“Vancouverism” in action. Vancouver House by BIG
18/11/2022.
[Vancouver] Canada
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
Danish architecture studio BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), which completed 2020 the 150.3-meter-high "Vancouver House" skyscraper, in Vancouver, Canada, has unveiled a photograph set for the first time since its opening.
Downtown Vancouver’s location on a small peninsula on the Pacific coast has clear natural boundaries to its urban growth. Combining the views of the North Shore Mountains and the urban constraints has given rise to a distinctive urbanism shape: “Vancouverism” (an internationally recognized term in the urbanism morphologies) refers to the integration of dense mixed-use development with accessible natural areas and a city’s characteristic building type: the point tower on a retail or townhouse podium.
Downtown Vancouver’s location on a small peninsula on the Pacific coast has clear natural boundaries to its urban growth. Combining the views of the North Shore Mountains and the urban constraints has given rise to a distinctive urbanism shape: “Vancouverism” (an internationally recognized term in the urbanism morphologies) refers to the integration of dense mixed-use development with accessible natural areas and a city’s characteristic building type: the point tower on a retail or townhouse podium.
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG
Context plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Site plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium P1 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium P2-P6 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium L1 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium L2 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium L3 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium L4 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium L5 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium L6 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium L8 plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Podium Roof plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
Rental Building plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
10th floor plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
20th floor plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
28th floor plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
34th floor plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
38th floor plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
47th floor plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
48th floor plan. Vancouver House by BIG.
North elevation. Vancouver House by BIG.
South elevation. Vancouver House by BIG.
West elevation. Vancouver House by BIG.
West elevation 2. Vancouver House by BIG.
West elevation 3. Vancouver House by BIG.
East elevation 1. Vancouver House by BIG.
East elevation 2. Vancouver House by BIG.
East elevation 3. Vancouver House by BIG.
Section. Vancouver House by BIG.
Section. Vancouver House by BIG.
Section. Vancouver House by BIG.
Section. Vancouver House by BIG.
Section. Vancouver House by BIG.
Section. Vancouver House by BIG.
Section. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
Diagram. Vancouver House by BIG.
The 60,600-square-meter skyscraper, designed by BIG, grows from its triangular-shaped site alongside the ramps leading to Granville bridge in the city's downtown, twisting upwards by a curvilinear silhouette to ensure the structure is set back 30 meters from the bridge base, and to avoid overshadowing a local park.
Its 49-stories rise from a podium, which contains a gym and daycare, and pool, until a rectangular form on its upper levels like "a genie let out of the bottle".
Model to approach urban design from a mixture of housing and working spaces holding the highest level of Energy and Environmental Design, Vancouver House is the city's first LEED Platinum building.
BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, has topped off CapitaSpring, a 280-meter-tall Tower in Singapore, with gardens on highs. One of the city's tallest structures, accredited with Green Mark Platinum & Universal Design Gold Plus certifications.
Its 49-stories rise from a podium, which contains a gym and daycare, and pool, until a rectangular form on its upper levels like "a genie let out of the bottle".
Model to approach urban design from a mixture of housing and working spaces holding the highest level of Energy and Environmental Design, Vancouver House is the city's first LEED Platinum building.
BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, has topped off CapitaSpring, a 280-meter-tall Tower in Singapore, with gardens on highs. One of the city's tallest structures, accredited with Green Mark Platinum & Universal Design Gold Plus certifications.
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG.
"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.
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG.
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG.
Project description by BIG
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 that 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 as 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 that 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 of both the water and the mountains, granting visual access to the breadth of Vancouver’s natural surroundings.
Vancouver House by BIG. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu / BIG.
As a LEED Platinum building, Vancouver House addresses the community’s desire for sustainable urban development. The sustainability strategy began with choosing a location that encompasses intelligent growth principles and creates a dynamic sustainable hub in a residentially intensive community. Connections to cycling and pedestrian pathways answer neighbours’ 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 well-being of Vancouverites.
More information
Architects
Project team
Aaron Mark, Alan Tansey, Alex Wu, Alexandra Gustafsson, Alina Tamosiunaite, Amina Blacksher, Aran Coakley, Arash Adel Ahmadian, Armen Menendian, Barbora Srpkova, Ben Zunkeler, Benjamin Caldwell, Benjamin Novacinski, Bennett Gale, Birk Daugaard, Blake Theodore Smith, Brian Foster, Brian Rome, Carolien Schippers, Christopher James Malcolm Jr., Christopher Junkin, Christopher Tron, David Brown, David Dottelonde, Deborah Campbell, Doug Stechschulte, Douglass Alligood, Edward Yung, Elena Bresciani, Filip Milovanovic, Francesca Portesine, Gabriel Hernandez Solano, Gabriel Jewell-Vitale, Hector Garcia, Ivy Hume, Jan Leenknegt, Janice Rim, John Kim, Josiah Poland, Julian Liang, Julianne Gola, Julie Kaufman, Karol Bogdan Borkowski, Kurt Nieminen, Lauren Turner, Lorenz Krisai, Lucio Santos, Marcella Martinez, Martin Voelkle, Matthew Dlugosz, Megan Ng, Michael Robert Taylor, Otilia Pupezeanu, Paula Domka, Phillip MacDougall, Ryan Yang, Sean Franklin, Sebastian Grogaard, Simon Scheller, Spencer Hayden, Taylor Fulton, Terrence Chew, Terry Lallak, Thomas Smith, Tianqi Zhang, Tobias Hjortdal, Tran Le, Valentina Mele, Xinyu Wang, Yaziel Juarbe, Yoanna Shivarova, Zach Walters, Zhifei Xu.
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.
Client
Westbank Projects Corp.
Area
60,600 m².
Dates
Construction started.- 2016.
Completed.- 04/04/2020.
Completed.- 04/04/2020.
Location
(49.2649,-123.119). 1480 Howe Street, Vancouver, Canada.
Photography
BJARKE INGELS
Bjarke Ingels (born in Copenhagen, 1974) studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and at the School of Architecture of Barcelona, obtaining his degree as an architect in 1998. He is the founder of the BIG architecture studio - (Bjarke Ingels Group), studio founded in 2005, after co-founding PLOT Architects in 2001 with his former partner Julien de Smedt, whom he met while working at the prestigious OMA studio in Rotterdam.
Bjarke has designed and completed award-winning buildings worldwide, and currently his studio is based with venues in Copenhagen and New York. His projects include The Mountain, a residential complex in Copenhagen, and the innovative Danish Maritime Museum in Elsinore.
With the PLOT study, he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2004, and with BIG he has received numerous awards such as the ULI Award for Excellence in 2009. Other prizes are the Culture Prize of the Crown Prince of Denmark in 2011; and Along with his architectural practice, Bjarke has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University and Rice University and is an honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen.
In 2018, Bjarke received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Dannebrog granted by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. He is a frequent public speaker and continues to give lectures at places such as TED, WIRED, AMCHAM, 10 Downing Street or the World Economic Forum. In 2018, Bjarke was appointed Chief Architectural Advisor by WeWork to advise and develop the design vision and language of the company for buildings, campuses and neighborhoods around the world.
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