Featured Project: Treehouse Residence, Vancouver, BC

Ava GreyMarch 31, 2023

0 18 3 minutes read

Tree Residence
Vancouver, BC, Canada
45,000 sf. Greenroofs & 1,400 sf. Green Facades
(I see)

Greenroofs.com Featured Project March 30, 2023

Recently hydroseeded. Image via Residence Trees

Biodiverse defiant living architecture has become such a popular trend in our built urban environments, and rightly so: nature’s affirmation and revocation of biophilia is much needed beauty and joy in our hectic lives, plus urban life takes much needed wildlife habitat space.

Here’s a case in point for our Featured Project: The Treehouse, which offers tons of space for all kinds of creatures.

Image: Architek Group

Plus, it’s amazing to see social housing space attributed to high-end properties! A big shout out goes out to the City of Vancouver, BC and developer, Larco Investments, for their forward thinking.

And thanks to Architek Group for sharing their beautiful work with their wonderful video and photos!

Arbutus Residence’s green roof in June 2021. Image: Architek Group

excerpt [only] video from the Featured Project Series. See the full Greenroofs.com Project Profile:

Located in Vancouver’s prime west side, within one of British Columbia’s most desirable neighborhoods, Phase 1 of The Arbutus Residences consists of 8-story Block A and 7-story Block B concrete buildings. Once a 1970s-era indoor mall, the multi-building renovation of the shopping center was developed by Larco Investments.

Designed by Dialog Architecture, this LEED Gold collection of homes features 13 distinct green roofs scattered throughout the sprawling multi-residential housing complex, which also boasts over approximately 100,000 square feet of commercial retail space below.

Image: Tree

Tree Residence via Facebook

Featuring studio, 1, 2, and 3-bedroom homes and townhouses, The Arbutus Residences offers access to more than 1,500 square feet of private amenities from rooftop terraces to recreational facilities.

The seven-acre Arbutus Village redevelopment, now known as Arbutus Center, also has below-market affordable housing. One hundred residents will live in the complex’s 125 affordable homes in Building A, named “the cave” by the Musqueam First Nation.

Present residence in the Arbutus Center building at 4105 Arbutus Street, Vancouver. Image: City of Vancouver via the Daily Hive

The Architek Group It is a challenge to create meadows like the green roofs of the countryside. In general, green roofs increase acreage in size and include biodiverse plantings that attract bees and other pollinators, insects, birds, and more. Great care was taken to select plants that would create a thriving green roof ecosystem. Twenty-five species of flowers and plants have been selected to provide an ideal shelter of diversity and attraction to the urban wildlife population.

Residents of Arbutus had a collaborative green roof built that took a year and a half to complete. Architek Group installed and maintained the green roof and provided design assistance to landscape architects, PWL Group Landscape Architects. Architek is also installed, Jakob Rope Systems The green spaces at Arbutum residences include a jasmine and chocolate vineyard, about 1,400 square feet in total.

Image: Architek Group

Residents enjoy the convenience and comfort of access to outstanding amenities boasting a fitness center, children’s play area, party room, and a beautiful courtyard with a landscaped BBQ and perfect seating for intimate and friendly gatherings. And above the roofs there are also beautifully naturalized meadows with a green roof providing ecological cover.

An incredible array of pollinator and insect species are attracted to the pollen and nectar of the lush flower meadows. The performance results of Arbut’s residential roofs speak for themselves.

Tree Residence via Facebook

Image: Architek Group

Year: 2021
master; Larco Investments
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Program building: many uses
Greenroof Type: Semi-intensive
Reason: I suggest a single source
Size: 45,000 sq.ft.
slopes; 1%
Greenwall Type: Green Façade
Reason: I suggest a single source
Size: 1,400 sq.ft.
slopes; 100%
Access: Accessible and inaccessible, Secret