Form and function
Suites in Kenstone’s Addition designed to meet the diff ering needs of their occupants
At Kenstone Properties’ Addition project in downtown Vancouver, what you see is what you get — or rather, what you opt to make of it.
Indeed, flexibility is among the key themes of the homes in the 20- storey tower that will rise on Hornby Street just off Helmcken. Here, occupants of the 164 units will be able to interpret the main living area of their residences as they wish — or as Kodu Design’s Merike Lainevool puts it: “To add their own personality.”
A tour through the project’s show home demonstrates the design behind that thinking. The 501- square- foot display space is outfitted with a linear kitchen to the left and a bedroom, bathroom and storage space to the right, between which lies a large open area stretching 24 feet ( 7.3 metres) from the entrance to the opposite window. It’s a floor plan that aims not to impose specific uses for zones within that space.
“What we tried to do with all of these units, to the best of our ability, was to create a big, open flexible area,” Lainevool says. “This big open space allows you to fit out the space to your style and needs, as changing as they may be over time. That’s how we tried to be; accommodating and forwardthinking, and not to slot the space for the owner. That’s up to the owner.”
Kenstone director Edwin Liang says such a make- of- it- what- you- will living space is especially important for smaller homes, which are often configured tightly and with only one obvious area, for instance, for the placement of a couch and a television.
“The bathroom, storage and bedroom ( in Addition’s show home) are purposely kept in one neat column, while the rest of the space — interrupted only by a linear kitchen — is left for the owner to customize … Someone who does light cooking may not want an island with bar seating, preferring to have a table for two, leaving the rest of the space for their living room,” Liang says.
“Somebody else may not have a need for a TV, preferring instead a larger open space for their office …. The options, while certainly not endless, are as diverse as the buying demographic today.”
Visitors to the sales centre will notice a number of noteworthy features in the show home that won’t likely be evident at first glance.
Concealed behind the bank of lacquered kitchen doors, for instance, are a few surprises — a stacking Blomberg washer and dryer with a clothes rail and adjustable shelving, a 24- inch Liebherr refrigerator with a bottom-mount freezer, and pullout waste and recycling bins.
Likewise, the bedroom features some touches designed with efficiency in mind: A pullout pant rack and enclosed drawer storage, and inset bedside shelving with recessed spotlights and a USB outlet. Sturdy, full- height sliding lacquered doors on either side of the bedroom will offer privacy when closed, and at the same time, blend seamlessly into the walls from that main living space.
“It’s really a hotel- like experience,” says Lainevool, who sourced many of the homes’ features — kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, for instance — from Italy- based Fruil-Intagli through Italinteriors, its Vancouver rep. “On a sunny morning, I envision you lying in bed and opening the doors and sunlight flooding in.”
Addition, which will comprise 158 apartments and six townhomes and include such amenities as a fully equipped gym and outdoor space with a children’s play area, outdoor fireplace and garden plots, will showcase the work, not only of Kenstone and Lainevool, but also of Richard Henriquez of Henriquez Partners Architects. The Kenstone- Henriquez partnership extends beyond the residential project to the neighbouring Murray Hotel — as part of the overall undertaking, the developer and architect will rehabilitate the facade of the four- storey heritage building, which contains over 100 units of social housing.
When complete, Addition will also share a visual relationship with the old hotel, notes Kenstone’s Liang.
“The identity of the project will reinterpret and reference the Murray Hotel Edwardianera features,” Liang says. “The Murray Hotel is clad in brick, so our base, the townhomes, are also clad in brick. But we reversed those colours. The dark red of the Murray Hotel is translated in red metal screens instead. And the dark grey arches ( of the hotel) become the dark grey brick of the project.”
Liang also notes that Henriquez, “an acclaimed architect and ( also) a celebrated artist,” will showcase his artistic talents in Addition’s triple- height glass lobby in the form of a 24- by- 22- foot mural.
Addition will offer most of its occupants “panoramic city views,“Liang says, and be positioned close to multiple downtown amenities and within a stroll of the Yaletown Canada Line station.
That location, says project marketer Bob Rennie, will almost certainly impact who will be attracted to Addition.
“This is city living … So you’ll get people who want to walk to work, and young couples. This is about giving up the car and having life at your doorstep — or leaving the car downstairs for weekends,” he says.
So, too, says Rennie, will they be drawn to the project’s attention to detail and to a design that allows a 500- square- foot home to “read like you’re living in 650 square feet.”
Previews of Addition start today at noon, with sales expected to begin in mid- May.