Patkau Architects - Shaw House

Patkau Architects

Shaw House

Here's a quick reference to a northern hemisphere version of the Road to Farellones house.

Similarly the pool is built into the second floor, but in this case, the entry is right underneath it. Windows in the bottom of the pool allow light to ripple across the doorway and entrance porch. The galvanised steel, concrete and light timber exterior combines, and no doubt will age, well.

I really like this and the slat covered loft boxes, housing the tall bedroom and study/guest room. There's plenty of room for jumping on the bed, and the fact that they're tall makes up for these rooms being moderate in size. Downstairs, separate living dining and kitchen areas in sequence as you head back from the sunken lounge and views to the harbour (the kitchen is behind a sliding door, seen opened and closed in the shots). Finally, right at the back of the house, as all bachelor pads should, it's got space for the weekday car and the weekend race car (double garage).

As you can well imagine there's some serious reinforcing in the concrete to hold all that water up there, and even more so with Vancouver's stringent earthquake codes. But the house takes in the views and has wide openings despite these constraints. Great.































From their site
Program
A private residence of 285 square metres for a single person. The program includes living spaces, bedroom, study, music room, and a lap pool.

Site
The site is a small waterfront property, 10 metres wide by 47 metres deep, looking across English Bay to the North Shore mountains which dominate the skyline of Vancouver. Required sideyard setbacks result in a plan which is limited to 8 metres in width.

Design
The house is organized with living spaces on grade, private spaces above grade, and music room below grade. The dimensions of the site made it difficult to locate the lap pool on grade while retaining generous living spaces. Consequently, the lap pool is located above grade, along the west side of the house, connected at either end to the terraces off of the bedroom and study.
Within the narrow floor plates spatial expansion is only possible outward over the water and upward through the volume of the house. Small spaces are enlarged with generous ceiling heights, while the fully interiorized dining room rises through the floor above to a clerestory that brings both daylight and light reflected from the lap pool deep into the central area of the plan.

Construction
Vancouver is located in an area of high seismic risk. In this context, with the lap pool located above grade, a robust structure is required that is resistant to significant lateral forces. As a result, the house is constructed almost entirely of reinforced concrete.

Awards
American Institute of Architects National Honor Award 2005
Governor General’s Medal 2004
Record House Selection 2002

via: Patkau Architects, Haeuser & The Slow Home