A calm white interior unites the array of pools inside the Guildford Aquatic Centre, one of several new recreation facilities in British Columbia?s fastest growing city. Photo: Ema Peter
PROJECT Guildford Aquatic Centre, Surrey, British Columbia

ARCHITECTS Bing Thom Architects (Architect of Record) with Shape Architecture (Associate Architect)

TEXT Courtney Healey

PHOTOS Ema Peter, unless otherwise noted
A city?s physical image is defined and codified through periods of rapid growth?think 18th-century London, 19th-century Paris or 20th-century New York. Metro Vancouver is still in the process of becoming, and the City of Surrey, 40 kilometres south of downtown, has emerged as the region?s harbinger of high-minded 21st-century development. If 19th century Parisians witnessed the emergence of a city shaped by Haussman, Surrey?s residents are in the midst of a city being shaped by Bing Thom Architects (BTA). Surrey is the fastest-growing city in B.C., poised to surpass Vancouver?s population by 2040. It is also full of new Canadians, by age and by country of birth. With over 100,000 children in the province?s largest school district and 43 percent of residents speaking a mother tongue other than English, Surrey earns its slogan: ?The Future Lives Here.?
But what form will this future take" Bing Thom began working on this question twenty years ago, when Surrey was more suburban sprawl than city. At Surrey Central City, BTA conjured a civic core out of a low-slung shoppi...