City of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Canadian-born Alison Brooks, from the UK-based Alison Brooks Architects, together with IBI Group, was appointed by Rize Alliance Properties Ltd. to design the one million sq ft mixed-use development in Surrey City Centre.
Brooks’ design of The Passages, as the project is known, offers a radical new model for the urbanization of North America’s suburbs which was driven by a desire to create a set of tall buildings that merged to form a beautiful skyline, while also providing humane and diverse streetscapes.
It was shortlisted for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
This mixed-use scheme at the heart of the emerging City of Surrey in British Columbia re-imagines the development model of towers emerging from a private podium as a permeable pedestrian quarter of diverse building types and uses.
Five public passages lead to a civic square at the scheme’s heart: a place of movement and gathering for both new residents and the project’s wider Surrey constituency.
Working to produce a more inclusive, socially diverse, and economically resilient paradigm shift in Vancouver’s development pattern, the proposal for The Passages on Whalley Boulevard is for an open city block, with free-flowing public space at its heart: a common ground given to a wide range of community, commercial and recreational uses.
The scheme focuses on permeability and public space accessible to all via a series of passages. These lead to an open piazza at its center, integrating high-density housing with informal, meandering lanes, bringing movement through the site.
Ground floor spaces include a community hall, commercial spaces, and co-workspaces at the base of each tower.
The Passages’ six polygonal plan buildings have no front or back; all facades are on display and active, serving as extensions of the public realm. the design proposes three building typologies across the site: Flatiron Towers, Point Blocks, and a timber-framed, mixed-use courtyard Mansion Block, a new typology to the Vancouver housing market.
Together they offer a variety of form and scale, facade, and texture, all contributing to the landscaped passages at grade.
The scheme’s low-rise buildings share the granite material palette of the public realm to form a monolithic urban canvas and a public stage for the 21, 31 and 39 story towers.
In contrast, the three towers’ faceted, directional plan forms and ‘shingled’ iridescent aluminum cladding have a roughness that echoes at a super-scale the texture of British Columbian coastal forests. This organic quality is amplified by the towers’ green, blue and black tones.
Deeply recessed continuous loggias offer every apartment a protective layer: shelter from the near-continuous rain, sun-shading, wind protection and privacy, while 2.7m high ceilings optimize daylight.
A large outcropping of granite provides a focal point in the Central Piazza, a natural surface for climbing, sitting, or adventurous play.
Project: The Passages
Architects: Alison Brooks Architects Ltd.
Associate Architects: IBI Group
Client: Rize Alliance Properties Ltd.
Contractor: Rize Alliance Properties Ltd.
Photographers:Alison Brooks Architects
