Danish architecture studio BIG has unveiled the 155-meter-high Vancouver House skyscraper in Canada that twists upwards from a triangular base. Completed in 2020 but recently photographed, the building has a twisted form that derives from its wedge-shaped site alongside the ramps leading to Granville bridge in the city’s downtown.
Vancouver House has a twisted form that derives from its wedge-shaped site alongside the ramps leading to Granville bridge in the city’s downtown
The tower and base are a new interpretation of the local typology deemed ‘Vancouverism’ of 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 of both the water and the mountains, granting visual access to the breadth of Vancouver’s natural surroundings.
‘The Vancouver house is a contemporary descendent of the Flatiron building in New York City’
“The Vancouver house is a contemporary descendent of the Flatiron building in New York City reclaiming the lost spaces for living as the tower escapes the noise and traffic at its base,” said BIG founding partner Bjarke Ingels. “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.”
Photography by Westbank Living