Erica Lee Munson: Vancouver Buildings

Last weekend the 1st year graduate class went on an architecture field trip to Vancouver, BC. It was a lot of fun, and we saw quite a few impressive buildings. The more buildings I look at critically, the more it begins to inform my design approach. It is very inspiring.

The following images portray Arthur Erickson's Museum of Anthropology. This building utilizes a concrete version of post and beam construction, emulating architecture of First Nation's people. The building opens to a field and pond, you can walk a short distance up the hill to see Vancouver's Straight of Georgia. The interior space is light and open, despite the heavy use of concrete. The totem's are the central display of the main gallery, naturally backlit and inserted into an airy vertical space, these carved forms can truly express their magnificence.

Museum of Anthropology
University of British Columbia
Architect Arthur Erickson

Interior space displaying Haida totems and other native american historical markers

Close-up of the Haida totem

This structure was designed and built by Bill Reid and Douglas Cranmer.
This is what you see when you turn around after overlooking the pond, grass field and building.

Also on UBC's campus is the Belkin Art Museum, design by Architect Peter Cardew.

The pile of logs in the foreground are cast concrete pieces

Elevation of the Belkin

Interior street at the entrance of the museum

Just outside the Belkin Museum, Rodney Graham's Camera Obscura

After we finished up at the Belkin, we went over to Biodiversity Research Center building and museum. The interior courtyard space feels comfortable and lush, you are surrounded with native plants that flourish in the middle of the city. Even on a cold, and rainy day, the plant life evokes a feeling of warmth. The buildings have been designed by Patkau Architects.

Beaty Biodiversity Museum and surrounding academic buildings

The next day we visited the B.C. Binning house in West Vancouver. Binning was a prominent Canadian artist, and worked as a professor at the Vancouver School of Art, today Emily Carr University. He designed and built his home in 1941, and it is recognized as a leading example of the modernist movement in Canada. The house is completely detached from the street, when you descend into the property you are looking down on the house. It is of modest size, and follows the terraced landscape. Binning painted two murals on the house, one at the exterior entrance stair case, and the other at the end of the entrance hallway. Both are indicative of his style later in his career.