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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A Living Sculpture

Vancouver House is the perfect manifestation of the philosophy of total design creating the total work of art –gesamtkunstwerk. The idea is to take total design thinking to a whole new scale. Every aspect of Vancouver House contributes to an integrated holistic vision, the practical and the sublime. Gesamtkunstwerk has become the comprehensive guiding philosophy for all Westbank projects, current and future.

“Bjarke Ingels’ architecture represents an evolutionary moment in Vancouver’s design history”
– Ian Gillespie

More than a single tower, the grouping of buildings that make up Vancouver House are the most ambitious art-work that Westbank has commissioned. Our guiding principle has been to make the design a live-in sculpture, its artfulness at all scales bringing visual splendor to daily living, and constantly inspiring its residents and visitors. Vancouver has been waiting for a residential address that aims for art, a living sculpture.

BIG’s design team took a fresh look at every detail that makes up a home: folded metal suite entry doors, wide plank oak flooring, residential LED-lit corridors lined with Corian and framed by mirrored ceilings. Total design demanded originality and innovation, from BIG’s custom-designed kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures, to their notion of a sculptural kitchen island.

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