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Vancouver’s skyline is about to get a unique addition: a ‘soft skyscraper’, clad with shingled panels to create soft, blurred reflections expected to make the building look ephemeral.

The 43-storey tower at 1550 Alberni is designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.

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Kuma described his tower’s shape as organic and unique. On the north and south sides, it will look as if two big scoops have been taken out of the traditional rectangular cuboid form of a tower.

Vancouver Sun

He said that while its shape isn’t based on anything particularly western or Japanese, it is inspired by traditional Japanese buildings that create covered outdoor spaces. He described the tower as an example of a “soft skyscraper” because of the way it takes into account its setting, which includes the street and nearby towers as well as Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains.

“It’s creating semi-outdoor space,” Kuma said. “It creates dialogue between neighbours and the buildings. In that sense, it is a building of relationships not a building of form making.”