Architect: Patkau Architects Inc.
Project Team: John Patkau, Patricia Patkau, with David Shone
Greg Boothroyd, James Eidse, Mike Green, Marc Holland, Dimitri Koubatis, Henry Murdock, Ben Raines, Thomas Schroeder, Craig Simms, and Tony Wai
Consultants
Structural: Peterson Galloway
Mechanical: Hirschfield Williams Timmins
Contractor: J Toelle Construction LTD.
Site Superintendent: Guy Holmes
Images
James Dow / Patkau Architects (1-26)
Patkau Architects (27)
Awards
2016 RIBA Award for International Excellence
2014 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture
2007 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence
Description
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.
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.
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 fibre-cement panels, begins to describe space. These panels are charcoal in colour, so that from a distance the house visually recedes into the dark forest. The roof, planted in moss and native ground covers, appears from above to be continuous with the surrounding ground plane.
Groundwater flows continuously through the site, and is captured momentarily within an entry courtyard. The ground plane of the courtyard and interior floor of the house are large shard-like concrete plates. Within the house, a series of slowly unfolding concrete walls define and channel the flow of space through to ocean views. This primary flow is diverted in passage by eddies of secondary space which branch off, separating and focusing moments of diversity in the site: the small tidal basin off the kitchen nook, a ledge of moss covered rock in the bedrooms, a view back from the court to a swath of deciduous trees.
Above, a steel-framed roof mirrors the order of concrete walls and floor plates. Narrow skylights project lines of light at oblique angles through space. At the cliff-edge, the solidity of concrete floors is left behind. A steel-framed, wooden deck cantilevers into the air. While an uninterrupted expanse of glass takes in distant, sublime views of the Strait, glazed apertures in the floor of the living room deck open vertiginously to the textures and sensual immediacy of beach and ocean below. Millwork elements float freely within the spaces like the flotsam and jetsam on the beach.
Certifications
Description
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.
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.
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 fibre-cement panels, begins to describe space. These panels are charcoal in colour, so that from a distance the house visually recedes into the dark forest. The roof, planted in moss and native ground covers, appears from above to be continuous with the surrounding ground plane.
Groundwater flows continuously through the site, and is captured momentarily within an entry courtyard. The ground plane of the courtyard and interior floor of the house are large shard-like concrete plates. Within the house, a series of slowly unfolding concrete walls define and channel the flow of space through to ocean views. This primary flow is diverted in passage by eddies of secondary space which branch off, separating and focusing moments of diversity in the site: the small tidal basin off the kitchen nook, a ledge of moss covered rock in the bedrooms, a view back from the court to a swath of deciduous trees.
Above, a steel-framed roof mirrors the order of concrete walls and floor plates. Narrow skylights project lines of light at oblique angles through space. At the cliff-edge, the solidity of concrete floors is left behind. A steel-framed, wooden deck cantilevers into the air. While an uninterrupted expanse of glass takes in distant, sublime views of the Strait, glazed apertures in the floor of the living room deck open vertiginously to the textures and sensual immediacy of beach and ocean below. Millwork elements float freely within the spaces like the flotsam and jetsam on the beach.
Location
Size
Client
Quadra Island, British Columbia
418 sq m / 4,500 sq ft
Confidential
Description
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.
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.
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 fibre-cement panels, begins to describe space. These panels are charcoal in colour, so that from a distance the house visually recedes into the dark forest. The roof, planted in moss and native ground covers, appears from above to be continuous with the surrounding ground plane.
Groundwater flows continuously through the site, and is captured momentarily within an entry courtyard. The ground plane of the courtyard and interior floor of the house are large shard-like concrete plates. Within the house, a series of slowly unfolding concrete walls define and channel the flow of space through to ocean views. This primary flow is diverted in passage by eddies of secondary space which branch off, separating and focusing moments of diversity in the site: the small tidal basin off the kitchen nook, a ledge of moss covered rock in the bedrooms, a view back from the court to a swath of deciduous trees.
Above, a steel-framed roof mirrors the order of concrete walls and floor plates. Narrow skylights project lines of light at oblique angles through space. At the cliff-edge, the solidity of concrete floors is left behind. A steel-framed, wooden deck cantilevers into the air. While an uninterrupted expanse of glass takes in distant, sublime views of the Strait, glazed apertures in the floor of the living room deck open vertiginously to the textures and sensual immediacy of beach and ocean below. Millwork elements float freely within the spaces like the flotsam and jetsam on the beach.
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.
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.
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 fibre-cement panels, begins to describe space. These panels are charcoal in colour, so that from a distance the house visually recedes into the dark forest. The roof, planted in moss and native ground covers, appears from above to be continuous with the surrounding ground plane.
Groundwater flows continuously through the site, and is captured momentarily within an entry courtyard. The ground plane of the courtyard and interior floor of the house are large shard-like concrete plates. Within the house, a series of slowly unfolding concrete walls define and channel the flow of space through to ocean views. This primary flow is diverted in passage by eddies of secondary space which branch off, separating and focusing moments of diversity in the site: the small tidal basin off the kitchen nook, a ledge of moss covered rock in the bedrooms, a view back from the court to a swath of deciduous trees.
Above, a steel-framed roof mirrors the order of concrete walls and floor plates. Narrow skylights project lines of light at oblique angles through space. At the cliff-edge, the solidity of concrete floors is left behind. A steel-framed, wooden deck cantilevers into the air. While an uninterrupted expanse of glass takes in distant, sublime views of the Strait, glazed apertures in the floor of the living room deck open vertiginously to the textures and sensual immediacy of beach and ocean below. Millwork elements float freely within the spaces like the flotsam and jetsam on the beach.
Description
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.
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.
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 fibre-cement panels, begins to describe space. These panels are charcoal in colour, so that from a distance the house visually recedes into the dark forest. The roof, planted in moss and native ground covers, appears from above to be continuous with the surrounding ground plane.
Groundwater flows continuously through the site, and is captured momentarily within an entry courtyard. The ground plane of the courtyard and interior floor of the house are large shard-like concrete plates. Within the house, a series of slowly unfolding concrete walls define and channel the flow of space through to ocean views. This primary flow is diverted in passage by eddies of secondary space which branch off, separating and focusing moments of diversity in the site: the small tidal basin off the kitchen nook, a ledge of moss covered rock in the bedrooms, a view back from the court to a swath of deciduous trees.
Above, a steel-framed roof mirrors the order of concrete walls and floor plates. Narrow skylights project lines of light at oblique angles through space. At the cliff-edge, the solidity of concrete floors is left behind. A steel-framed, wooden deck cantilevers into the air. While an uninterrupted expanse of glass takes in distant, sublime views of the Strait, glazed apertures in the floor of the living room deck open vertiginously to the textures and sensual immediacy of beach and ocean below. Millwork elements float freely within the spaces like the flotsam and jetsam on the beach.