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The 60-storey, high-end residential tower will likely be a landmark in additional methods than one
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It was a name architect Tom Wright was glad he picked up — his previous colleague, Rick Gregory of Brivia Group, asking if he’d be enthusiastic about designing the world’s tallest Passive Home.
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“I hadn’t spoken to him for 20-odd years, I suppose, and he reveals up out of the blue and says, hey, fancy doing a 60-storey Passive Home, high-end residential tower in Vancouver?” says Wright. “You don’t get many calls like that.”
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Wright, who’s a principal of London-based WKK Architects, is finest recognized for designing the Burj Al Arab lodge in Dubai, the place he’d labored with Gregory a long time prior.
As we speak, the Montreal-based Brivia – in partnership with Henson Group – is within the midst of bringing the Vancouver edifice Wright has designed to life. Dubbed CURV, the constructing is now within the pre-sale part, with groundbreaking anticipated subsequent 12 months.

The construction will likely be a landmark in additional methods than one. Sitting at downtown’s highest level, the intersection of Nelson and Thurlow Streets, the tower’s 60 storeys is not going to solely rise above each different constructing within the metropolis in sheer peak, however will seem even taller on the skyline, due to the topographical enhance.
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The size of vitality effectivity is groundbreaking, too. Globally acknowledged as the top of inexperienced constructing, Passive Home-certified constructions devour as much as 90 per cent much less vitality on heating and cooling vitality than their standard counterparts — by specialised programs of passive warmth absorption and super-insulation. Till lately, the usual has by no means been tried in a construction this dimension.
Within the face of those new heights and firsts, a particular type was so as. Wright took his cues from curves present in nature; from inexperienced shoots breaking by earth, he says. “I fairly preferred the concept it could be of an natural type slightly than a giant sq. constructing type,” he says. “As a result of [CURV] has this massive inexperienced badge, I feel it’s vital that it stands out a bit.”
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With its silvery facade and ample glistening glass, CURV’s ultimate design appears at dwelling alongside Vancouver’s different skyscrapers. However its curvilinear form feels singular, too, on a skyline punctuated by so many proper angles.
To concurrently obtain Passive Home ranges of insulation with a curved facade, Wright’s crew is using a system of panelled siding. And to maximise views whereas additionally limiting warmth from daylight, the constructing’s home windows will likely be made from sensible electrochromic glass that dims robotically. “Having glass that modifications from clear to shade, like sun shades, permits the constructing to kind of tune itself because the solar goes round,” says Wright.
The constructing represents a turning level for Jacky Chan, CEO of BakerWest Actual Property, which is managing CURV’s gross sales and advertising. “It will likely be a pioneer and a prototype,” says Chan. “The structure of the long run, and actual property improvement of the long run, will take a look at [CURV] as a case research.”
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Residing in CURV will likely be snug, too. Between the hermetic envelope, double-thick partitions, triple-glazed home windows and ultra-purifying air-exchange system, the dwelling areas are noise-proof and immaculately climate-controlled — with extremely energy-efficient heating and cooling dealt with by a centralized system. “You possibly can actually sit beside a window throughout a snowstorm . . . and never really feel any of the chilly from outdoors,” says Chan.
The constructing’s interiors carry the curve motif inward, with easy strains, smooth corners and natural varieties on a smaller scale. Undulating strains mimic “swells within the Salish Sea and sloping sides of the North Shore Mountains outdoors,” in keeping with the inside design crew of Andrés Escobar and Lemay_id.
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A brushed-steel-and-glass entry off Nelson St. opens to a foyer with partitions of fluted stone and glass, porcelain flooring, a white stone concierge desk, a dwelling plant wall and a live-tree fountain.
The constructing is structured in sections, with condos beginning on the twenty first flooring, atop a deliberate mixture of rental housing. The Horizon Assortment of properties sits on flooring 21 to 52, whereas the super-premium Sky Assortment occupies flooring 53 to 58.
Reasonably than a penthouse, the constructing’s prime flooring is reserved for 10,000 sq. ft of communal area – together with a health centre, spa, yoga room by Lululemon Studio and plunge pool, together with a non-public lounge and wine cellar, backyard, video games room, sport simulator room, out of doors cinema and observatory, full with vintage-style mounted binoculars for gazing out over English Bay, Stanley Park, the North Shore Mountains and past.
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Rental interiors strike a steadiness of understated and complex, with soothing palettes that blend pure quartz, porcelain and hardwood. Finely crafted European kitchens provide premium home equipment with built-in panels, induction cooktops, stone counter tops and backsplashes, whereas intensive smart-home automation permits fingertip management of built-in programs.
However for patrons who set their sights on CURV, such facilities are possible secondary to the attract of proudly owning a chunk of historical past, says Chan.
“We’re attracting the very early adopters . . . those that actually care to personal a chunk of purposeful, iconic and impactful paintings and actual property,” he says. The constructing’s pre-sales have been regular, he provides, regardless of a latest federal prohibition on non-Canadians shopping for residential property.
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Whereas there could also be different “super-prime” developments in Vancouver and Canada, Chan provides, CURV is writing a brand new definition of luxurious actual property. And, he hopes: a blueprint for what comes subsequent.
“Future developments will now have a profitable case research for merging sustainability, well being and security with luxurious,” he says. However for now, it’s an authentic, and he provides: “That is the primary of its variety and the one considered one of its variety.”
Venture: CURV
Venture tackle: 1083 Nelson Road, Vancouver, B.C.
Developer: Brivia Group and Henson Group
Architect: Tom Wright, WKK Architects and IBI Group
Inside designer: Andrés Escobar, L’Atelier Bespoke Masterpiece, (in collaboration with Lemay_id)
Venture dimension: 60 storeys; 358 condominium properties
Variety of bedrooms: One-, two- and three-bedroom
Value: From $989,800
Gross sales Centre: Unit 105, 510 Burrard St., Vancouver
Centre hours: Preview excursions by non-public appointment.
Cellphone: 604-960-2878
Web site: thecurv.ca
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