John Coltrane said his saxophone playing was like jumping into the middle of a sentence. Similarly, Kwantlen Polytechnic University?s new Wilson School of Design in Richmond is pleasingly jarring inside. Beyond the precise and planar entrance, the interior is a bare composition of glass, concrete, wood and white drywall.
On the main façade, a cantilevered box houses an outdoor patio and doubles as an entrance canopy.
Designed by KPMB Architects and Public Architecture + Communication, the new school slots into an L-shaped void between two arms ?of a brick collegiate building from the 1990s, infilling a former parking lot. Its footprint is close enough to its neighbour to highlight how the two buildings aren?t on speaking terms materially, but is far enough away to create a well-proportioned green courtyard between them. Projecting an urban attitude in a mostly suburban neighbourhood, the school ?is already a campus gatehouse. It welcomes students from the nearby (and also recently opened) Lansdowne Skytrain station, enticing them away from the campus?s formal entry around the corner. While the building?s dominant façade currently stares down acres of shopping mall parking, an urban-village-style development is coming soon, which will give the school a real sparring partner. A slick glass skin encloses the new Wilson School of Design, while a glulam wood structure gives it the informal feel of a repurposed warehouse.
Richmond is a comfortably flat landscape of malls, mega-...