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Cloister House + Laneway
Cloister House + Laneway
Vancouver, Canada
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Cloister House + Laneway
Vancouver, Canada
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2014
SIZE
1000 sqft - 3000 sqft
Photos
CLOISTER HOUSE + LANEWAY
At its root, the Cloister House is a quiet refuge, a state of seclusion within the city, shared between a grandmother and her grandchildren. A finely crafted spine wall anchors the plan of the house, travelling from the front of the project to the rear. Whimsical kid-friendly elements are present, from an undulating boulder landscape to custom steel slides that run alongside the internal staircases. The hilltop site offers long views of the mountains and ocean which are balanced with shorter internally-focused views to the intimate pocket garden. A local artist designed a weathering steel wall sculpture + ladder surround that serve as backdrop for the pocket garden allowing filtered light to enter while providing privacy. Materials commonly perceived as ‘cold’ were manipulated to achieve a palette of textural warmth inside and out: hand-worked masonry, charred board-form concrete walls, and blackened steel are the textural triptych which provide a sense of harbour.
A small laneway/garage is an extension of the Cloister House. Completed last, it became the final destination for unused building materials from the project, such as the charred lumber. With the sleeping quarters subterranean, the building is carefully carved into the sloping site to complete the cloister feel of the project as a whole, providing a naturalized green roof view back to the main house, achieving light and livability for the laneway and maintaining privacy for all users.
The overall design unites seemingly contrary characteristics: deliberate darkness, industrial materiality, organic landscape and playfulness. Responding to the client’s wishes for privacy and seclusion, the buildings take on a kind of architectural introversion, resonating with drama inside while projecting quiet modesty to the street.
The unique building envelope consists of an all-concrete super-insulated thermally-broken construction, complete with concrete rainscreen veneer, built using a modular formwork system of shop-built 4’ x 8’ units faced with charred tongue and groove fir planks that could be easily maneuvered on site and re-used from pour to pour. The charred planks left a rustic, high-relief surface on the concrete that matured over successive pours. Threaded form ties that pass through the exterior concrete walls double as the attachment points for removable interior panels of venetian plaster and white-oak millwork that soften the concrete shell while providing easy access to electrical wiring running behind. A German HBV composite wood-concrete floor assembly leaves yellow cedar beams exposed, articulating a secondary structural rhythm branching off from the central spine. Custom steel slides flanking staircases reference the pour chute on a concrete mixer, providing a playful experience now for the client’s grandchildren and a placeholder for her future changing ambulatory needs. Mortarless masonry walls were clad in local Squamish, BC granite and demarcate the spine that runs through the project. The undulating boulder landscape on the back side of the property provides a peaceful outdoor retreat for the client as well as a unique play surface for her grandchildren. Stones were selected and fashioned at the quarry, then delivered to site for installation.
Project Architect: Clinton Cuddington + Piers Cunnington
Structural: Fast+Epp
Envelope: JRS Engineering
Geotech: GeoPacific
Landscape: Aloe Designs
Design Consultant: Fei Disbrow
Millwork: Nico Spacecraft
Contractor: CX Contracting + Construction Management - GC
Photographer: Nic Lehoux, Michael Boland + Measured Architecture
At its root, the Cloister House is a quiet refuge, a state of seclusion within the city, shared between a grandmother and her grandchildren. A finely crafted spine wall anchors the plan of the house, travelling from the front of the project to the rear. Whimsical kid-friendly elements are present, from an undulating boulder landscape to custom steel slides that run alongside the internal staircases. The hilltop site offers long views of the mountains and ocean which are balanced with shorter internally-focused views to the intimate pocket garden. A local artist designed a weathering steel wall sculpture + ladder surround that serve as backdrop for the pocket garden allowing filtered light to enter while providing privacy. Materials commonly perceived as ‘cold’ were manipulated to achieve a palette of textural warmth inside and out: hand-worked masonry, charred board-form concrete walls, and blackened steel are the textural triptych which provide a sense of harbour.
A small laneway/garage is an extension of the Cloister House. Completed last, it became the final destination for unused building materials from the project, such as the charred lumber. With the sleeping quarters subterranean, the building is carefully carved into the sloping site to complete the cloister feel of the project as a whole, providing a naturalized green roof view back to the main house, achieving light and livability for the laneway and maintaining privacy for all users.
The overall design unites seemingly contrary characteristics: deliberate darkness, industrial materiality, organic landscape and playfulness. Responding to the client’s wishes for privacy and seclusion, the buildings take on a kind of architectural introversion, resonating with drama inside while projecting quiet modesty to the street.
The unique building envelope consists of an all-concrete super-insulated thermally-broken construction, complete with concrete rainscreen veneer, built using a modular formwork system of shop-built 4’ x 8’ units faced with charred tongue and groove fir planks that could be easily maneuvered on site and re-used from pour to pour. The charred planks left a rustic, high-relief surface on the concrete that matured over successive pours. Threaded form ties that pass through the exterior concrete walls double as the attachment points for removable interior panels of venetian plaster and white-oak millwork that soften the concrete shell while providing easy access to electrical wiring running behind. A German HBV composite wood-concrete floor assembly leaves yellow cedar beams exposed, articulating a secondary structural rhythm branching off from the central spine. Custom steel slides flanking staircases reference the pour chute on a concrete mixer, providing a playful experience now for the client’s grandchildren and a placeholder for her future changing ambulatory needs. Mortarless masonry walls were clad in local Squamish, BC granite and demarcate the spine that runs through the project. The undulating boulder landscape on the back side of the property provides a peaceful outdoor retreat for the client as well as a unique play surface for her grandchildren. Stones were selected and fashioned at the quarry, then delivered to site for installation.
Project Architect: Clinton Cuddington + Piers Cunnington
Structural: Fast+Epp
Envelope: JRS Engineering
Geotech: GeoPacific
Landscape: Aloe Designs
Design Consultant: Fei Disbrow
Millwork: Nico Spacecraft
Contractor: CX Contracting + Construction Management - GC
Photographer: Nic Lehoux, Michael Boland + Measured Architecture
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