Planning & Infrastucture
Vancouver Convention Centre West - Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects & Planners
Reconceptualising the role of the built environment to be more than a convention centre, Seattle-based architectural firm LMN, in collaboration with Vancouver-based Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects & Planners, have carved out opportunities for new kinds of public engagement in form of Vancouver Convention Centre West.
A design landscape of unprecedented complexity has pervaded the world, one that cannot be solely addressed by the traditional tools of the design professions. What has evolved as a change in the architectural scenario is the advent of technologies—the heralding of the artistic, the futuristic and the strategist. The design has transitioned from being a form to an extraordinary dynamic reality.
Evoking a sense of place in this realm, the Vancouver Convention Centre West designed by Seattle-based LMN Architects in collaboration with Vancouver-based Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects & Planners, represents the interface of city and ocean. It is the first Certified LEED Platinum Convention Center in the world. An insert in an ecologically apt environment, it continues as a green band along the waterfront. As an architectural intervention in a waterfront, it illustrates the value of people in the improvement of a public space; the simple gesture of opening up cultural, local and ecological points of contact. The building was realised, according to the architects, “as a compelling vision of what a civic building can be—a celebration of people and place and a model of sustainability”
Not being constrained to a particular concept, that structure operates at a scale with the potential of a real global impact. The expertise lies in touching all the aspects of experiential leverage—as a promise of architectural, spatial and cultural values. The project profile is generative through the convergence of its different programs. The unified program stretches over an expanse of 14 acres on land and 8 acres over water. The nexus being the one million sqft Convention Centre with 223,000sqft of exhibition hall, 60,000sqft of meeting rooms and 55,000sqft of ballroom; as you move away from the point, the growing wave gives way to the public domain of the area. The activity becomes greater and the complexity grows composed of 95,000sqft of retail space, 450 parking stalls and 400,000sqft of walkways, bikeways, public open space and plazas. With simple extrusions like an elevated six-lane viaduct for vehicles and pedestrians, recreational marinas, a float plane terminal and water-based retail opportunities, it informs the place of with collective connecting readings to the city. The multiplicity of its program repurposes the space for both public and private events. It evolves as a blur of gatherings and circulation. The creative design flows beyond the limited scope of space and establishes a new language with the surroundings. It positions waterfront and urban pedestrian spaces as connecting and supporting volumes that extend the public realm through and around the site. Capitalising on its strategic location between two downtown streets, the design frames corridor views overlooking the urban core and water. An ultra-clear glass system enclosing the boundaries maintains a sense of visual proximity with the context. This interstitial procession animates the building’s expression. It translates wholly as a transparent narrative that unfolds through folding, sliding of the structures volumes and waterfront spaces.
Layering another agenda over its functionality, the character achieves a broad definition through environment-friendly solutions. Green techniques have tailored the presence for the Convention Centre, acknowledging the ecology that it is located in. An artificial concrete reef dips below the public way, winding along the waterfront periphery. To harbour a natural interaction with the natural shoreline, the reef has been designed accordingly by marine biologists and consultants to support marine life. The five-tiered underwater structure expands over 76 concrete frames weighing more than 36 tons each. Pockets of tidal zone habitats which are flushed daily are inscribed by building runnels in tide flats beneath the structure. The sloping planes of the structure’s roof span across six acres, the largest in Canada. The “living” roof boasts of a 400,000 indigenous plants and 4 bee colonies of 60,000 bees each, for a total of 240,000 bees, emerging as a living ecosystem within while linking itself at the same time to the vastness beyond. Designed as an insulator, the underside of the roof comprises of Douglas Fir slats and metal bar grating fascia that facilitates a porous roofing system. The roof form traces the topography of the region and its biological alliance lies in deference to the nearby Stanley Park and the mountains of Vancouver Island in view across the Burrard Inlet.
The interior spaces are privileged and elevated via the same sustainable principles. It imbibes the site’s resident renewable resources to extrude flexibility in terms of function and technology. A seawater pump facilitates passive cooling measures by a reflow of seawater maintained at a constant temperature. The facility also seeks to emulate water conservation and reuse strategy delineating the intent to reduce potable use by 60 to 70 per cent than the usual. The systemic strategies also integrate a black water treatment plant and desalinisation plant on site. A series of initiatives choreograph the sustainability factor like energy efficient lighting fixtures, advanced energy management systems, natural ventilation, extensive use of controlled daylighting, local materials including locally harvested Douglas fir and Hemlock wood finishes, radiant floor cooling and heating, natural ventilation in west pre-function rooms, shoreline replacement and continuation, 100 per cent irrigation reduction and Low-VOC flooring. Apart from these, the wall finishes and textures capture glimpses of the surroundings; with shades of blue in north meeting rooms, shades of teal in the east meeting rooms, and shades of green in the south meeting rooms. The orchestration of such details induces a simplicity that belies the technical output.
The dramatic roofline recalls a green agenda but externally the building recalls a formal presence. Its planes navigate the variety of internal volumes and external changes in scale to create the vibrant element that it exudes. It imbibes in the essence of the ecosystem that it is woven in and belongs to. Exposure and experience are the two main elements inscribed in the planning of the Vancouver Convention Centre. In the architect’s words, “Addressing the human environment, the architectural approach creates a community experience that is simultaneously a building, an urban place, a park, and an ecosystem.” The fabric of its sustainable ideologies is what gathers and constructs the spaces. It is an architectural style that goes beyond the approach of structural expression- of new kinds of practices, new kinds of technologies to form new kinds of design outcomes.
Photographs: courtesy LMN, Studio 216, Nic Lehoux Photography
Project: | Vancouver Convention Centre West |
|---|---|
Location: | Vancouver, Canada |
Design Architect: | LMN |
Prime Architects: | Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects & Planners |
Project Estimate: | CAN $883 million |
Completion of Project: | April 2009 |
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