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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March 03, 2014

Why is Westbank Producing This Exhibition?

Why is Westbank producing the Gesamtkunstwerk exhibition?

Because cities matter.

More than half of all Canadians live in but four cities. Cities are economic and cultural engines. Well functioning cities offer solutions to many of the grand challenges we face. Cities are made, crafted and designed but making them is seldom transparent.

The exhibition opens up every aspect of the design of Westbank’s Vancouver House — it takes you behind the scenes of the next generation of high-rise. Over two hundred creative minds laboured for over six years to pay homage the concept of total design. They laboured for the belief that the entire environment should be designed in the public interest. This is total design applied to city-building.

Gesamtkunstwerk is more than a quirky name from history, more than marketing hook, more than a mouthful, more than a temporary exhibition. It’s Westbank’s manifesto.

Welcome to the next Vancouver.

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