Project brief

In this project, we are designing floating islands on the lake to promote social distancing for the visitors such as families and small groups of friends in the park. The goal of the project is to help people remain regular social contacts while keeping a social distance from others during the pandemic.

Research

Where

Lakes in the public parks in British Columbia

The proposed location of our project is the public parks in British Columbia and aims at helping people physically distance and mitigate the risk of COVID-19 in public parks.

Since the COVID-19 curve is flattened during these days, the park, beach, lake are reopening, people start to go outside and gather in these public spaces in order to release the pressure coming from social isolation and social anxiety. But those public spaces are gradually packed with so many people and make the situation even worse.

From the researches, we concluded the following reasons why it is hard for the visitors to keep social distance in the parks:

1. It is a communal space and hard to limit the number of people even beyond its capacity;
2. There are almost no physical barriers or visual cues to encourage social distancing in the parks;
3. There is no adequate facilities provided to support the gathering while keeping the social distance. Here is one example:

“The six family members found a way in between isolating and being together: they shared a bench, and a bit of shade under a tree, close, but not too close.”

More specifically for this project, our team targets Sasamat Lake (Figures 1 & 2) which is located within Belcarra Regional Park in Port Moody. The lake is a popular destination year-round for swimming, hiking, and family barbecues that is only a 10-minute drive from downtown Port Moody. However, during the pandemic, the park is fully packed and crowds have become untenable and increase the risk of spreading COVID-19 (Figures 3 & 4).

Figure 1

Figure 3

Figure 2

Figure 4

Who

Visitors to the parks: families, small group of friends (under 6 people)

Canadian people love outdoor activities. According to Statistics Canada, nearly 7 in 10 Canadians participated in outdoor or wilderness activities, some in more than one. However, most people have to stay at home during the pandemic, and they are not able to hang out with their friends and families.