Photo courtesy of Patkau Architects
Patkau Architects’ Tula House project on Quadra Island is a 2016 Recipient of the RIBA Award for International Excellence in Architecture. This was the only project in Canada to win, the only project designed by a North American architect, and only one of three projects in North America to receive an award.
Perched 44 feet above the Pacific Ocean on a remote island, the Tula House reflects the casual irregularity of the sites rock ledges, beach, and forest in both its geometric and spatial order.
Photo courtesy of Patkau Architects
The topography of the site is highly irregular; the prospects diverse. Views to the east stretch over the open water and islands of the Strait of Georgia to the mountain ranges on the mainland of British Columbia. Views to the south overlook a small tidal basin. Moss covered basalt hills are interspersed among treed expanses and richly vegetated crevices, valleys and swales. Stands of red alder and big-leafed maple enliven the predominantly dark Douglas fir forest. The shoreline below the house is littered with the flotsam and jetsam of the ocean where logs and rocks have been tossed around by the tides and storms like a child?s game of ?pickup sticks?. One site is actually many sites. Photo courtesy of Patkau Architects
The house cultivates a sense of dwelling with, and within, such diversity. Low rock walls edge a gravel approach to the house. A loose arrangement of concrete walls, clad in staggered f...