VANCOUVER MODERN

Vancouver Modern

A lesser known Arthur Erickson design rediscovered after many years in hiding.

Recently uncovered in a quaint North Vancouver suburb, the Perry Estate of 1963 was the work of acclaimed Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. Though better known for other projects like the Graham House, the Smith House or the Simon Fraser University, all the Erickson staples are present in this project: vast horizontal panes, natural materiality and the bare, simple aesthetics and comfort of domesticity.

Only a few ornaments dot the fully wood-panelled home, most notably the sculpted entryway — an personal trace by artist and resident Billy Reid, a friend of both original owner Frank Perry and Erickson. Perry and Reid, using the house as both home and artist’s enclave, faithfully preserved it along its original features, before passing it on to fellow architectural enthusiast Lorin Allred.

Organised around a patio surrounded by cedar trees and bamboos, the single-storey home gains an added aerial quality through paper screens and soft textiles, subtly referencing a Japanese way of living in a way that Erickson was often known for. Unglazed floor tiles also hint at Japanese techniques, elevating craftsmanship as key to the project’s vernacular. Its low slung ceilings and extended eavestroughs are reminiscent of early Frank Lloyd Wright works, while the naked geometric structure helps to draw parallels with Californian Case Study Houses. In the North Vancouver woodland however, the house feels undoubtedly Canadian.

The Estate appears strongly inserted into its own land, carved out in the mix of moss and pebbles that blanket the roof. It glows with a particular warmth at night, with honeyed hues of wood panels reflecting the soft illuminations that light its various domestic scenes — creating an almost fairytale like effect, all enveloped by the slender trees and clear skies of British Columbia.