Ought at the VAG

Reece Terris' sprawling and long-gestating installation, Ought Apartment, is set to launch at the Vancouver Art Gallery on May 6.

Rising up the full height of the main atrium in the gallery, the project reassembles six different apartment sections dating from the 1950's to the present. Terris is seeking to reassess our relationship to architecture as well as the spaces and things that surround us everyday. The various decades represented also give contrast and insight into how these relationships change over time. 

Canadian Architect recently featured a preview of the work.

Part of the gallery's ongoing regionally-focused NEXT series, it's an ambitious and compelling project by a rising local artist.

Photo: Henri Robideau and Vancouver Art Gallery.

Thornton Residence

One of Vancouver's earliest modernist houses is on the market. Peter Thornton designed the Thornton residence for his mother on a bucolic lane in West Vancouver in 1939 and it still retains much of its original form and character. See realtor Lionel Lorence's website for photos. 

Along with the later Binning residence (1941), this early example of Thornton's work represents the local vanguard of design that was influenced by the broader currents of modernism unfolding in Europe at the time. Thornton's knowledge of European Modernism was first-hand, having studied architecture in London from 1933-38 prior to moving to Vancouver.

Simple post and beam construction, generous use of glass and a flat roof- all soon to become standard features of West Coast Modernism- here make one of their first appearances in Vancouver.