Hapa Collaborative is a landscape architecture and urban design practice deeply committed to the creation of connected and livable communities. We are champions of public realm and civic inclusivity.
Hapa means many things: half, mixed, or hybrid. Originally a pejorative term for someone of part Asian ethnicity it is, by extension, anything shaped by the collision of cultural influences. Hapa can be defined as an intentional disruption – an explosion – that creates space for something new. It’s a fitting description for Vancouver’s cosmopolitan complexity and the hybrid nature of our profession: landscape and architecture, art and science, nature and culture. It’s also a Japanese word for ‘leaf’.
We are a contemporary voice for landscape architecture and a fresh alternative to traditional firms. Our studio is a daily collaboration between people with different backgrounds and training, and a mix of skills and specialization. This diversity is present in our process and represented in our built work.
Collectively, we design flexible and transformative environments that are inclusive, inviting, memorable, and beloved. There is no greater market of success than watching the richness of everyday life spill out into a well-loved, thoughtfully designed space.
We are Alchemists
We are agents for public space. Our aim is to deepen the attachment between people, their communities, and their environments across the whole of North America. We do this by revitalizing forgotten spaces, turning them into dynamic, intricate parts of a larger connected whole. This is the alchemy of what we do.
Genius Loci – The Spirit of the Place
As a practice, we concentrate much of our efforts on finding and revealing the latent character of a place to make it part of the experience of the site and story of the client. We see great potential in doing our research and proposing a few modest interventions that are complimentary and perhaps revelatory of the existing quality of the place, its history and its role in the public realm.
Rally, Question, and Lead
Public spaces are in their very nature democratic, so the process by which we design them must be equally egalitarian. Through fun, participatory consultation methods, we ask the right questions of the right people. More importantly, we listen attentively to the communities we serve, then meaningfully integrate the heard voices into the spaces we create.
Published on July 1, 2025
