DOXA Festival Screening: The Infinite Happiness

One sure-fire way to begin a conversation in Vancouver is to start talking about real estate. In collaboration with Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver exhibition, DOXA is proud to offer this special presentation of The Infinite Happiness. Superstar architect Bjarks Ingel’s designs have set a new standard for innovation, invention, as well as a little bit of eccentricity. But at the heart of one of his most iconic design projects is a very simple idea — community.

Copenhagen’s 8 House was designed to resemble a mountain village, with residents able to see, talk to, and belong to their community. (8 House was awarded the Housing Building of the Year at the 2011 World Architecture Festival.) Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine’s series of films on cities and buildings (other projects include London’s Barbican Centre) have a breezy whimsical way that belies the cool intelligence and well-structured nature of their narratives. The Infinite Happiness unfolds a little like a novel in architectural form, with chapters devoted to kids’ parties, a hike up the building’s grass-covered roof, as well as time to check out the neighbors, which include a group of sheep grazing on the marshland below. Contain your housing lust if you are able. But with cozy apartments, a stunning view of the sea and a bike path that winds its way around all nine floors, it is difficult not to drop everything and move to Denmark. I’m already looking at apartments. -DW

 

---

 

Followed by a discussion with special guest, Architect and Urban Designer, Bruce Haden. Bruce was principal in charge for DIALOG of Westbank Developments’ Vancouver House project, in collaboration with the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). His design work has been recognized globally, particularly for the Governor General’s and World Architecture Festival winning design of the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre in Osoyoos. Recent work includes the new UBC Student Union Building. Until recently Bruce was a partner at DIALOG, a multi-disciplinary design practice with studios in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto.

Bruce has twice chaired the Vancouver Urban Design Panel and has taught at the UBC School of Architecture. He has completed freelance work for CBC Radio with respect to design issues and was the Vancouver correspondent for Canadian Architect Magazine for ten years. He is also a past President of the Board of Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery.