Transforming a former storage space into an exhibition hall, “Gesamtkunstwerk” opens this weekend, showcasing Vancouver’s architectural coming of age.

Gesamtkunstwerk will provide visitors with an opportunity to look at the city through its building design—past, present, and future.

Bjarke Ingels’s $200-million twisting Vancouver House starts as a triangle at the base but turns into a rectangle higher up.

The exhibition, designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, includes scale models, see-through drawings, videos, 3D wall texts, and recorded narration from city-building visionaries.

A 1955 pencil sketch imaging a “futuristic” Vancouver by visionary architect Arthur Erickson (top right) headlines the free exhibition.

“We wanted you to lift up the hood of the car and look under the engine, so to speak,” says Ian Gillespie of Westbank Projects Corp. “Think of this exhibition as an archaeological mine.”

Vancouver House, a 52-storey twisting tower to be built by Westbank Development, will rise above the city next to the Granville Bridge on-ramp at Pacific and Howe streets and will include 500 units and commercial space.

This scaled model includes the the public artwork Spinning Chandelier by artist Rodney Graham. The 4 x 6-metre chandelier will be on public display at the Gesamtkunstwerk exhibition beginning on March 22, 2014.