by slow road, pt 6
The next morning, refreshed, rested and well-fed by our B&B hostess, we said goodbye to lovely Lilloeet Lake and headed south to Whistler. It had been quite a few years since our last visit and we were amazed how much it had grown, of course largely due to the Winter Olympics in 2010. Our goals were to visit two very special buildings which had been built that year.
The first was the Whistler PassivHaus. Please read about its design in this informative article. After being on display during the Olympics, it is now a bike rental shop in summer with cross-county ski rentals in winter, along with a coffee shop. Upstairs is a large open space available for meetings and conferences.
We have had a long time interest in architecture and alternative energy efficient home designs. We incorporated a passive solar design in our home which we renovated years ago. Building technologies have really developed a lot since then. We loved the use of finely crafted wood in this display. The windows and doors are of exceptional quality. We wished we had had those available when we built. Husband is quite keen on this design which is slowly taking off here after much success in Europe, but I say we’re getting too old to start building again.
Next and last post in this series will be about an amazing and gorgeous cultural place we visited in Whistler.
Added later: If you’ve missed the other posts in the slow road series and would like to visit them, they are here:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, interlude and the finale.
July 19, 2013 in Canada and BC, Culture by Marja-Leena
Inspiring timberwork, of the highest quality.
Tom, it really is; that impressed me so much.
If I owned a house it would be very nice to have an energy efficient one but I think I’d prefer something a bit more funky than this spare and elegant building. Something by Hundertwasser or Soleri would be ideal for my tastes. I’m guessing your house is quite perfect for you but there’s always room for some improvement, isn’t there?
Susan, this display building is certainly not home-like for it’s designed to be more of a public building, especially the starkness of the exterior. But imagine not having a furnace or air conditioner?! I’m not sure how adaptable a passive house design would be for something funky like a Hundertwasser though. Our house is not at all as energy efficient as this. We do like having lots of glass – nice in our rainy seasons but not in this heat wave. Still, less glass would be a difficult adjustment for me to make, I think, especially the solarium.