Private Residence

Living in Yaletown, which is one of Vancouver's trendy neighbourhoods, means a life in a fast-paced environment mixed with convenience and an endless amount of time for leisure and quietude.

The high density in this downtown neighbourhood brings the comfort of many essential needs and encourages a compact lifestyle that requires the residents to only keep what they must and dispose of unnecessary frivolity.

Encapsulating that downtown lifestyle through design is always a challenge. Limited by various restrictions, scope, and time constraints, the project faces more difficulties as it tries to capture the essence of that lifestyle for this two-bedroom unit. As part of a condominium building, the project needs to adhere not only to the City bylaws but to the strata and management rules and regulations as well, which adds an extra layer of coordination and demands strict adherence to coordination.

After establishing the floor to have the darkest tonal value among the three surfaces, the walls were decided to have a medium tone through the use of grey, and the ceiling to have the lightest tone through the colour white. To punctuate its use and avoid monotony, the dining area wall is painted dark grey, which is related to the window and door mullions and the backsplash tiles in the kitchen. This consistency establishes the visual relationship of the different areas in the main space of the unit.

The kitchen and two bathrooms are fitted to have new and better fixtures that help reduce water consumption. Staying within the calm and relaxing colour scheme, these rooms use tiles in cool grey tones and cabinets with white flat panel doors. Quartz is used for all countertop surfaces to ensure less maintenance over the years and to give a sense of efficient luxury to the unit.

Careful coordination with the contractor was initiated from the beginning of the project to ensure the quality of the workmanship, the cleanliness of the shared public areas in the building, the avoidance of noise pollution and property damage. Through efficient communication among the designers, clients, and contractor, the overall renovation was prompt and was finished below the projected cost.