“We knew from the beginning that we wanted this to be mass timber,” says DIALOG’s Lindsay Duthie, describing the early ambitions for The Hive, a striking 10-storey office building that now graces a prominent site overlooking Vancouver’s False Creek Flats. Considering the height and scale of the 15,500-square-metre development, a mass timber structural system presented laudable innovation in itself. For DIALOG and structural engineers Fast + Epp, however, working with wood was table stakes. As the design developed, the team combined a mass timber system with a distinctive — and deceptively radical — honeycomb exoskeleton.

DIALOG worked with structural engineering firm Fast + Epp to develop the mass timber structural system. Its captivating honeycomb-like exoskeleton commands attention from the street and offers those working inside a relatively uncommon amenity: accessible exterior balconies.

“We started out by looking at a post-and-beam scenario, but we also wanted to explore what innovations were possible,” says Duthie, an architect in DIALOG’s Vancouver studio. “Ultimately, we decided to take the seismic resistance elements and move them to the perimeter of the building in the form of brace frames.” By transferring much of the structural load away from the core, the robust glulam brace frame structure allowed for more open and spatially efficient floor plates, accented by glulam beams and columns.

Exposed weather-treated wood soffits introduce an organic warmth to the building. Photo courtesy of Fast + Epp

In lieu of a bulky — and carbon-intensive — concrete core, four CLT shear walls work in concert with the exterior brace frames to create a structurally sound skeleton. “This project does not have concrete cores. In fact, it doesn’t have any concrete above the level two slab, except for the concrete floor topping,” Duthie adds. “All of this really helps to drive down our embodied carbon emissions.” For the designers, the novel building envelope also presented an opportunity to create a signature aesthetic, taking inspiration from one of nature’s most efficient feats of engineering.

Photo courtesy of Fast + Epp

“With those brace frames, we took an approach where we mirrored them in alternating locations, which gave us this kind of honeycomb expression,” says Duthie. Moreover, the pronounced exterior envelope creates space for balconies — a rarity in commercial buildings. “We have a balcony system that follows the honeycomb expression, so every level has access to the outdoors,” says Duthie, noting that the east, south and west elevations all enjoy generous two-metre-deep outdoor spaces. In a rare achievement, the structural timber even extends outdoors, where weather-treated wood soffits frame the thermally broken balconies with a warm, organic presence.It all adds up to an uncommonly engaging civic presence, not to mention the tallest braced-frame mass timber project in North America. And while the honeycomb articulation gives The Hive a distinctive architectural élan, the expansive balconies animate the facade with a comforting human presence. It’s a far cry from the corporate cubicle — or the empty curtainwall.