Swings, long tables and hammocks are just some of the installations that have been proposed to transform the 800-block of Robson Street this summer.

VIVA Vancouver received more than 80 entries in its Robson Redux competition to turn the block into a pedestrian plaza.

While a jury will select the winning entry, members of the public can also vote for their favourite concept for the people’s choice award.

Cheryl Nelms, the director of project and quality management with the City of Vancouver, noted that entries came in from around the world.

“There’s international submissions, there’s submissions from across North America here,” she told the Straight at the launch of public voting at the Museum of Vancouver Friday (March 6). “Great variety in the sense of design, look and feel. Everything from the palm trees to the pyramid blocks, and places for children.”

Other proposals submitted as part of the competition include concepts for a campground in the middle of Vancouver, a bamboo grove, a kaleidoscope canopy, a chopped canoe, a “porch parade”, and an urban living room.

Retired architect and Robson Redux jury member Stanley King said people want to see the street as a place for socializing.

“It is extremely important to…get rid of the traffic and to replace it with an artwork that attracts people, and attracts people to mingle and to talk to one another,” he said.

One of the entrants in the competition, James Aaron Volpe Bligh, said he wants the winning entry to address some of Vancouver’s broader urban issues, such as encouraging more social interaction.

“Vancouver’s a surprisingly anti-social city,” he said in an interview. “By introducing benches…you’re allowing people to sit near each other and to feel more comfortable around each other, but you’re really not breaking down any kind of social boundaries.”

His team submitted a proposal called Shape Vancouver, involving a series of chalkboard-covered shapes, inscribed with various hot-button issues in the city. The entry is intended to encourage people to write on the chalkboards, and to strike up conversations with others. 

Other submissions that Bligh likes include the Sunny Side Up Zen entry, which proposes egg-shaped seats, Intergalaxy, which glows in the dark, a plan to place boulders covered in maps throughout the block, an entry called Beachcomber involving driftwood, and another incorporating stones from around the province. 

Some of the previous winning entries in the Robson Redux competition include last year’s Urban Reef installation, and the “Picnurbia” installation, the first concept to take over the temporarily car-free block in the summer of 2011. 

Members of the public can cast their vote for their favourite submission on the Robson Redux website, or in person at the Museum of Vancouver, where all the entries will be on display until March 15.

The winning design, along with the people’s choice award, will be announced on March 18.