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Architecture series, episode 4: Vancouver House, Canada

Designed by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) for the developer Westbank beside the Granville Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver, Vancouver House was completed in the spring of 2020.

WHY IT MATTERS

Let me explain

The bridge ramps split the site into small triangles. The city required a 30-metre setback from the bridge and no shadow on the neighbouring park, leaving a wedge of only 1,982 square metres to build on. So the tower starts slender on that triangle, and once it rises 30 metres above the bridge it widens until its floor plate becomes a 3,962 square-metre rectangle. The project holds 375 residential homes and 106 rental homes with retail and workspace, in 60,758 square metres. In 2021 it won the CTBUH award for Best Tall Building Worldwide.