Much has been said on the “City of Glass” in Vancouver. As usual, some people love our shiny and reflective city while others moan about how boring and simple the architecture is.

There is no doubt that Vancouver architecture will never speak the same language as Europe, Asia or the Middle East. Even the way in which our city is organized is different than these much older, historical cities. This is not to say, however, that our architecture should be considered less interesting or less authentic. Our City of Glass has been created for homeowners to take advantage of the beautiful 360 degree views including our mountains and water. We live in one of the most beautiful areas in the world and therefore our glass window walls allow us to take in as much of it as we can. Our homes have also come down in size over the past few decades meaning that all of that extra light makes for a larger feeling 450sf home. As home sizes get smaller to help with affordability, the glass construction also does its part as glass is less expensive that many materials and allows for faster construction. Affordability has also meant that complicated spinning, turning, bridged or round buildings tend to be fairly risky as these architectural “features” do indeed come with a cost.

In addition to its boring repetition, the other major argument to using less glass is its inefficiencies, particularly for a city attempting to achieve global green status. There is no doubt that glass exteriors are less efficient than its counterparts. The City of Vancouver is now pushing hard regulations on the amount of glass on new buildings mandating the change. Rather than simply deleting glass all-together, however, a greater focus on improving glass technology would allow for its continued use and integration with other materials. I would hope that our own municipal government would aim to keep some of the ‘historical’ architecture which has made up our city before completely moving forward with new direction.

I dare say that those who simply blanket Vancouver with a boring architecture label are those that do not appreciate the architecture we have and where it has come from. We can always be pushing for more, but acceptance and appreciation for what we have in this amazing city is welcome also. One simply only needs to cross a bridge to get away from the glass towers which make up a very small portion of our landscape in Vancouver to find 100 year old character homes, new westcoast contemporary construction, 50 year old bungalows, the profusely discussed “Vancouver Special” of the 70’s and 80’s and everything in between.

Look around, our history although shorter than many, is all around us and is deserving of pride.

Irshaad Ahmad