GESAMTKUNSTWERK

Westbank has built a practice around long-term commitments to artistry, sustainability and city-building. These commitments underlie an orientation towards projects like Woodwards, Vancouver House, Mirvish Village, Telus Garden and Oakridge – catalysts for larger change that go beyond the borders of the projects themselves. We are here to create. To provoke. To ignite. We are the vehicle for a new movement of cultural expression.

As the practice matures, we have become more ambitious. With every new project reflecting our commitment to the philosophy behind Gesamkunstwerk, or in our recent work the Japanese philosophy behind layering, the net effect is that our work becomes much more complex and far-reaching.

The core of Westbank’s mission is to create a body of work with a high degree of artistry that helps foster more equitable and beautiful cities. Westbank is active across Canada and in the United States, with projects including luxury residential, Five Star hotels, retail, office, rental, district energy systems, affordable housing initiatives and public art. Established in 1992, we are one of North America’s leading developers, with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Seattle, Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and over 25 billion dollars of projects completed or under development.

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April 28, 2016

Designboom Talks to Kengo Kuma About Alberni

designboom was invited to the official presentation of the Westbank project in Vancouver where they spoke with Kengo Kuma about the Alberni project, and what he wanted to achieve in this, his first skyscraper in Canada.
Kuma noted that Vancouver is a beautiful place. The wild nature and the beautiful ocean is in the centre of the city.

With Alberni I learned how to fit a skyscraper into a beautiful city. This skyscraper is a response to the beautiful city — Kengo Kuma

design boom described Westbank as “an avant garde developer whose scope of work transcends that of the traditional developer through its holistic integration of the senses, merging the worlds of construction, urban design, art, culture, and philanthropy that results in structures that are meant to fit within the greater context of the community in all aspects.”

Visit designboom online to read the full interview, and to register for future updates on Alberni by Kuma, please click here.

Even for this kind of big project we can bring craftsmanship to the building. normally the architects just design the skin but we designed every detail.

It’s a very unique shape that came from a conversation with the neighbors and a conversation with the environment.

Some architects believe the shape of the skyscraper is a representation of their own ego but our shape is coming from the relationship with nature, which was a challenge to translate into form.

At a certain point this is not an independent tower. With the tower we can create the connection with this beautiful environment and we carefully designed the relationship between the unit and the view.

The shape of the tower is irregular – from every unit we designed the view to the ocean, to the mountains, and eventually we achieved this unique shape. This unique shape and section is not arbitrary it is a natural solution.