BV20

Description:

What if we as architects looked at designing for sustainability less as the epilogue of a design conversation (inclusion of low-flush toilets, geothermal, triple-pane glazing, etc.) but as a key driver in the overall form of our built environment? In Bjarke Ingels’ 2011 TED talk, “Hedonistic Sustainability,” he states that architecture should be more than just superficial 2D facades, that we need to see architecture as both an ecology and perhaps even an economy. [1]

Together these formal moves allowed us to provide a diversity of housing types (townhome, loft, studio and flat), increase access to light and view for each unit, and perhaps most critically, turned what could’ve been a consortium of mono-functional flat roofs into a polyvalent roofscape or amenityscape. This amenityscape, while satisfying the stringent landscape and amenity space requirements, introduces urban horticulture in the form of private gardens, vegetative roofs, apiaries, etc. at a scale previously unknown to inner city living in Calgary. [2]