2021 AFBC Award Recipients
The AFBC Architectural Awards of Excellence represent the highest level of architectural award in British Columbia. Our aim is to recognize and celebrate design excellence for projects across the province. Our approach was to modernize and expand the Awards to emphasize inclusivity, and broaden the voice of the profession of architecture in BC.
The winners of the AFBC Architectural Awards of Excellence were announced at a ceremony held on November 3, 2021 in Vancouver at the Polygon Gallery by Patkau Architects.
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Award
Upper Skeena Recreation Centre
by John Hemsworth Architecture Inc.
The Upper Skeena Recreation Centre is located in Hazelton, a remote northern community located in north-west British Columbia. The new facility uses locally sourced wood to create a warm, comfortable, and inviting building that is a source of local pride and brings the different cultures and surrounding communities together.
Photo credit: Ema Peter
Nanaimo Airport
by the office of mcfarlane biggar architects & designers inc. in association with Checkwitch Poiron Architects Inc.
The Nanaimo Airport expansion creates an uplifting and memorable entry point for visitors and residents of Canada’s Vancouver Island. Located south of the growing port city of Nanaimo, the airport reflects the raw beauty of the landscape, its rich natural resources, and the promising future of the local community.
Photo credit: Andrew Latreille
Full House
by Leckie Studio Architecture + Design Inc. and Gaile Guevara Studio Ltd.
Full House, an adaptable prototype for multi-generational living, mediates the specific needs of multiple generations living together, while integrating values of familial symbiosis and support. The five-bedroom home offers flexibility in programming, fluid circulation, and plentiful garden spaces and natural light, in a space where multiple generations can co-exist harmoniously.
Photo credit: Ema Peter
Vancouver House
by DIALOG BC Architecture Engineering Interior Design Planning Inc., in association with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), and James K.M. Cheng Architects
This neighbourhood-scaled project is comprised of four highly crafted buildings at the north end of the Granville Bridge. The project’s iconic tower dramatically unfolds from a mixed-use urban village under the bridge. This new neighbourhood is comprised of three intimately-scaled triangular buildings that provide spaces for working, shopping, and leisure. The tower gains its form in response to site constraints, shape shifting from a triangle at its base to a rectangle 500’ above the bridge.
Photo credit: Ema Peter
Design Excellence Award
The Shipyards
by DIALOG BC Architecture Engineering Interior Design Planning Inc.
The Shipyards is a world-class mixed-use development on the North Vancouver waterfront. It boasts an unparalleled public realm that completes a series of interconnected plazas, transit routes, and recreational spaces. The “Shipyard Commons” is the centerpiece of the design – this covered outdoor gathering space is a premier local and regional attraction that celebrates the character of the site and its spectacular location.
Photo credit: DIALOG
Clayton Water Reservoir
by Local Practice Architecture + Design Ltd.
Clayton Reservoir is a large potable water infrastructure project at the centre of a growing neighbourhood. The façade is a sculptural backdrop for an adjacent park, subtly revealing the contents of the reservoir with an undulating surface that reflects the client’s desire to highlight the beauty and significance of the region’s drinking water networks.
Photo credit: Andrew Latreille
Pearl Block
by D'Arcy Jones Architects
This staggered cluster of rowhouses preserves the privacy of the surrounding area. The building’s stepped form responds to the unusual shape of the site. It was designed so every unit has a generous outlook onto the street, a roof-deck in place of a yard, and family-friendly interior spaces.
Photo credit: Ema Peter
Emerging Firm Award
Stark Architecture Ltd.
The goal of Stark has been to create fun, exciting Architecture which infuses high performance into form whilst creating a vibrant office culture where staff are chosen on the merit of their skills and tenacity. Our Tantrum Commercial: Passive house won a citation award in 2020 at the Passive House Institute US Competition, and was certified as the first Passive House Office: Commercial building in North America.
Photo credit: Ema Peter
Innovation Award
1 Lonsdale
by John Hemsworth Architecture Inc.
Located across from the Polygon Gallery, this Passive House commercial project has a restaurant on the ground floor and two levels of office space above. Due to the tight site, the project made extensive use of mass-timber and pre-fabrication, allowing the building to be erected in ten days.
Photo credit: KK Law, courtesy of naturallywood.com
Unbuilt Award
Prototype Infill Station
by Perkins + Will Canada Architects Co.
An infill station prototype designed as a modular kit-of parts to facilitate ease of construction and activate an emerging public realm around an active transit line. The result is a highly connected node that activates the surrounding community and accommodates the growing demand for transit-oriented, high-density development around transit infrastructure.
Photo credit: Perkins + Will Canada Architects Co.
Equity Award
Tsawwassen First Nation Youth Centre
by Mackin Architects Ltd.
In this culturally-inclusive centre for young people and their families, ancient oral histories are retold through the universal language of architectural form and detail. Human and non-human health and resiliency are championed through design strategies that mitigate climate change, foster human health, and encourage biodiversity. Equity during construction is exemplified.
Photo credit: Ema Peter
Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification Cost Comparison Feasibility Study
by hcma architecture + design
The feasibility study evaluates a detailed cost comparison of Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification ™ (RHFAC), Canada’s 2015 National Building Code (NBC) and the 2018 Ontario Building Code (OBC). The study reinforces that NBC and OBC do not suitably meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and analysis reveals where thoughtful design can mitigate any additional cost or RHFAC beyond meeting code requirements.
Photo credit: hcma architecture + design
NƏ́C’AʔMAT CT Strathcona Library / YWCA Cause We Care House
by DIALOG BC Architecture Engineering Interior Design Planning Inc.
The Vancouver Public Library, the City of Vancouver, and YWCA Metro Vancouver worked with our firm to provide an inclusive gathering space and affordable housing for single mothers and their children, paired with a public library, in an integrated effort to find a unique solution and enhance Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with civic services.
Photo credit: DIALOG
Special Jury Award
Gastown Child Care Centre
by Acton Ostry Architects
The Gastown Child Care Centre is an innovative response to an intriguing concept proposed by the City of Vancouver to develop Passive House and LEED Gold facilities atop under-utilized parkades. The child care centre enjoys spectacular views of the Northshore Mountains, rail yards, marine traffic and the Port of Vancouver.
Photo credit: Michael Elkan
SoLo
by Perkins + Will Canada Architects Co.
Siting lightly upon a forested knoll overlooking the spectacular Soo Valley north of Whistler in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, SoLo is not a typical alpine home. It sets out to prove that building sustainably and to the Passive House standard does not mean sacrificing design aesthetics or beauty.
Photo credit: Andrew Latreille
Shift House
by by Measured Architecture Inc.
Shift House sits on a family-friendly street in Vancouver’s down-to-earth east side. Part of a close-knit community, its massing of two distinct ridged elements at once reflects and respects the common architectural silhouette of the neighbourhood while emerging organically from this tradition to express a distinct and playful identity.
Photo credit: Ema Peter
2021 AFBC Jury
