Buildings that hold their ground.
Formwork is an architecture practice for clients who want structures with a point of view — designed from the site up, drawn to be built.
EST. 2013 — 48 BUILT WORKS
Selected projects
/ 01
Meridian House
A private residence folded into a steel-and-glass envelope that reads as a single dark plane from the street — and opens entirely to the mountains behind it.
Ridgeline Archive
A regional records building conceived as a landform: board-formed concrete, deep reveals, and daylight brought in only where the collection allows it.
Cordova Exchange
A mid-rise commercial block that gives its ground floor back to the street — double-height glazing, public through-passage, and a facade that keeps its rhythm all the way up.
A short manifesto
/ 02Concrete doesn't apologize. Neither should a building. We design heavy, honest, permanent — and detail it until it feels inevitable.
Approach
/ 03Site first
Every project begins with weeks on the land before a line is drawn. The building answers the site — its light, its weather, its neighbours — not the other way around.
Material honesty
Concrete that shows its formwork. Steel that shows its weld. We specify materials that age into character instead of finishes that age into maintenance.
Drawn to build
Our drawings are instructions, not illustrations. Details are resolved on paper so they never have to be improvised on site — on budget, and on the day promised.
Practice
/ 04A deliberately small studio — nine architects, one shared standard. Small enough that a principal draws on every project. Stubborn enough that nothing leaves the office unresolved.
- Founded
- 2013
- Studio
- Vancouver, BC
- Team
- 9 architects
- Territory
- Pacific Northwest
- Recognition
- Selected regional awards
Build something
that lasts.