The arched ceiling beams of the Sustainable Condo built by the architectural firm Busby Perkins and Will appear like fingers clasped together, the way someone positions his hands when thinking.
And, indeed, the award-winning creation is aimed at making you think. It presents a utopian vision: The most energy-efficient, water-saving, earth-friendly, health-promoting urban home that could be built.
The wooden ribs, says principal architect Martin Nielsen, were designed for their visual appeal, but they also represent a vessel of ideas. As with everything in the 800-square-foot condo, they embody philosophy along with form and function: They're built of laminated strand lumber that uses fast-growing, carefully harvested aspen rather than old-growth trees.
The Sustainable Condo, which has been awarded the Architectural Institute of British Columbia's Innovation Award, has been on tour, most recently at last fall's Greenbuild conference in Atlanta. The architects hope to bring it back to Vancouver this June for the World Urban Forum.
Designed to compete with those swanky presentation suites, the condo sells ideology rather than granite countertops. "The intent is to say that you can make better choices without compromising your lifestyle," says Mr. Nielsen. "When we talk to the development community we keep hearing that the public doesn't care or doesn't want to pay for it. Really the sustainable condo was about educating the public. If the market wants these features, they will do it."
When the exhibit was shown at the PNE in 2004, it was so convincing that people kept asking where they could buy it. As the visitor walks around, small stickers remind them of the virtue of each feature: The sofa is made with CFC-free foam, water-based glues and stainless-steel frame; an exterior wall has photovoltaic cells that generate electricity; the flooring is reclaimed fir; the sheets are organic unbleached cotton. Everything works, and invites you to play house: The wood tiles in front of the entertainment centre flip over to create a lounging area of recycled-material carpet; and the water-saving toilets actually flush.
Benefits to the condo owner, such as lower energy bills, are made clear. But visitors also get the bigger picture. If the next 10,000 condos were built like this, says sponsor EcoSmart Foundation Inc., it would save 23,000 truckloads of garbage each year.
Even those who aren't interested in saving the world would be interested in saving space. As each square foot gets more expensive, multiuse design makes more and more sense. Here, a stainless-steel island in the kitchen is set up like a bar, which can be rotated to reveal a wood surface. Pull it outand there's a dining room table.
Every time the condo is mounted, it gets the market's latest appliances. "The intent is to show technologies that are available in the marketplace today," says Kathy Wardle, director of research at Busby, adding that furniture and finishings are sourced from the city where the exhibit is displayed. That also cuts down on the considerable shipping costs, which reach about $150,000 to cross the country.
But even since it was first shown to the public two years ago, its idealistic features have become increasingly attainable. Developers in many cities are facing scrutiny through the rezoning and approval process. Within a year, Vancouver aims to become the first municipality in North America with a "green" building strategy, requiring every new structure to meet energy and water efficiency requirements. "It's not really a green building standard any more, it's just the way business is done," says Dale Mikkelsen, the city's green building planner. "Now it opens the door for other developments to have to push the bar even further."
