The Model
Have I mentioned that the lads at Measured have become the “it” firm of western Canadian architecture? Somewhere between our seeing the article in the Sun and now, they have won a Western Living award (Designer of the Year), a “Greenest of the Green” award from Dwell (design porn) Magazine in the US, and have been featured in every corner of the press. The good news is, their business is growing. The challenge, for a while anyway, was getting traction on our project.
Thankfully we have a very strong affinity for these guys and we know we’ve made the right call. That feeling was proven yet again as we went into project meeting #2 in mid September. Krista, Jack, and I were leaving for Winnipeg that afternoon so we stopped by Wolfe Ave for a quick update in the morning. As we walked up the driveway I saw Clinton hunched over a small grey model of a house. I turned to Krista and said something like “I bet you that’s our house and he was hoping to be finished before we got here.” And at that moment he turned around and his face said it all… We learned as we got inside that the primary model maker (not Clinton) would have joined us for the meeting but she was catching up on her sleep. Excellent, I thought, they’re really working this thing! The model, and the new ideas that drove it, were a subtle but significant move forward from the early massing diagrams of the summer. Clinton and Matthew’s vision for the project was clarifying and things are clearly coming together. I spent a good amount of time staring down the model to get a feel for the structure, the views, and the interaction with the lot. At the meeting we also met Luke, a new member of the Measured team who is looking at environmental modeling of the house – using computer tools to assess solar gain, air flow, and related environmental conditions that can help us reduce the heating and cooling loads common in new homes. We want this project to be as “green” as possible and one reason we’ve hired smart designers is to reduce the long-term environmental footprint (and related operating costs). We’re willing to pay a bit more up-front to be better off down the road.
Another great meeting – the advances in the design have us pretty excited!
I've included a detail of one of the drawings below. As we post artifacts of the design, we'll likely stick to details or partial views to protect the intellectual property of the folks doing the work. We'll see how it goes and change the plan to fit the needs of the project.
