Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1149947
AUGUST 2019 | 39 such a visible statement for sustain- able living architecture in Vancouver," he adds. Moving across to the tower you notice it has been cleverly designed, not only in form, but function. "The tower manages to preserve view cones through the city and grant visual access to the breadth of Vancouver's natural surroundings," says Bjarke Ingels. To achieve this, the architects were extremely playful with their design, cre- ating rectangular shaped marine-grade stainless steel modules that sit on top of one another in a curvilinear fashion. Those shapes result in generous balco- nies and give the units natural shade. "There is never any break from the logic of the building," explains Harris. With subtle copper accents, the building offers a gentle glow to the structure – becoming a beacon of downtown. For the dynamic design of the tower – which is triangular at the base, rectangular at the top (and has been likened to a curtain being drawn aside to welcome bridge travellers to the core) – vertical post tensioning was used to hold the building core together, similar to a structural spine. "Due to the increasing floor plate as the tower ascends, the structure possesses a ten- dency to lean, which was counteracted Vancouver House using post-tensioning and offset- ting each floor plate by a calculated amount in the direction opposite to the lean," says Micheál O'Keeffe, prin- cipal at Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers. "Vertical post-tensioning, which is quite uncommon, was used to compress one side of the buildings' core to counter the vertical tension cre- ated by the structures' lean, while the horizontal post-tensioning countered the tendency of the floors to twist as the structure leans with the construc- tion of each floor as it rises. Each floor was constructed offset from a vertical steel line by a set amount opposite to the buildings' lean so that after comple- tion the building will lean back to the line." Gloag adds that special couplers were also used between certain floors of the building. PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHAWN BUKHARI/COURTESY DIALOG Vipond.indd 1 17-01-20 4:03 PM 2:52 PM 12:29 PM