Monument to THE FUTURE
Vancouver's CURV drafts the global blueprint for sustainability as world's tallest Passive House
It was a call architect Tom Wright was glad he picked up — his old colleague, Rick Gregory of Brivia Group, asking if he'd be interested in designing the world's tallest Passive House.
“I hadn't spoken to him for 20odd years, I guess, and he shows up out of the blue and says, hey, fancy doing a 60-storey Passive House, high-end residential tower in Vancouver?” says Wright. “You don't get many calls like that.”
Wright, who is a principal of London-based WKK Architects, is best known for designing the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, where he'd worked with Gregory decades prior.
Today, the Montreal-based Brivia – in partnership with Henson Group – is in the midst of bringing the Vancouver edifice Wright has designed to life. Dubbed CURV, the building is now in the presale phase, with groundbreaking anticipated next year.
The structure will be a landmark in more ways than one. Sitting at downtown's highest point, the intersection of Nelson and Thurlow streets, the tower's 60 storeys will not only rise above every other building in the city in sheer height, but will appear even taller on the skyline, thanks to the topographical boost.
The scale of energy efficiency is groundbreaking, too. Globally recognized as the pinnacle of green building, Passive House-certified structures consume up to 90 per cent less energy on heating and cooling energy than their conventional counterparts — through specialized systems of passive heat absorption and super-insulation. Until recently, the standard has never been attempted in a structure this size.
In the face of these new heights and firsts, a distinctive form was in order. Wright took his cues from curves found in nature; from green shoots breaking through earth, he says. “I quite liked the idea that it would be of an organic form rather than a big square building form,” he says. “Because (CURV) has this big green badge, I think it's important that it stands out a bit.”
With its silvery facade and ample glistening glass, CURV'S final design seems at home alongside Vancouver's other skyscrapers. But its curvilinear shape feels singular, too, on a skyline punctuated by so many right angles.
To simultaneously achieve Passive House levels of insulation with a curved facade, Wright's team is employing a system of panelled siding. And to maximize views while also limiting heat from sunlight, the building's windows will be made of smart electrochromic glass that dims automatically. “Having glass that changes from clear to shade, like sunglasses, allows the building to sort of tune itself as the sun goes around,” says Wright.
The building represents a turning point for Jacky Chan, CEO of Bakerwest Real Estate, which is managing CURV'S sales and marketing.
“It will be a pioneer and a prototype,” says Chan. “The architecture of the future, and real estate development of the future, will look at (CURV) as a case study.”
Living in CURV will be comfortable, too. Between the airtight envelope, double-thick walls, triple-glazed windows and ultra-purifying air-exchange system, the living spaces are noise-proof and immaculately climate-controlled — with highly energy-efficient heating and cooling handled by a centralized system.
“You can literally sit beside a window during a snowstorm . . . and not feel any of the cold from outside,” says Chan.
The building 's interiors carry the curve motif inward, with smooth lines, soft corners and organic forms on a smaller scale.
Undulating lines mimic “swells in the Salish Sea and sloping sides of the North Shore Mountains outside,” according to the interior design team of Andrés Escobar and Lemay_id. A brushed-steel-andglass entry off Nelson St. opens to a lobby with walls of fluted stone and glass, porcelain flooring, a white stone concierge desk, a living plant wall and a live-tree fountain.
The building is structured in sections, with condos starting at the 21st floor, atop a planned mix of rental housing. The Horizon Collection of homes sits on floors 21 to 52, while the super-premium Sky Collection occupies floors 53 to 58.
Rather than a penthouse, the building 's top floor is reserved for 10,000 square feet of communal space – including a fitness centre, spa, yoga room by Lululemon Studio and plunge pool, along with a private lounge and wine cellar, garden, games room, sport simulator room, outdoor cinema and observatory, complete with vintage-style mounted binoculars for gazing out over English Bay, Stanley Park, the North Shore Mountains and beyond.
Condo interiors strike a balance of understated and sophisticated, with soothing palettes that mix natural quartz, porcelain and hardwood. Finely crafted European kitchens offer premium appliances with integrated panels, induction cooktops, stone countertops and backsplashes, while extensive smart-home automation allows fingertip control of integrated systems.
But for buyers who set their sights on CURV, such amenities are likely secondary to the allure of owning a piece of history, says Chan.
“We are attracting the very early adopters . . . those who really care to own a piece of purposeful, iconic and impactful artwork and real estate,” he says. The building 's presales have been steady, he adds, despite a recent federal prohibition on non-canadians buying residential property.
While there may be other “super-prime” developments in Vancouver and Canada, Chan adds, CURV is writing a new definition of luxury real estate. And, he hopes: a blueprint for what comes next.
“Future developments will now have a successful case study for merging sustainability, health and safety with luxury,” he says. But for now, it's an original, and he adds: “This is the first of its kind and the only one of its kind.”