Farsi Tour: Dreamers: The Art of Revery Architecture

Join us for a guided tour of our current exhibition, Dreamers: The Art of Revery Architecture, led in Farsi

About the exhibition
What is the value of dreams in a profit-driven world of rational needs? Revery Architecture’s response is that the aesthetic imagination enriches our built environment not only for the individual end-user, but for the wider public. In keeping with this credo, the studio is now part of a new West Coast paradigm that reasserts the value of art at the heart of architecture.
Venelin Kokalov, the design principal at Revery Architecture, immigrated from Bulgaria to Canada in 2002 with his partner in life and work, Stani Kokalova. Shortly after settling in Vancouver, he approached architect Bing Thom for a position at his firm, and the pair spent the next 14 years in an intensely creative collaboration. Many of the prominent buildings shown here began their life under Bing Thom Architects. After Thom’s death in 2016, Kokalov assumed leadership of the practice, now known as Revery Architecture. Kokalov’s tight-knit team includes studio manager Stani Kokalova, and several dozen architects, technicians, and support staff.
Kokalov begins each project with a prolific series of hand drawing and sketching, an artisanal approach considered obsolete by some architects in the age of advanced rendering software. However, he maintains that hand-drawing frees the imagination to generate the architectural forms that rise to the level of art. The firm’s curvilinear approach to form is not always the most inexpensive way to build. But their visual resonance offers a balm to the stark regularity of the contemporary city, with design that celebrates the poetics of form.

About the artist
Venelin Kokalov was born and raised in Bulgaria. At age 15, he started architectural school and in 1993 received a master’s degree in structural engineering at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia. Many summers of jobs on construction sites rounded out his formal education and enriched his technical confidence. After practicing in Sofia for several years and winning an international design competition, he immigrated to Canada in 2002 with his partner in life and work, Stani Kokalova. He then joined Vancouver-based Bing Thom Architects, where he assumed a leading design role in the firm’s acclaimed cultural, academic, and community buildings. When Bing Thom died in 2016, Kokalov stepped into the Principal-in-Charge role and changed the name of the firm to Revery Architecture, reflecting its mission to create a balance between creative reverie and technical precision. With a background firmly rooted in art and craftsmanship, Venelin is respected for his distinctive ability to weave together established and emerging technologies in engaging and innovative ways.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Patterson Rozee Family Foundation.