Vancouver's Alberni by Kengo Kuma, a collaboration between Westbank and Kengo Kuma, is one of the few high-rise residential buildings ever built in the area with a Japanese style, and has become the city's newest iconic landmark.
Located at the intersection of Alberni Street and Cardero Street in Vancouver, the building has 43 floors above ground and 6 floors underground, with 6 different viewing angles, day and night light and the changing of the seasons, making it a veritable skyscraper and landmark art mansion.
The building is designed with a gentle, recessed curve, which is cleverly concealed within the surrounding buildings, without sheltering the lower buildings at the back, and coexisting harmoniously with the surrounding landscape. The building's straddling metal structure is intertwined with layers of wood accents and overlapping textures, discreetly adding an understated luxury to the cityscape.
Planning for the building began in 2016, but it was completed seven years later. The façade is made of glass and dark and light aluminium panels to create a rich exterior texture, and the Bollinger arithmetic creates a graceful curved structure that resembles a slender waist that curves inward, which is the highlight of the building. The recessed part is composed of wooden roof floors and balcony floors that extend outwards to the depths of the balcony, which not only accentuates the curved contours, but also attracts natural light to the ground floor and promotes the circulation of indoor and outdoor air.
The exterior walls are full of attractions, and the interior design is also very impressive, with wood and stone elements that echo the exterior. The public space is equipped with 24-hour five-star hotel-level reception services, a Japanese moss landscaping garden with a performance venue, a world-class fazioli custom handmade piano, a high-standard fitness center, a wine tasting room with temperature-controlled lockers, wall glass shelves, etc., in addition to an art gallery and vinyl record listening room, a wooden structure luxury indoor swimming pool machine, Japanese kaiseki cuisine, Michelin dining and so on.
The interior design is full of Japanese-style Zen: full-width floor-to-ceiling windows, open circulation planning, light-colored wood-toned cabinets, Japanese-style soaking tubs with artistic bonsai installations, and Japanese-style gardens connecting the interior and exterior of the room, etc., all allow local residents and residents to experience the aesthetics of Japanese life in a variety of ways and feel the oriental culture of smart Zen.