Passive House
Location / Vancouver
Project Type / New Construction
Size / 3500 sf interior + 220 sf terrace
Photography by John Sinal
Project completed by Campos Leckie Studio
Wallace Street House is a continuation of our ongoing exploration into crafting a response to the zoning and built form of single-family neighbourhoods of Vancouver – a response that is firmly grounded in the environment and draws from the many unique qualities of the Pacific Northwest. In this project we consider the ethos of living in a temperate rainforest through materiality, light, and a changing need for shelter in the winter and summer. The process we follow embodies our deeply held belief that we can employ technology’s ability to inform through detailed climate and performance modelling to create buildings that can achieve high environmental performance, low energy consumption, and comfort for its users. This methodology allows us to explore and employ passive strategies for day-lighting, ventilation, thermal and envelope performance, in order to meet our greater responsibility to the environment while creating a poetic response to the context.
Despite a seemingly opaque appearance, the strategy of cutouts supplemented with few openings in the main envelope ensures that all spaces have ample natural lighting and ventilation from multiple sides. The interior and cutouts are lined with white wood to ensure that the natural light is amplified. Indirect and diffuse light is an inseparable part of the West coast and is embraced through skylights in an attempt to give light a presence of its own.
