Buildings by flamboyant Di Castri jarred with their neighbours on fusty late-Victorian streetscapes. An exhibition of his work is at Wentworth Villa until Sept. 10.
Even among the group of young architects who were transforming Victoria’s post-war urban landscape with their ambitious designs, John Di Castri was an outlier.
Buildings by Di Castri jarred with their neighbours on the fusty late-Victorian downtown streetscapes. Di Castri constantly challenged long-held local building traditions and the new work of his more constrained contemporaries. Goff immersed his students in a radical brand of highly innovative Expressionist design, pushing Wright’s “organic” idea of architecture to new limits. Goff encouraged his students find their own design vocabulary, but he believed personal expression should be rooted in the site and place, as if organically embedded in it.
He started his practice in 1950, first in partnership with F.W. Nichols, then, in 1952, on his own. Victoria was poised at the edge of a multi-decade building boom as the “boomer generation” came of age. Aspirations were unbounded. A polygon plan supports a diamond-form roof truss system that seems inspired by wooden airframe technology. A massive masonry chimney slices diagonally through the body of house as if to pinion the complex roof forms in flight.
West Coast Modern Style houses usually featured open post-and-beam construction, flat or gentle sloped roofs and large windows opening into the landscape. Di Castri preferred to establish a theme drawn from nature, such as organic intersecting curves. His drawings, both in plan and elevation, often reveal complex mathematical structures that underpin, indeed discipline, many of the designs: octagonal grids, layered equilateral triangles and, in particular, a common reference, the 15-degree angle.
Some — including churches such as St. Patrick’s in Oak Bay, residences such as the Watts home, hovering above its granite bluff in Uplands, or Windsor Utley’s “Castle” in 1967, nestling into the conifer woodland on a Salt Spring Island foreshore — exhibit the drama of a visual crescendo.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
New 129-room extended-stay hotel coming to Victoria airport landsThe 129-room, three-storey hotel, which is part of the Marriott brand, is slated to open in spring 2025
Read more »
New 129-room extended-stay hotel coming to Victoria airport landsThe 129-room, three-storey hotel, which is part of the Marriott brand, is slated to open in spring 2025
Read more »
Victoria police searching for man convicted of second-degree murderPolice in Victoria are searching for a man who is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.
Read more »
Victoria community garden becomes permanent fixture in honour of Dr. Bonnie HenryA Victoria community garden born during the COVID-19 pandemic has not only doubled in size, it’s been declared a new permanent fixture in James Bay – garnering calls to action from others to do the same.
Read more »
Bogus B.C. nurse faces new charges in Greater VictoriaBrigitte Cleroux faces new charges of fraud over $5,000, impersonation, use of forged documents and assault in connection with a View Royal clinic on Vancouver Island.
Read more »
Road closures and routes for Tour de Victoria bike eventMore than 2,000 will cyclists hit the road for Ryder Hesjedal’s Tour de Victoria on Saturday.
Read more »