Vancouver House is located at the main entrance to Vancouver, exactly where the Granville bridge triforks when it reaches downtown. The resulting triangular slices of land had previously been undeveloped. When engaged by Westbank to design a residential high-rise for the highly complex site, BIG started by mapping the constraints – setbacks from the streets, a 30-meter setback from the bridge, and a neighboring park had to be protected from shadows. After all the constraints, what was left was a small triangular site nearly too small to build upon.
The 30-meter separation from the bridge was defined as the bare-minimum distance until the building reached 30 meters up in the air, after which it could grow back out – allowing BIG to double the floor plate. As a result, Vancouver House emerges subtly from the ground and expands as it rises, appearing like a Genie let out of the bottle. What seems like a surreal gesture is in fact a highly responsive architecture – shaped by its environment.
Vancouver House is part of a new phase in Vancouver ’s short but extremely successful history of urban policy. The tower and base are a new interpretation of the local typology deemed “Vancouverism” – a new urbanist podium coupled with a slender tower which seeks to preserve view cones through the city while activating the pedestrian street. The residential tower, in its height and proximity to the creek, is uniquely situated with views to both the water and the mountains, granting visual access to the breadth of Vancouver ’s natural surroundings.
As a LEED Platinum building, Vancouver House addresses the community’s desire for truly sustainable urban development. The sustainability strategy began with choosing a location that encompasses smart growth principles and creates a dynamic sustainable hub in a residentially intensive community. Connections to cycling and pedestrian pathways answer neighbors’ needs and reduce reliance on automobile trips.
A model for how to approach urban design, the transformation of the Vancouver House site shows how forgotten spaces under, above, and around infrastructure can be reclaimed by the public and offer spaces for art and community gathering. By transforming the underside of the bridge into a venue for public art, the new urban space responds to the city’s shortage of cultural performance and event spaces. Vancouver House becomes not only a visual and cultural amenity, but a symbol of Vancouver’s prioritization of sustainable development improving the health and wellbeing of Vancouverites.
“The Vancouver house is a contemporary descendent of the flat iron building in New York City reclaiming the lost spaces for living as the tower escapes the noise and traffic at its base. In the tradition of Flatiron the Vancouver House architecture is not the result of formal excess or architectural idiosyncrasies but rather a child of its circumstances. The trisected site and concerns for neighboring buildings and park spaces.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.
Team:
Architects: BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Client: Westbank Projects Corp.
Collaborators: Dialog (Architect), Integral Group, PFS Studio, Buro Happold, Glotman Simpson, James KM Cheng Architects, LMDG, Nemetz & Associates, HLB Lighting Design, BVDA Façade Engineering, Morrison Hershfield, ICON Pacific
