The League presents John Patkau: Material Operations at West Coast Modern Week 2025
VANCOUVER: On July 9th, as part of West Coast Modern Week 2025, pre-eminent Canadian architect John Patkau joins the West Coast Modern League, with the West Vancouver Art Museum and The Polygon Gallery, for a talk exploring the creation of architecture and design through unconventional material practice.
Founded by John and Patricia Patkau, Vancouver-based Patkau Architects is one of Canada’s most celebrated architecture firms. Their recent designs include the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver, and Arbour House in Victoria.
In 2010, following 30 years of conventional material practice, Patkau Architects initiated a formal research program into using commonly available construction materials with modest but unconventional construction methods to produce buildable, expressive forms with inherent structural capacity and evocative identities.
Working directly with materials—bending and breaking them, feeling their texture, mass, and strength—provides a depth of understanding beyond simple visual observation. Material Operations begin with a relatively simple manipulation of a specific construction material and develop through reactions to the resulting transformation. At the most basic level, they follow the formula Material + Force = Form. Initial forms are found, not preconceived, in the way a specific material expresses stress through strain—flexing or failing in particular ways.
Now 15 years on, this investigation has produced numerous innovative projects, and the Princeton Architectural Press publication Patkau Architects: Material Operations. The journey of this investigation will be the focus of John’s presentation.
John Patkau: Material Operations
July 9, 2025 from 7:00–9:00pm
Presented by the West Coast Modern League
with the West Vancouver Art Musem at The Polygon Gallery
Seaspan Pavilion | The Polygon Gallery | 101 Carrie Cates Ct. | North Vancouver • BC
Registration required with suggested $25 donation.
Doors/reception at 7:00pm | Presentation at 7:55pm
