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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Philosophy
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February 02, 2016

How can architecture create communities?

We see our projects as active engagements with community, as part of a dialogue between what is built, the place where it is situated and the people who live there. Our projects are conceptualized and designed with an awareness of a much larger urban narrative.

Last August we announced that we had retained Bjarke Ingels as the design architect for the upcoming King & Spadina project in Toronto. The site offers an exciting opportunity for world-class city building.

In February we welcome Bjarke Ingels – the design architect for Westbank and ALLIED’s upcoming King Street project –  to Toronto for an evening of conversation about how architecture creates communities.

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This growing desire to play a more active role in city building led us to organize a lecture at Chan Centre with Tadao Ando back in October, 2005.

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Building upon the success of the success of Ando’s visit we invited Bjarke Ingels to spend an evening with us in Vancouver in April, 2012. Bjarke was an inspiring speaker and the conversation with local artists, architects and designers contributed towards a meaningful dialogue in Vancouver around the desire by many to step out of the constrained architectural language of the last number of decades.

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Bjarke Ingels addresses local artists, designers and architects about the need to step out of a prevailing orthodoxy of a constrained architectural language.

Watch the 2012 evening with Bjarke Ingels in Vancouver

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