take a virtual tour of BIG's occupiable sculpture, the vancouver house

westbank and bjarke ingels group (BIG) invite viewers to virtually explore the recently completed ‘vancouver house’. the unique form of the tower was generated in direct response to the characteristics and constraints of the site, standing as one of the tallest buildings along the city’s skyline at 497 feet (151 meters). the residential building’s undulating profile seems to twist upwards from its triangular base, gradually growing into a rectangular geometry that rises above downtown vancouver.

image by terrance zacharko

developed by westbank and designed by bjarke ingels group (BIG), the overall vancouver house development comprises four distinct buildings which rise above a new waterfront community, the ‘beach district.’ during the recently released virtual tour, westbank’s ian gillespie emphasizes that the tower offers residents the chance to live within a sculpture which, when it comes to the ground plane, creates an entire neighborhood. gillespie comments: ‘I think it’s debatable which is the most impactful contribution of this project: is it this incredible moment on the skyline, or is it what happens at the ground. plane? …my answer to that is that it’s the two coming together.’

image courtesy of westbank

as part of the virtual tour, ian gillespie of westbank elaborates on the structure’s an off-center core, with a structure by buro happold: ‘we would build the building literally two feet off center, and as we poured each form, slowly the building would come back to center. it’s an incredible engineering feat of both horizontal and vertical post-tension.’

image courtesy of westbank

with a triangular site restricted by setback requirements from the bridge ramps, the team at BIG worked with limited buildable land in the design of the vancouver house development. the solution to the difficult conditions results in an entirely new, unique set of buildings, with a typology which embraces the shape of the site. while the vancouver house tower itself stands alone as a landmark design, the entire project has been master planned by bjarke ingels, with each component serving to create a complete community called the beach district.

image by ema peter

BIG creates two additional buildings for workspace and retail that have equally been designed in response to the vancouver house site. shaped to fit the sites between bridge’s off-ramps, the buildings complement the tower and connect by way of rooftop terraces to the granville street bridge’s pedestrian walkways, extending the total work above and below the bridge and completing a new neighborhood at the beach district.

image by ema peter