Patkau Architects facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Patkau Architects |
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| Practice information | |
| Key architects | John Patkau Patricia Patkau Greg Boothroyd David Shone |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Location | Vancouver B.C. Canada |
| Significant works and honors | |
| Projects | University of Toronto Academic Wood Tower Capilano Library Temple of Light Audain Art Museum Hadaway House |
| Awards | 2019 Canadian Wood Council Design Innovation Award 2019 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence 2019 Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Medal in Architecture 2019 AIBC Innovation Award Canadian Architect Award of Merit |
Patkau Architects is an architecture firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a full-services firm currently practicing in Canada and the United States. Their projects scope includes but is not limited to, gallery installations, art galleries, libraries, schools, university buildings, and urban planning as well as private residences and projects. The firm has received numerous national and international architectural awards. Patkau Architects also represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2006.
Patkau Architects' work has been widely published, including three books dedicated to the firm's work, numerous articles in professional journals and books, and their work has been featured in exhibitions around the world. They have also published their own book entitled 'Patkau Architects: Material Operations' in 2017 that goes into depth about the firms beliefs and techniques through materials and unconventional practices.
Contents
History
John and Patricia Patkau
John and Patricia Patkau were both born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada, John on August 18, 1947 and Patricia on February 25, 1950. They met whilst they were both getting an undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba where John graduated with a bachelor's degree in arts and environmental studies in 1969 and Patricia graduated with a Bachelor of interior design in 1973. They both went on to receive their Masters of Architecture, John continued at the University of Manitoba in 1973 and Patricia completed hers at Yale University in 1978.
Patkau Architects
The firm was founded by spouses John Patkau and Patricia Patkau in Edmonton, Alberta in 1978. It was relocated to Vancouver in 1984. Michael Cunningham was the third principal from 1995 until departing the firm in 2010. As of 2014 the firm has a total staff of 20, including four principals: John Patkau, Patricia Patkau, Greg Boothroyd and David Shone. Patkau Architects has been one of the pioneers of using wood within the architectural industry and have received seven Wood Design Awards starting in 1984.
Both Patricia Patkau and John Patkau are Fellows of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada, Honorary Fellows of the American Institute of Architects and of the Royal Institute of British Architects, members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, and Members of the Order of Canada.
Design approach
The firm's work has been noted for drawing on the principles of modern architecture that is also inspired by the natural setting and traditions of Canada's West Coast and the Pacific Northwest. Their designs are known for their sculptural quality, multifaceted expression of material, comfort, and clear delineation of detail. Patkau Architects design in such a way that they attempt to respond to the natural environment that surrounds their building site, not impose on it. They draw inspiration from the natural environment and are currently pushing the limitations of wood in architecture. Their drive to pull as much from nature as possible has led them towards innovation in ways further than just using natural materials like wood; in the Temple of Light specifically, they used "light as a 'primary building material'." Architectural historian-theorist Kenneth Frampton has described the firm's work as "very close to what I attempted to define in 1983 as Critical Regionalism."
Notable Projects
University of Toronto Academic Wood Tower
Patkau Architects alongside MJMA are designing a 15 storey wood tower for the University of Toronto located in Toronto, Ontario to be used for classrooms and offices. It is designed to be 80 meters tall which will make it North America's tallest structural timber building. The entire structure of the tower is constructed using glu-laminated mass timber, some of which is left exposed to draw attention to the construction method. The design is hoping to create precedent for future mass timber construction as the zoning for height restrictions of tall wood buildings is being challenged in order to complete the project.
Capilano Library
The library is a 10,000 square foot, all black, linear form with a statement roof that has multiple sharp undulations with a softer, wooden clad underside located in Edmonton, Alberta commissioned as a new branch for the Edmonton Library. From the outside the roof may look simply sculptural however, it was designed in such a way to create convenience and comfort on the inside with differing ceiling heights and spatial conditions. The library is designed to be a welcoming space for all those in the community and contains a children's area and a community room for meetings and events alongside the main library programming.
Temple of Light
The original Temple of Light located in Vancouver, British Columbia, burnt down in June 2014 and Patkau Architects led the redesign. The redesign is referred to by the jury of the 2019 Wood Design Awards as "...an experience out of wood." In order to bring nature and the sacred into the temple as much as possible, they created an experience with light as well by using "portals of light" that extend from the oculus at the top throughout the entire height of the space. The form is made up of complex, petal like shapes and was accomplished by fabricating panels off-site to be assembled together on the building site.
Audain Art Museum
The Audain Art Museum is a 56,000 square foot, two storey museum located in Whistler, British Columbia that houses Michael Audain's personal art collection. The construction was complex as the museum is placed on a flood plain at the base of Whistler Mountain. The structure is raised on full storey on piers to avoid the flooding and implements a seismic system, steel trusses, prefabricated wood panels and handles cantilevers. A steel structural system was used to handle the large cantilevers and create a gravity defying experience. The museum on both the interior and exterior, is designed to have a minimalist aesthetic to not take away from the art or the surrounding nature.
Hadaway House
Patkau Architects also designs private residences, Hadaway House in Whistler, British Columbia being one of them. The shape of the house is sculptural in nature and was designed based on the size and height restrictions as well as the need to shed snow off the roof and into specific areas due to the snowy climatology of the Whistler Mountain area. Whistler has very strict zoning regulations so first the allowed massing was discovered, from there interior spaces were laid out using digital 3D modelling software which in turn determined window placing for optimal views. Due to these restrictions, the design was started with the envelope whereas it would have been designed from the inside out under normal circumstances. The construction of the house brings together various systems, it uses a concrete slab system with steel and heavy timber framing. These systems were all used in tandem to create the most efficient system overall to overcome the tricky and intense seismic and snow loads. The project aims to push the typical house typology and create more of a 'pavilion' with less prescriptive space and room for the imagination.
List of Projects
Residential
- 2019: Trail's End House
- 2013: Hadaway House
- 2012: Tula House
- 2011: Mishrifah Villa
- Unrealized: Cottages at Fallingwater
- 2009: Linear House
- Prototype: Prototype Cottage
- 2000: Agosta House
- 2000: Shaw House
- 1998: La Petite Maison du Weekend
- 1993: Barnes House
- 1987: Porter-Vanderbosch Renovation
- 1986: Appleton House
- 1984: Patkau House
- 1983: Pyrch House
Educational
- Current: Academic Wood Tower University of Toronto
- 2014: Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport
- 2012: Daegu Gosan Public Library
- 2012: ARTLab
- 2009: Beaty Biodiversity Center & Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory
- 2005: Winnipeg Millennium Library
- 2005: Centre for Music Art and Design at University of Manitoba
- 2005: La Grande Bibliotheque du Quebec
- 1996: Nursing and Biomedical Sciences Building at the Texas Medical Center
- 1995: Strawberry Vale Elementary School
- 1995: Emily Carr College of Art & Design
- 1992: Newton Library
- 1991: Seabird Island School
Cultural
- Current: Thunder Bay Art Gallery
- 2018: Capilano Library
- 2017: Temple of Light
- 2017: Polygon Gallery
- 2016: Audain Art Museum
- 2012: Fort York National Historic Site Visitors Centre
- 2012: Our Lady of the Assumption Parish Church
- 2012: Rift
- 2012: Cocoons
- 2011: Onefold
- Suspended: Marpole-Oakridge Community Center
- 2011: Winnipeg Scating Shelters
- 2011: Gleneagles Community Center
- 1999: Air Canada International Arrivals Lounge
- 1992: Newton Library
- 1992: Canadian Clay and Glass Library
Awards
The firm has been the recipient of at least one architectural design award per year In every year but three since 1981. These awards include 15 of the Governor General's Awards and Medals in Architecture, eight Architectural Institute of British Columbia's Lieutenant Governor's Awards, 13 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, awards from the American Institute of Architects, Canadian Architect magazine, and various national and international design competitions. Most recently, they were awarded the Canadian Wood Council Design Innovation Award for the Temple of Light in Kootenay Bay, British Columbia, Canada. With wood construction being taken further in the current day of architecture and construction, the Design Innovation Award shows the new, modern approach to architecture that Patkau Architects strives to accomplish.
