Spectrum House
Please join us in Lions Bay, West Vancouver for a viewing of the Spectrum House.
The Spectrum House is a local example of “color-block” architecture inspired by modernist Mexican architect Luis Barragán. Designed in 1979 by Ken Turnbull as his own personal residence, the Spectrum House uses a range of contrasting colours and dramatic framing of natural light to create a playful tension between the rugged landscape and interior spaces.
Built of wood and glass, suffused with light and oriented to southern ocean views, the Spectrum House displays characteristic features: 30ft ceilings, a central skylight, and the privacy of half an acre of raw forested land.
The Spectrum House has inspired generations of creatives and is now ready for its next custodians.
225 Mountain Dr
Lions Bay, West Vancouver, BC
Neighbourhood
Lions Bay
Designer
Ken Turnbull
Designed and Built
1979
Price
$2,399,000
Specification
”Color-block” Architecture
Program
West Coast Modern
Floors
3 Level
Rooms
3 Bed 2.5 Bath
Building
2,863 sqft
Lot
22,433 sqft
Spectrum House Influences:
Luis Barragán and “Color-block” Architecture
The Spectrum House, with its contrasting colours and dramatic framing of natural light, reflects the influences from the work of preeminent modernist Mexican architect Luis Barragán (1902-1988). Barragán’s distinct oeuvre delineates typical clean lines of the Modernist movement, combining it with a sensual and surreal use of light, both natural and artificial.
Built upon the philosophy of Le Corbusier, Barragán’s work makes use of rustic and traditional materials, bright colours, and optical illusions to evoke emotion in ways that the cold functionalism of the Bauhaus school perhaps lack. His ingenious placement of windows and space openings allows for light to be conducted as part of the symphony of space, adding movement to the otherwise static structures.
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