Natural Inspiration The organic forms of the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre roof showcase a dramatic award winner
Inspired by the images of orchids made by Ger- man photographer Karl Blossfeldt, the design- ers of the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, created a roof whose organic, undulating shape fi ts perfectly with the natural environment. The inspiration extended to the judges, who
marveled at the design. Harley Grusko, IA-AAA, LEED BD+C, was the lead project designer and a designer at Perkins+Will Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia. His team used CADD software to create the petal-like roof system. “In many ways the building has a very ‘raw’ aesthetic,” he says. “This is largely due to an unusual synthesis of being modern and natural at the same time, which was done quite intentionally. We selected most materials with as little fi nish as possible in order to express the material as close as possible to its raw, natural state. In the specifi c case of the aluminum, its natural sheen works exceptional well to high- light the roof edge as well as tolerant enough to accept the curving profi le.” The structure of the roof is wood and covered
with Alucobond naturAL Aluminum Composite Material (ACM) from 3A Composites USA Inc., Statesville, N.C. The total size of the roof is more than 12,000 square feet and includes multiple petals that radiate out from a central skylight. “The undulation of the roof was crafted to be bold yet elegant in scale and proportion so as to feel appropriate given the activity it covers below,”
BUILDING AND ROOFING AWARDS BEST METAL ROOFING | NEW CONSTRUCTION By Paul Deffenbaugh, Editorial Director
says Grusko. “We had minimum and maximum elevations to respect, as well as limitations in radii imposed by the Glulam wood structure. We de- signed various valleys to occur at roof edges or at supports to aid in capturing or diverting rainwater and mounds to highlight the entries and induce stack effect.” The design was incredibly complicated and
Grusko employed several 3-D digital tools to pro- duce all the design work and documentation. Keith Panel Systems, Vancouver, fabricated
and installed the ACM panels, using a custom attachment system. “Our challenge,” says Doug Dalzell, general manager, “was not to make art out of metal, but to cover [the building] with metal and maintain its shape. … The material had to go up and down and sideways at the same time to achieve the undulating roof lines. There are both positive and negative curves in this design.” At one point, the roof dives down into wall
form and terminates at the ground. The effect of this is to connect the roof and building to the landscape. “We imagined a roof that would feel as an extension of the surrounding gardens,” says Grusko. “When we imaged a building as a land- scape, we started to break the barriers of tradition- al construction, intentionally blurring what is roof and what are walls.” The effect is a visitor centre that is on target to
achieve the stated goal of increasing traffi c at the world-renowned gardens.