BIG's Vancouver House penthouse makes minimalism warm
A raw, minimalist home atop Bjarke Ingels Group's Vancouver House is composed by Leckie Studio as a warm, organic space filled with textured, natural materials
Conrad Brown - Photography
Sitting at the top of Bjarke Ingels Group's Vancouver House on Canada’s West Coast, this exquisite penthouse has been designed to raw, pared-down perfection by locally based architecture firm Leckie Studio. The minimalist home, commissioned for a private client with a penchant for art and travel, balances the tightrope between warm, domestic space and finely crafted contemporary interior, suitable for the display of the owner's personal collections.
The two-storey unit contains a two-bedroom home. The internal design focuses on the client's daily routines, working around views and light. ‘Through an iterative design process, the studio and client arrived at a highly bespoke, biophilic design that is attuned to the passage of time,' explain the architects at Leckie Studio.
The first level's communal and entertaining areas are enhanced by warm and sleek dark woods (mostly American black walnut) and tactile surfaces. Modular, multi-directional furniture makes for a flexible interior that can adapt to various scenarios, views and times of the day. Modern, blackened-steel accents underline the rich, organic atmosphere.
The second level contains bedrooms, including the master suite. It can be accessed via a sculptural staircase that's geometric and semi-open, and features a copper-laced, Bocci lighting installation. The installation’s hand-selected glass elements in pink, orange, umber, green, and blue shimmer through the adjacent glass patio enclosure. This vertical garden element runs through both levels, bringing into the home a ‘microcosm of the Pacific Northwest rainforest', say the architects.
Large openings, creating expansive views of English Bay and the North Shore Mountains, are carefully framed through the interior design, in a composition ‘that looked inward as much as it did outward', explain the architects. The generous roof deck, meanwhile, offers a variery of al fresco areas for entertaining guests and relaxing.
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