellings, a mixture of complimentary and complementary uses, large open spaces, and an urban realm that encourages social and cultural interactions among the local residents in the community and the city at large.