North Region Winner of the ACSA 2022 Habitat Compeition
Senior Studio Spring 2022
The Nelson Plaza with Box House extension features two distinctive apartment buildings, one already existing and the other as a connecting infill project. The decision to add the Box House extension to the pre-existing Nelson Plaza apartment building reflects the changing post-modern domestic needs of the rapidly-growing young adult population located in the urban West End neighborhood of Vancouver. The addition offers 1,000 square foot spaces for two and three-bedroom occupants to reside, with space and furniture that can be moved to accommodate working from home/remotely, social gatherings, and visitors.
Vancouver is one of the largest exporters of coal in North America, with exports in the latter half of this decade totaling up to 39 million tons per year. From this level of coal production, about a third of it is non-metallurgical, or unable to be used properly for energy, generating excess waste in the region. Hence, the main construction material for the infill Box House is “Ashcrete”, a concrete substitute consisting of recycled fly ash and other industrial waste. The substance is generally stronger and is able to last longer than traditional concrete, allowing the building to exist longer in the moderate Vancouver climate.
Additional design features include concrete boxes or “pleats” extend from the building’s facade and contain plants that are watered by Vancouver’s ample amount of precipitation per year. This precipitation is also caught by the M-shaped roof of the Box House and is filtered through a cistern system, which then sends recycled water back to the building as a primary water source, eliminating the need for reliance on watershed sourcing from the local North Shore and Coquitlam mountains. These two small yet important details help support the local environment of the West End neighborhood.
