Rationale
The Esquimalt house is situated on a steep and unusually wide property with significant views of down- town Vancouver, the Lion’s Gate Bridge, and Burrard Inlet.
Project name: Esquimalt House
Designer’s Firm: McLeod Bovell Modern Houses
Website: www.mcleodbovell.com
Project location: West Vancouver, Canada
Completion Year: 2012
Gross Built Area: 7015 ft2
Lead Designers: Matt Mcleod, Lisa Bovell
Consultants:
Structural Engineer: Bevan-Pritchard Man Envelope Engineer: JRS Engineering Contractor: Powers Construction Surveyor: Chapman Land Surveying
Geotechnical Engineer: Davies Geotechnical Glazing: Atlas Meridian Glassworks
Photo credits: Martin Tessler
The clients, who came to Canada from East Africa, requested that their house operate at different scales: as a space for religious gatherings, a place of business, as well as a dwelling for the two as a couple.
The low-contrast grey and white palette of the house is intended to create a gallery-like setting for the display of artifacts of cultural and religious signifi- cance.
Movement and program are terraced laterally and vertically across the site and through the house to miti- gate the slope and separate quasi-public areas at one side of the property from private living spaces on the other.
Bedrooms are consolidated into a compact upper floor volume to one side of the house where they float above an elongated main floor.
