The Kiyooka Residence

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A residence for artist/poet Roy Kiyooka, his wife Monica and family on Riverside Drive in North Vancouver.

The site was a heavily treed, very steep slope down to the river with almost no normal building area at the road access at the top of the lot. The only space available to build was on the slope.

The construction system is solid 4 inch thick cedar planks splined together in a manner first pioneered in the Eijgel residence.

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A unique innovation is the internal locus or heat/circulation spine of the house. Starting from the vertical center of the spine is the

  • Furnace flue
  • Surrounding the furnace flue is the hot air plenum - gaining extra heat exchanges from the flue
  • Next is the vertical ring of stair supports
  • Then the open treads of the spiral star
  • Between which the hot air ducts take off to the various parts of the perimeter of the home
  • The open stair functions as a natural cold air return

The Kiyooka Residence is featured on pages 72 - 75 in "Architecture - Part of the God Dance"