West 21st House by Frits de Vries
Frits de Vries designed the West 21st House in Vancouver, Canada.
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Description from the architect:
This 3070 sq ft single family residence with detached garage is located on a 42 ft wide lot in the Dunbar neighbourhood of Vancouver. The gently graded site has oblique views to Pacific Spirit Park, and distant views to the city core. The Dunbar Residence explores the potential for diversity of spatial experience in a home with a flexible plan that accommodates changes in everyday family life. In response to the owners‘ love of nature interior-exterior relationships are established with outdoor patios and gardens at all levels. Spatially light is used to define scale and intimacy within the home.
Designed and oriented for passive solar usage the project also employs ultra high efficiency windows, solar hot water heating and a high performance heating / cooling system, including heat recovery that allow the home to operate with low energy consumption. The careful selection of appliances, plumbing fixtures, and lighting also reduce energy and water consumption. Interior elements, such as flooring and millwork, include recycled materials and low/no emission finishes. Planters on the roof reduce heat reflectance and rainwater runoff. Landscape design makes use of native, drought tolerant plant species and reclaimed stone.
The home was built by Natural Balance Home Builders Inc., a construction company that specializes in green building.
Visit the Frits de Vries website – here.
Photography by Lucas Finlay
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wanna on 20 Feb 2012 at 6:12 pm #
the garage roof is quite pretty.
Rube on 21 Feb 2012 at 1:55 am #
As are the stairs.
Pierre on 21 Feb 2012 at 2:00 am #
I lose – I have a problem with “square” buildings, BUT this “little box” is beautiful, cosy and it must be a pleasure to live in. Congratulations to Frits !
Connie on 21 Feb 2012 at 3:08 am #
Oh how I wish architects had glass bannisters in their own homes. They are a nightmare to clean, especially when they overlap or have insets.
The exterior of the house is too busy for me, but the interior is warm and beautiful. Lovely cabinets in the bathroom.
shane on 21 Feb 2012 at 8:11 am #
too busy, which seems to be the case with most N. American homes. Why so much detail? Clean it up
Patrovio Baligno on 21 Feb 2012 at 10:50 am #
The “busy” that you people complain about is actually good. It adds a richness of depth and detail to the house and the street that it’s on. Otherwise, you would have a street filled with flat square boxes, and then you would all be complaining about how flat and square everything is.
Galen on 21 Feb 2012 at 11:02 pm #
Do check out more beautiful shots of this house we built. This is a development project for both me and my business partner to showcase modern living sustainability. This is the first LEED Platinum home in western Canada, it received the national SAM Award for the greenest home in Canada 2010.
For more info check out http://www.naturalbalancehomes.com
daz on 28 Feb 2012 at 2:08 pm #
I think the photos don’t do the piece justice (washed out colors and overexposed). For all that I do like the balance of outdoor/indoor spaces. Off to follow Galen’s link now .