60 Seconds of Architecture: 2012

The new visitor centre at VanDusen Botanical Garden designed by Perkins and Will opened last October and a couple of weeks later I had a chance to visit it. If you have not seen it, you should check it out - it is excellent.

It has no less than a LEED Platinum rating, the top possible building rating for environmental performance, and it is net-zero energy - it generates its own energy. But combined with its environmental achievement, is a dramatic architectural experiment, showing us that high 'green' grades can go together with exciting spaces and massing moves.

I have done an earlier post on the design here, and although the design changed since then - as they organically always do - I was as into it during my visit as I was in my post. The one surprise was just how much intensity was in one rather small building. Everything was to the max - the sweeping curves, the detailing, the materiality. There is enough here for a few buildings!

Many many excellent articles have been written recently:

And here is a fun videos from Perkins and Will.

As for images, you will find many awesome ones on this Flickr set by VanDusen Gardens. Below is a mixture of images by others, the nice ones, and by me, not as nice since I had no other option but to take them with my phone camera.