Shaw House
Vancouver, BC
Patkau Architects Inc. (Vancouver, BC)
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The project is a private residence of 3,071 square feet for a single person. The program includes typical living spaces, a single bedroom, a study, a music room, and a lap pool. The site is a small waterfront property, 33 feet wide by 155 feet deep, looking across English Bay to the north shore mountains that dominate the skyline of Vancouver. Required side yard setbacks result in a plan that is limited to 26.4 feet in width.

The house is organized simply, with living spaces on grade, private spaces above grade, and a music room below grade. The dimensions of the site make it difficult to locate the lap pool on grade while retaining generous living spaces. Consequently, the lap pool is located above grade, along the west side of the house, connected at either end to terraces for the bedroom and study.

Within the small, narrow floor plates, spatial expansion is possible only by extending outward over the water and upward through the volume of the house. Small spaces are enlarged with generous ceiling heights and the fully interiorized dining room rises through the floor above. A clerestory, made possible by the presence of the lap pool on the west side of the house, brings daylight and reflected light from the pool deep into the central area of the plan.

Because Vancouver is located in an area of high seismic risk, the lap pool above grade requires a robust structure that is resistant to significant lateral forces. Consequently, the house is constructed almost entirely of reinforced concrete. Within this structural concrete shell, the interior is insulated and clad with painted gypsum board. In areas where insulation is not required, the concrete structure is exposed.

Jury Comments:

The house is a virtuoso performance across all scales of consideration, rendered material with extraordinary finesse and confident measure.

Christopher Macdonald, FRAIC
(British Columbia)
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This is clearly one of the most finely crafted houses to be built in Canada. Moments of great spatial richness are achieved through a careful manipulation of the section within a confined site.

Stephen Teeple, FRAIC
(Ontario)
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