Arcsmith
A home set into the forested hillside

ProjectsResidentialVancouver2021

Ridgeline Residences

Forty-two terraced homes stepping down a forested slope, each with its roof as the neighbour's garden.

Location
Vancouver, Canada
Completion
2021
Built area
12,400 m²
Plot size
4.6 ha
Status
Completed
Client
Ridgeline Partners

The project

ServicesArchitecture, Landscape, Masterplanning
Units42 homes, 2 to 4 bedrooms
StructureCLT panels on concrete podium
Canopy retained82 percent
LandscapeWith Hapa Collaborative

The site falls 38 metres from road to creek through second-growth forest. Rather than clear it, we mapped every tree over 30 cm and threaded the homes between them, stepping the terraces so that each roof becomes the garden of the house above.

Homes are built in mass timber with a shared parking deck buried at the road. There are no driveways in the development; residents walk down through the forest on a boardwalk that doubles as the fire access route.

Stormwater runs across the roofs and through a chain of rain gardens to the creek, which now supports returning salmon for the first time in a decade.

A timber home lit in the evening
A terrace home at dusk.Fig. 01
A cabin among snow-covered trees
Winter on the upper terrace.Fig. 02
Typical unit planLIBRARY7 M2STUDIO10 M2GALLERY11 M2BED 0218 M2HALL9 M2KITCHEN15 M2TERRACE20 M2COURT24.0024NPLAN — LEVEL 001:100 · A-100ARCSMITH
A typical three-bedroom unit plan.Fig. 03
A bright room with a view of the trees
Living room, forest on three sides.Fig. 04
Timber cladding detail
Cedar cladding, left to weather.Fig. 05

Approach

We kept 82 percent of the tree canopy by treating the survey as the site plan.

Every home has three orientations, so the terraces never feel like a row.

Recognition

  • Lieutenant Governor of BC Award, Merit 2022

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