A sweeping, spiraled building vocabulary utilizes new ‘green’ spandrel system symbolically capturing energy created by the adjacent bridge ramps. A rare opportunity on a once-forgotten site, this commercial/residential mixed-use project presents an avant-garde building form of cascading post-tensioned concrete cantilever floors and a layered screen façade that reflects light and distorts the boundaries between interior and exterior.
This project boasts a number of design “firsts” for the architectural typology. The dynamic free-form steel spandrels emphasize the vortex energy of the bridgehead site. The light reflecting color was chosen to increase light penetration to the interior on overcast days typical in Vancouver.
Spandrels are shaped and engineered to maximize passive solar shading, while simultaneously working as privacy screens – blocking light and noise from the adjacent bridge traffic and bustling pedestrian walkways below.
Named one of the 15 best buildings in Vancouver by Planning Director Brian Jackson, this iconic project perched on the southwest end of the Cambie Street Bridge, stands as the symbolic gateway to Vancouver’s uptown.
DYNAMIC: Building vocabulary is sweeping and spiraled to capture the energy created by the adjacent bridge ramps. Edges are curved and fragmented to evoke the idea of movement, as if the energy of the street itself is peeling the surfaces of the building apart. The building turns its corners in prow-like forms that track sun-angles and provide passive horizontal and vertical sun-shading.
RESPONSIVE: Arno Matis Architecture used its ‘REsponsive’ design approach to address the complex architectural and urban design challenges on this tight and oddly shaped site. Analyzing commute patterns and other contextual forces impacting the site, South Creek Landing’s acts as a design ‘response’ to these external forces; intricately sculpted massing maximizes buildable square footage; landscaping & retail activate the pedestrian realm; a once-forgotten lot brings new life to Cambie’s skyline inviting neighboring skytrain commuters to slip along its plains.
VORTEX FAÇADE: Bent by the vortex energy of the bridgehead infrastructure at its location, the form of the 6th & Cambie project organically rotates to respond to light and views. Its setback and landscaped street edges facilitate pedestrian movement to the adjacent transit station. Part vertical solar shade and part privacy screen, the custom curving spandrels of the project are precisely defined and angled to respond to the solar exposure of the site.
The building form is emphasized through a light art installation by Tamar Frank that recalls the frenetic movement of head and taillights. Building materials are architectural concrete, metal and glass, a deliberately spare and timeless material palette to express a homogenous yet dynamic form. Source by Arno Matis Architecture.
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Architects: Arno Matis Architecture
Acoustic Consultant: Brown Strachan Associates
Appraiser: Garnett Wilson Realty Advisors Ltd
Building Envelope: Spratt Emanuel Engineering Ltd
Code Consultant: LMDG Building Code Consultants Ltd
Commercial & Retail Leasing: Cushman & Wakefield
Communications Consultants: Sense Communication
Construction: Kindred Construction Ltd
Construction Insurance: Wylie Crump Ltd
Cost Consultant: Concosts
Development Consultant: Koodoo Projects Ltd
Electrical: Nemetz (S/A) & Associates Ltd
Environmental Consultant: Pottinger Gaherty Environmental Consultants
Financial Consultant: OPTIONS Financial Management Solutions
Financial Services: Westbridge Capital Group
Financial Services: MCAP Development Finance Group
Geotechnical Consultant: GeoPacific Engineering Inc
Graphic Design: Nu Experience Design
Interior Designer: Hungerford Interior Design
Land Financing: Pencor Capital Corporation
Landscape Consultant: Considered Design
Law Firm: Fasken Martineau
Light Art: Lightspace by Tamar Frank
Marketing Consultant: Raymond Leung
Mechanical: MMM Group
New Home Warranty Provider: Travelers Canada
Project Marketing: PortLiving
Real Estate Advisory Services: Macdonald Realty Westmar
Structural Consultant: Fast+Epp
Surveyor: Bennett Land Surveying
Client: Portliving
Area: GFA: 2255 cu m, Site area – 643.73 sq m, Footprint area – 398.83 sq m
Building height: 20.8 m
Year: 2015
Photographs: Michael Elkan, Ed White, Courtesy of Arno Matis Architecture
