Whether 6 one-bedrooms, 3 two-bedrooms, two family apartments, or a 200-square-meter “sky villa” – very much is possible, and very little has to be permanent.

Platforms For Life – Transferability and making of a socially viable environment. The proposed buildings bring significant density and micro communities to urban infill sites, as small as a single family house lot, providing an alternative scale (the missing middle) of medium density development while counteracting the typical dichotomy between high rise and low rise low density living. The building is designed to create transitional massing to mediate scale while catalyzing community.

How can we synthesize and manage the complexities required of a system with the objective to co-evolve with the forces of societal change in order to create buildings with lasting usefulness while overcoming the complete risk averseness and resulting lack of innovation in development, planning, financing and construction? Through synthesis, digital parametric control and platform systems technology we are creating choice and predictability where there are typically one-offs and uncertainty.

The adaptable timber panelized construction allows for versatility in unit layouts and the building mass, creating a variegated expression.

Proposed MONAD_R prototype – to be built – City of Vancouver’s Rental100 affordable housing program.

People/Innovation – Adaptable cluster for broad range of homes and community functions.

Community – Redefined courtyard typology with vertical gardens – Community Roofs + Urban.

Future Iteration – Empowering people and urban communities with broadly shared infrastructure.

Planet – Eco-Sys – Renewable energy, net zero and passive house.

Prosperity – Scalability, adaptability and transferability from 3-12 stories and 10-100m lot width.

Innovation – Creation of software program for interactive parametric direct Design-to Fabrication.

Innovation – EcoSys – Adaptable prefabricated cluster components using machined mass timber panels.

Winners of the Holcim Awards Silver 2017 (l-r): Cynthia Wilson, Oliver Lang and James Ko for a modular midrise housing project in Vancouver.

Presentation to the Holcim Awards Silver winners (l-r): Member of all five regional Awards juries, Marc Angélil, Professor of Architecture & Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich); Pascal Casanova, Member of the Executive Committee of Holcim responsible for North America including Mexico; Oliver Lang, Cynthia Wilson and James Ko winners of the Silver Award for a modular midrise housing project in Vancouver; René Thibault, CEO LafargeHolcim Western Canada.

Holcim Awards Gold, Silver and Bronze winning teams: Eric Mahoney, Haibin Tan, Constance Bodurow and Will Bright (Gold); Frano Violich, Shawna Meyer and Sheila Kennedy from Kennedy & Violich Architecture (Bronze); and Oliver Lang, Cynthia Wilson and James Ko from LWPAC + Intelligent City (Silver).

Platforms For Life - Team LWPAC Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture and Intelligent City.