bjarke ingels group unveils photos of vancouver house & telus sky

big reveals reveals photos of vancouver house and telus sky

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled the first photographs of the Vancouver House and the Telus Sky towers in Canada. Captured by Laurian Ghinițoiu for the first time since their opening in 2020, the two skyscrapers stand out as curved silhouettes against their urban surroundings and embellish the skyline with impressive motifs.

As previously reported on designboom, Vancouver House is a residential high-rise at Vancouver’s main entrance. The building’s undulating profile appears to curve upward from its triangular base, gradually transitioning into a rectangular geometry that grows in height. Meanwhile, the Telus Sky Tower in downtown Calgary is a mixed-use high-rise with an undulating silhouette. The pixelated façade extends beyond the site boundaries to form a series of canopies, terraces, and lounges.

the Vancouver House curves upward from its triangular base | all images courtesy of Laurian Ghinițoiu

the Vancouver house

The volumetry of the Vancouver House results from the highly complex site on which it stands. The skyscraper rises subtly from the ground and expands upward, like a ‘genie in a bottle’. The resulting structure takes on an almost surreal undulating form that responds and adapts to its surroundings.

Developed by Westbank and designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, the Vancouver House project reaches 149 meters in height and consists of four distinct buildings rising above a new waterfront community. Uniquely situated for its height and proximity to the river, the residential tower offers both water and mountain views, providing visual access to the vastness of Vancouver’s natural landscape.

‘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 Flatiron, the Vancouver Housearchitecture 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.’ shares Bjarke Ingles, Founding Partner, BIG (find more here)

the Vancouver House rises subtly from the ground and expands upward

the Telus Sky tower in Calgary

The Telus Sky Tower in Calgary reaches a height of 220 meters and combines living and working areas. The building consists of a rectangular first floor that shifts diagonally in height, creating a fascinating pixelation on its façade. The pixels shift beyond the limits of the site to create multiple balconies for the residences. The transition from the ideal floor plate of the office, to the optimal floor plate for the dwellings generates an elegantly curving form. At night, Douglas Coupland’s 160,000-square-foot ‘Northern Lights’ art installation illuminates the north and south sides of the tower, making it the largest public artwork in Calgary.

‘Telus Sky is designed to seamlessly accommodate the transition from working to living as the tower takes off from the ground to reach the sky. The base and lower floors of the mixed-use tower are clean and rectangular, resulting in large efficient layouts for workspace. As the building rises, the floor plates gradually reduce in size, stepping back to provide slender residential floor plates with nested balconies. In a similar fashion, the texture of the façade evolves from smooth glass at the base of the building to a three-dimensional composition of protrusions and recesses. The resultant form expresses the unification of the two programs in a single gesture – rational straight lines compsoed to form a feminine silhouette. Surrounded by blocky skyscrapers occupied by petroleum companies, Telus stands like a lady in a cluster of cowboys.’ shares Bjarke Ingels.

the Telus Sky Tower in Calgary