HOMES + DESIGN • PIXEL PERFECT
Pattern Play
On the left side of the exterior, the team installed conventional western red cedar that would be left to silver over time. On the right, stained yellow cedar shingles create a pixelated pattern that was laid-out in in a 10-by-10-foot pattern.
“I
don’t get it,” said one passerby back in 2018 as he walked past this home in its near-completion stage and checked out the boldly colourful shingles installed in their angled, pixel-like pattern on the home’s exterior. The general contractor started to explain the vision—a study in contrasts, the layers that start outside and make their way inward, the exploration of materiality that’s in everything from the design of the cabinet pulls to the precise patterning of those shingles. “Oh no, you don’t understand,” said the man, smiling. “I don’t want to get it.” Designed by the team at Measured Architecture led by Clinton Cuddington (and now completed and happily occupied by a family of four), it’s a home meant to challenge the everyday ideas of what a house is supposed
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to look like in this east side neighbourhood of Vancouver—but it’s also meant to delight, to surprise, to be a welcome and neighbourly addition to these streets, just as its owners hoped it would be. The double pitched roof on the building: that’s classic East Van. The pixelated front? That’s less so: at least not yet. But it’s meant to push the local narrative a few inches. “The most important thing is that the clients wanted and had the courage to do something interesting,” says Cuddington. “They wanted to play with a multitude of materials and colours, but they did not want it to be perceived as the mothership landing.” It should be fresh and interesting—but not alien. Shift House, as Cuddington came to call it, was so named for its modern take on the classic Vancouver Special design. The property descends 10 feet from street side to backyard: from the front door, there’s a “main level pod” of home office and a guest room. The sleeping quarters are