Paul Rosenau

William Paul Rosenau (born March 7, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian urban planner and landscape architect whose company EKISTICS Town Planning Inc. practices site sensitive and ecologically sustainable design in the field of urban design, site planning and resort architecture.
Rosenau studied at Trinity Western University (TWU) and the University of British Columbia (UBC). He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Urban Geography from TWU in 1982, a Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from UBC in 1987, and a Master's degree in Urban Design from UBC in 1987. He began lecturing at UBC the following year, and became an adjunct professor in 1995. Rosenau has also been a guest speaker in the Simon Fraser University City Program. He now lectures internationally on the subject of site planning and sustainable design. He founded EKISTICS in Vancouver, BC in 1992 and has since undertaken the design of over 250 urban planning and resort projects around the world. Rosenau has been credited with spearheading a rethinking of standard land development models in his projects.
Rosenau and his company designed the master plan for the Whistler 2010 Olympic Games Athletes Village Master Plan in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, a project that is aiming to secure LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) recognition for Neighbourhood Development.
Career
Rosenau is the Principal of EKISTICS Town Planning Inc, and has been involved in urban planning consulting since 1987. He is also currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.
Ekistics and EKISTICS
The term Ekistics applies to the science of understanding human settlements. It includes regional, city, community planning, neighbourhood and building design. It involves the study of all kinds of human settlements, with a view to geography and ecology—the physical environment, as well as human psychology and anthropology, and culture, politics, the economy and aesthetics.
The EKISTICS company philosophy is to create sustainable and complete communities that are human in scale and contextual in design through the design exploration of the social, economic and ecological needs of the city, the community or the neighbourhood.
Lectures and articles
Rosenau was a keynote speaker at the British Columbia provincial forum entitled "Complete Communities: A New Way of Living" the goal of which was to produce a set of "actionable ideas" toward the development of mixed use and self-sustaining communities. Rosenau has spoken at the "Striking A Balance" community conference for sustainable cities in Edmonton, the "Visions" builders' and developers' conference in Kelowna and the Greater Vancouver Home Builders' Association spring lecture series in Vancouver. Rosenau recently co-authored two articles: "Complete Communities: Reconsidering the Way We Build Cities" in the world wide environment and policy magazine Ecodecision and "Necessary Ruins: Le Escuelas Nacionales de Arte, Havana, Cuba", in Critiques of Built Works of Landscape Architecture. Rosenau recently spoke at two international conferences: The Latin American Studies Association Annual ‘Congreso Internacional’ in Washington, D.C. on "Charting a Fresh Course: New Directions for Foreign Investment in Havana's Land Development" and The International Making Cities Livable Conference in Savannah, Georgia on "The Livability of Cities".
Rosenau has also participated extensively in Canadian discussions on the reality of design and economic opportunity in China, including a lecture at Phantom or Reality: Opportunities in the China Market, hosted by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Canadian Architect Magazine as well as serving on a panel in the 2006 Design Northwest Conference for a session entitled The Construction Boom in China: Opportunities and Challenges for Canadian Companies.
New urbanism
Rosenau describes his vision for urban planning practice in Canada as one of "humanizing the suburbs". He is concerned with the need to re-establish a "sense of place" in neighbourhood design and the development of complete communities based on unique, local contexts.
Rosenau has been involved in significant planning projects in Western Canada that include traditional town planning designs for Murray's Corner in Langley; Kettle Valley Properties in Kelowna; Auguston in the Sumas Mountains of Abbotsford; Terwillegar Towne in District One of Edmonton, Alberta; Sun Rivers Community in Kamloops; McDonald Cedar Mill site in Fort Langley; and the Wilden new town in the Glenmore Highlands in Kelowna. Wilden is the second largest development in British Columbia, valued at $2.1 billion with over 2600 housing units on site, and has been cited as a project of high quality now serving as a precedent for other communities in the region.
Rosenau also designed a new urbanist community at Santa Maria Loma, the first fee-simple real estate project to be built in Havana, Cuba since the 1959 revolution; and El Tezal, the design for a residential resort community in the form of a traditional Mexican Village at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Sustainable energy solutions
Rosenau has been active in promoting the use of ground source heat pumps and geothermal heat pump energy in the design of residential homes and new urban communities. He has designed four master planned communities which use geothermal technology exclusively for the heating and cooling needs of all the buildings. These include the first complete geothermal communities in Canada and China: Sun Rivers Community in BC and CIPEA in Nanjing.
Rosenau and EKISTICS are now researching and implementing geothermal technology in projects both nationally within Canada and internationally. In cooperation with Essential Innovations Inc, a geothermal manufacturing company in the United States, Rosenau is involved in the design and manufacturing of communal heat pump technology systems and has personal ownership in a new geothermal manufacturing company that will begin production of a highly energy efficient heat pump.
The Vietnam Joint Venture Group
Rosenau and EKISTICS have partnered with Essential Innovations Technology Corp. and Tien Thanh Environmental Consulting in a joint venture "to establish both a global manufacturing and distribution headquarters for the ESIV proprietary geoexchange heat pump technology as well as a sales, design and installation capability within the Country of Vietnam." Together with EKISTICS' many Asian projects, the ventures represent "a significant opportunity to employ Geoexchange technology and are being looked at as possible projects for which the Geoexchange technology manufactured by the Vietnam Joint Venture companies between EI Asia, TT, and Ekistics can or may be employed." The 17 wood-frame single family show homes celebrating environmental sustainability were conceived of by Paul Rosenau. Four of these homes on the aptly named ″Street of Dreams″ set a new benchmark for luxury single family homes in Beijing, using the SuperE program from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. EKISTICS was commissioned to undertake all aspects of design from the urban planning of the site master plan and the architecture of the 800 homes and Village Centre, through to the landscape architecture of all of the project's streets and parks.

The community has a distinctly North American feel, due in part to Ekistics' use of sunlight, moving water, vegetation and topography to create a sense of open, natural space. The design also places homes close to existing trees and has used vegetation as a way to separate yards and create privacy. The technique gives inhabitants of the small community a sense of being close to nature, an amenity often associated with the Canadian lifestyle.

China International Practical Exhibition of Architecture (CIPEA)
Located in the Pear Spring Tourism Area, north of the city of Nanjing, the China International Practical Exhibition of Architecture (CIPEA) is an internationally recognized project, the goal of which is to provide ″exposure to the art of architecture″. A collective group of world-renowned architects including Arata Isozaki, and Steven Holl have been assembled to design a permanent exhibition of architecture which will ″celebrate arts, culture, and nature in the form of build environment″. Paul Rosenau was commissioned, and recently completed, the site plan for this prestigious project and is currently coordinating the design efforts of the 24 architects from China, Japan, England, Mexico, Spain, Czech, Bulgaria and the USA. The CIPEA exhibition will open to the public in 2008 and is projected to draw over two million visitors in its opening year.
Consequently, he is now working on the master plan for phase two of the project which includes 125 luxury single family villa's on a peninsula surrounded by the Buddha's Hand Lake.
International resort communities
Rosenau has also worked with Kyle Phillips, world-renown, respected Golf Course Architect whose Kingsbarns Golf Links near St. Andrews was named Best New International Course of 2001 by Golf Digest Magazine.
Vietnam
SACOM Resort in Tuyen Lam Lake Tourist Zone
On July 28, 2008, the Telecoms Cable and Material Shareholding Co. officially began construction on a golf course, a resort area, hotel and entertainment centre in the highland central province of Da Lat designed and consulted by EKISTICS.
Completed works
Canada
* Whistler 2010 Olympic Athletes Village Master Plan, Whistler, British Columbia
*Manteo Beach Club, Kelowna, British Columbia
*Coal Harbour, Urban Design, Vancouver, British Columbia
*Kristall Resort Hotel, Vernon, British Columbia
*Okanagan Landing, Vernon, British Columbia
*Wilden, Kelowna, British Columbia
*Auguston, Abbotsford, British Columbia
*Murray's Corner, Langley, British Columbia
*Whistler Village North, Whistler, British Columbia
*Kettle Valley, Kelowna, British Columbia
*McDonald Cedar Mill, Fort Langley, British Columbia
*Heritage Pointe Golf Community, Calgary, Alberta
*Twin Anchors Resort, Sicamous, British Columbia
*The Rise, Vernon, British Columbia
*Predator Ridge Resort, Vernon, British Columbia
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Central America
*EI Tezal, Cabo San Lucas, BCN, Mexico
*Santa Maria Loma, Havana, Cuba
*Cayo Sabinal, Camagüey, Cuba
Asia
*First Forest Residential Community, Beijing, PR China
*CIPEA Architectural Exhibition, Nanjing, PR China
*OCT East Golf Resort, Dameisha, PR China
*Phoenix Watertown, Sanya, Hainan Island PR China
*Huai Rou New Town, Beijing, PR China
*Blue Lake County, Chongqing, PR China
*Streamy Valley, Shenzhen, PR China
*Tang Xia, Dong Guan, China.
*Foshan New Town, Guangzhou, China.
*Wuhan International Golf Resort, Wuhan, PR China
*Feng Jing New Town, Feng Jing, PR China
*Pulau Pisang Island Resort, Malaysia
*Con Dao Island Master Plan, Con Dao, Vietnam
Recognition and awards
*Business in Vancouver's 40 Under 40 award as one of Canada's top young entrepreneurs (2000)
*Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, University of British Columbia (2000)

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