CLOSE AD ×

Bjarke Ingels designs a pixelated mountain of residences in Toronto

Bjarke Ingels designs a pixelated mountain of residences in Toronto

Just when it seemed that the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) had enough projects on its plate, it looks like the firm’s gone back to the building buffet for a residential complex in Toronto. Backed by developers Westbank and Allied REIT, the as-yet-unnamed project calls for more than 500 apartments spread over 725,000 square feet.

The building consists of 12-foot-by-12-foot “pixilated patterns”—read “cubes”—that are stacked and rotated at 45-degree angles. From straight above, the complex resembles a plain rectangle with a public courtyard in the middle. In reality, the apartments stack and mass to form five peaks ranging in height from 15 to 17 stories, marking a return to Ingels’s favored mountain typology.

The block-wide building will lift up from the sidewalk at three points to allow pedestrians to travel between blocks. Toronto–based landscape architects PUBLIC WORK are collaborating with BIG on the project.

There will be around 13 different floor plans, with a private terrace for each apartment. Ingels, the firm’s founder and principal, explained the design to The Globe and Mail, likening the scale of the project to “a bundle of homes rather than a big new building.” The effect, Ingels explained, is similar to “a Mediterranean mountain town.”

Canadians don’t need to look far for another design precedent. It’s difficult not to draw a comparison between BIG’s proposal and Habitat 67, Moshe Safdie‘s iconic Montreal apartment complex.

CLOSE AD ×