VanPlex Plexperts · BC Multiplex Architect
Gravity Architecture
Featured on VanPlex Plexperts — the curated directory of BC multiplex architects.
Architecture firm (Vancouver + Calgary), Gravity Architecture
Fourplexes and townhouses from a firm with a dedicated missing-middle studio.
Gravity Architecture works in Vancouver and Calgary on residential, commercial, and mixed-use buildings. A sister studio, Inertia Residential Design, handles duplexes, fourplexes, and townhomes.
2014
Gravity Architecture incorporated
20+
People across both offices
2
Provinces (BC + Alberta)
Meet Gravity Architecture
Gravity Architecture grew out of Inertia Residential Design, a Calgary studio started by Stephen Barnecut and Trent Letwiniuk after the two worked together at Alloy Homes. They incorporated Gravity Architecture Corporation in 2014 to take on larger buildings, and by 2018 Gravity had become the main practice while Inertia kept handling small multi-residential and missing-middle work.
The firm runs offices in Calgary and in downtown Vancouver at 1199 West Pender Street. Jim Vasto, an AIBC-registered architect, leads the Vancouver office and is the BC point of contact. Stephen Barnecut runs the Calgary side. The team has grown to more than 20 people across both cities.
On the multi-family side, the firm designs duplexes, fourplexes, townhouses, and rowhouses. Their stated approach is to cut cost where the code allows it, by minimizing firewalls and sprinkler systems where a design can avoid them, while keeping each unit livable.
BC projects in their portfolio include Mount Pleasant 8 (an eight-unit townhouse project), Mills Road Townhouses, West Kelowna Towns, Capital Hill townhouses, and several mixed-use buildings in Langley and on Joyce Street in Vancouver.
Credentials
Why work with Gravity
01
A studio set up specifically for missing-middle work
Their Inertia Residential Design arm focuses on duplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, and rowhouses, separate from the firm’s larger buildings. That means a multiplex project is core work, not a side job squeezed in between high-rises.
02
Cost discipline written into the design approach
The firm says it works to minimize firewalls and sprinkler systems where the code allows. On a fourplex, those two line items move the budget a lot, so designing around them early matters.
03
BC office with an AIBC architect on the ground
Jim Vasto runs the Vancouver office and is registered with the Architectural Institute of BC. Local registration matters because a BC permit set has to be sealed by an AIBC member.
Built work
Mount Pleasant 8
Eight-unit townhouse project, one of the firm’s early multi-residential builds.
Mills Road Townhouses
Townhouse development in British Columbia.
West Kelowna Towns
Townhouse project in West Kelowna, BC.
Capital Hill Townhouses
Townhouse project listed under the firm’s BC middle-housing work.
Frequently asked questions
Does Gravity Architecture design small multiplexes, or only larger buildings?
Do they have an architect registered in BC?
How can they keep multiplex costs down?
Other architects
Bryn Davidson
Built Vancouver's first laneway house in 2010 and its first net-zero laneway in 2012. Lanefab now designs and builds ~10 small-multi-unit projects a year.
Cornerstone Architecture
Vancouver studio founded in 1983 that designed The Heights — an 85-unit Passive House building in Hastings-Sunrise that was the largest in Canada when it went up.
Daniel Clarke
Vancouver architect who works only on Passive House and net-zero homes and multiplexes, with about 24 years of residential experience in Western Canada.
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