Vancouver House is neo-futuristic residential building in Vancouver, British Columbia. It’s been design by the firm BIG (Bjarke Ingles Group) architects.

Source: S&P Real Estate

Vancouver House Description

Type : Mixed Residential and Commercial

Floor Count : 49

Height : 493 ft.

Completed : Est. (Summer 2020)

Architect : BIG Architects (Bjarke Ingles Group)

1. Geometry of the Tower:

As seen in the image, the Building has been given a Shape of Triangle at the base and Rectangle at the top. This shape was chosen to feature complex site constraints at the base of the building as the Bridge passes at the base of the building. This unique shape of the building provides vibrant public spaces under the bridge. It’s also been referred to as the new flatiron building by Bjarke Ingles.

source : BIG Architects

2. Parametric Mass Model :

As shown in the figure 2 profiles were made and attached to the respective reference planes. The reference planed are controlled by the parameters Width and Length, which are defined to create a parametric mass body.

Reference Profile Lines to Create Mass

Resultant Parametric Mass

Flexed Mass with update Parameters

3. Parametric Façade Envelope :

As seen in the rendered image in the beginning of the blog, Vancouver House consists different facades on different sides. Given below is the Façade Envelope Created from the mass model. The Envelope is created in such a way that with the change in the shape of the parent mass family the façade pattern will automatically change.

Façade Envelope

3.1 Projected Balcony Façade

The Façade with balcony is created using curtain wall pattern-based family with parameters to change the project and thickness of the balcony walls.

Parametric Balcony Facade

Flexed Balcony Façade

3.2 Brick-Pattern Façade

For the other faces of the building the facade resembles the brick pattern in the Revit. So using the curtain wall – pattern based family the parametric façade model was created. As descripted below.