Overview
O2 Planning + Design (O2) is a Calgary-based collaborative studio that integrates landscape architecture, ecology, urban design, and planning in a holistic practice to create highly-valued places. Founded in 1991, our work seeks to understand the broader social, ecological, and cultural systems that support the economic vitality of successful places. - We use the tools of integrated design thinking to clarify value systems, bridge disciplines, open new possibilities, and generate rapid innovation. Our interdisciplinary design and planning approach incorporates flexibility and adaptation to deliver deeper, richer, and more sustainable places. - O2 has been at the forefront of a new approach to integrate geographical information systems (GIS) into a more comprehensive design approach called GeoDesign. Working from a foundation of existing data and models, GeoDesign seeks to combine geographical data with comprehensive tools that allow for quick evaluation of the performance of potential planning solutions. This is used to integrate multiple disciplines and considerations into plans and designs, and can help in collaborative design approaches that use all available information efficiently to devise an optimal approach in less time. This work is supported through tools developed for ArcGIS, including the CityEngine software package.
