User:Shengyucai/Peter Cardew

Peter Cardew (born at Guildford, England June 8, 1939) is a British-Canadian architect. He is the principle of award-wining Peter Cardew Architects based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Cardew has been widely recognized for the excellence of design. His portfolio includes projects ranging across different scales, including single family housing, schools, art galleries, office buildings, and exhibition Buildings, etc. He is the recipient of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal in 2012. Many critics regard him as an "architect's architect" for his innovative exploraation of structure, materiality, and spatial experiences.

Early Life and Education
Born in 1939, Peter Cardew grew up in the suburban of Surrey, England. Some of his earliest childhood memories were filled with terrors of World War II. He moved into a safer refuge in Lancashire during wartime. Cardew stated that he was inclined to use bare concrete in his architecture as it resonated with childhood feelings of safety.

Peter Cardew attended Kingston College of Art in the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames in England in 1958. Prior to his completion on the Diploma in Architecture in 1965, he took a year off to work on a exhibition pavilion with Max Bächer Architect in Stuttgart, West Germany during 1961 to 1962. Following working for a couple of small firms after his graduation, Cardew worked as a project architect with Roman Halter & Associates in London, England until the year of 1966. In the same year, despite an offer of a partnership at a young age, he decided to emigrate to Vancouver, Canada.

1967-1980: Tenures with Rhone & Iredale Architects
Peter Cardew gravitated to Rhone & Iredale Architects after he arrived in Vancouver in 1967. Rhone & Iredale Architects was considered as an innovative architectural firm at that time which has incubated many notable architects - Richard Henriquez, Peter Busby, Rainer Fassler, and Miller & Hull to name a few. During Cardew's tenures with Rhone & Iredale where he became a partner in 1974, he contributed to a few fine designs, including the Crown Life Building and the False Creek Row Houses.

Crown Life Plaza, Vancouver, 1978
Peter Cardew is the project architect of Crown Life Plaza when he served as a partner for Rhone & Iredale. The project was commissioned by the Regina-based Crown Life Insurance Company which is located on 1500 West Georgia Street, serving as the gateway to Vancouver's central downtown area. This triangular 20-storey office building is shaped by its unique site where Vancouver's urban grid meets the harbor-facing street. Characterized by glass cladding and concrete core, the building rests on a brick plinth, showing the rich materiality of the properties. the plaza features a reflecting pool, a cascading waterfall and one-storey retail pavilion that imitates the same footprint of the office tower.

1980 - Present: Peter Cardew Architects
As Rhone & Iredale was closing in 1980. Peter Cardew established his private eponymous practice in Vancouver. Unlike many successful architectural firms, his practice remains small, low-profile, and limited in size and amount of projects, so that Peter could maintain significantly involved to assure the quality of work. Some notable former employees include Russell Acton, Michael Kothke, Rob Grant, David Scott, and Elizabeth Shotton, many of whom have moved on and established their own successful careers.

C.N. Pavilion, Expo 86, Vancouver, 1986
During a transformative decade while Vancouver hosted Expo 86, Peter Cardew designed C.N. (Canadian National) Pavilion to showcase the Canadian National Railways. Cardew took on the socially interactive architecture and providing generous public spaces. Situated along the downtown waterfront, the design of the pavilion well addressed its intention, context, circulation, and functions. It was conceived as a fully exposed steel framework wrapping around a cylinder theatre which could only be entered by a bridge. Because of the poor site condition of the site, Cardew designed the main structure as a grand steel canopy suspended by a gantry system with three foundation locations. This structural design not only embraced the sounding beautiful harbour views, but also provided better accessibility for visitors. This pavilion took cues from 19th century railway terminals and counterpointed the traditional design of exposition pavilion at that time.

This outstanding exhibition pavilion received the Canadian Architect Award of Excellence in 1985.

Stone Band School, Stone Indian Reserve NO. 1, British Columbia, 1992
Completed to serve the community of Chilcotin region in central British Columbia, Stone Band School houses a library, offices, classrooms for kindergarten and grade levels, and a yet unbuilt gymnasium for a second phase. The surrounding topography, kikwilli vernacular cultures, and community lifestyle became the driving forces behind the design. The building appears quite horizontal responding to the contextual land form. Clusters of classrooms and offices are placed around a central gathering core, illuminated by a glazed conical skylight which is assembled of peeled fir poles.

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, 1995
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is one of Cardew's finest works. It is configured by the plaza it shared with other arts faculties on the University of British Columbia's campus. The exterior of the art gallery is manipulated carefully to reflect programs, circulation and site conditions. The main entrance faces tree-lined boulevard, and the other entrance within the shared plaza accommodates loading dock with a suspended canopy. The open interior arrangement allows administrative offices on mezzanine floor to overlook gallery space. Cardew also used two pivoting walls to enhance flexibility.

The Belkin Gallery won a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Governor General’s Medal for Architecture in 1999.

Peter Cardew: Ordinary Buildings
Peter Cardew: Ordinary Buildings was published as the accompanying catalogue for the works of Peter Cardew exhibited at the Charles H. Scott Gallery in Vancouver in 1996.

The publication features eight projects, supported by essays, photographic materials and architectural drawings.

Others
Peter Cardew is very active in academics and architectural education. He has been as an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, the University of Calgary, Washington State University, the University of Texas at Austin. He has also widely lectured across continents, including North America, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Cardew was selected as chairman of the City of Vancouver Urban Design Panel in 1978.

Exhibitions of Cardew's works have toured in Canada and America.

Awards
Canadian Architect Awards, Award of Excellence (1977, 1980, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2006)

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Festival of Architecture Award of Merit (1980)

Architectural Institute of British Columbia Design Award (1982)

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Governor General’s Medal for Architecture (1982, 1999)

Architectural Institute of British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Architecture (1999, 2005)

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal (2012)