Zero Hero is a proposal for a student residence that produces as much power as it uses. To do this, the bulk of the project is wrapped in a skin of glass louvres, embedded with PV cells, that temper the air inside the building while producing electricity. At its heart, a large central atrium removes excess heat from the interior, while providing a dramatic gathering place for students, faculty and staff.

The challenge of this competition was to design a house, in Vancouver, that could be built using materials sourced from within a 100-mile radius of the site. Our proposal was to go even further: We discovered that a house could be built almost entirely of recycled waste materials collected from sources within 100-miles of Vancouver. This proposal won first prize in the 100 Mile House competition.

What if the new Vancouver Art Gallery were built on a site that radically redefines the urban fabric of Vancouver? In this proposal, the gallery spans Granville Street – Vancouver’s most important axial street, and the entry point to downtown. A new, linear sculpture park on the bridge offers a generous outdoor connection to the gallery, whose entire roof would be Vancouver’s largest public plaza. A gallery in this location would instantly become the city’s “welcome mat.”

Davie Knoll is an attempt to capture the experiences of a grassy hill in a busy urban setting. Like a knoll in nature, every seating position offers a slightly different experience. Some spots feel more sheltered, some more open; some intimate, others public; some sunny, others shaded; and each spot offers a slightly different view. Plus, the parklet is covered entirely in a material made of 80% recycled tires.

This home was designed to take advantage of beautiful ocean and mountain views to the northeast by providing generous walls of glass and a rooftop patio at this corner of the plan. The steeply-sloping site allows the living room to be lifted to enjoy the view, while maintaining a direct connection with the yard at the rear.

This project was designed in collaboration with Shelter Residential Design.