They say that a picture tells a thousand words. This picture poses a thousand-word question, which can, however, be distilled into something a bit simpler, courtesy of the most brutal (but nonetheless "realistic") darwinianist dog-eat-dog capitalism:

What's more appealing, both in an aesthetic sense as well as an ecological one: a sprawling slum of low-rise dwellings spreading like a pudding gone bad, or an orchestrated conglomeration of high-rises?

The picture on the right is of Caracas. It's on one of the webpages for the 2006 Venice Biennale - Architecture section, currently underway. Canada is represented -- lamely, in my opinion -- by something called SweaterLodge, which purports to focus on -- and I quote -- an "Aerial view of giant 12.2 x 26.5 meter polar fleece sweater" ...Go Canada (pardon me if my lack of enthusiasm for this non-starter shows...). The firm representing Canada in the architecture division is Pechet and Robb, a Vancouver firm that, according to their website, has had its greatest impact with commercial projects for such "landmarks" as ...Le Chateau... And now they're at the Biennale, representing Canada.



What does this have to do with Victoria, you wonder?

Pechet and Robb must be the "it" architecture and design studio of the moment: they are re-doing bits of Victoria's Ross Bay Cemetery, and their design for a "whimsical" oversized watering is to be realised as the new children's water park in Beacon Hill Park.