Shiny Surfaces Marie Rupert
t his building, on the edge of a 1920s Calgary inner city neighbourhood, Ramsay, is also on the edge of the decaying industrial zone that once held Calgary’s stockyards, feed lots and assorted oil industry plants. Although flanked by very small bungalows, the lot is zoned commercial/mixed use and takes its cue from the 1910 Co-op Feeds, a block away, that now holds a number of artists’ studios. As the lot is zoned commercial, zero lot line conditions apply as long as the walls are non- combustible. For these, Smith + Co used an insulated concrete form system— R50 below grade and between R35 above. The actual system used, the Advantage Wall TM Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) System consists of cast- in-place concrete sandwiched between two layers of styrofoam. The east wall is a sheer three storey sheet of steel siding, sheathing the ICF wall. It is a tough move, unapologetic about its height (34 feet) and very beautiful with it. It reflects light on what was quite a dreary industrial roadway and simultaneously protects the building and the edge of the neighbourhood. The building is divided in a front/back way. Three storeys of studio and office space proj - ect in a transparent bay at the front on the street, and at the back, on the lane, is a three storey house — a main living area with an exterior deck, an upper floor with bedrooms and laundry, and a third floor mechanical room and outside roof garden. It all sits over an undergound garage and storage area. The site is a standard 33’ x 120’ Calgary lot, and this project demonstrates precisely what Calgary has so far not been good at — inner city densification on a lot by lot basis. The allowable building envelope is filled completely. Steel joists, concrete slabs, ICF walls, the building is as harsh and as beautiful as an Alberta winter.
The east wall combines all the elements of effi - ciency, strength, secu- rity and privacy, plus shade to the patio.
Smith + Co Studio, Calgary Alberta, consists of three Architectural Technologists, Chuck Smith (design), Cody Dunn (production) and Marie Rupert (construction manager) and one Interior Designer, Laura Fenniak.
38
O n S ite review
S urface
I ssue 9 2003
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator