didgeree

Absolutely nothing to do with architecture, but I think my new rescue puppy (australian cattle dog/blue heeler) is newsworthy.  She came from the fabulously tireless Terra @ Prarie Animal Rescue Society and required a LONG drive up north to pick her up.  I’d never done that drive before – it’s beautiful country.  I was particularly taken with a stretch of  highway where a fire had gone through and nature was returning.  Blackened trunks stood sentinel over the new bright green growth of conifers below.  Very Group-of-Seven moment and more inspiration for design.  Can’t escape it, especially when you’re trapped in a car with nothing to do but think.  The quiet was awesome!

 

the website

is up and running (www.shelterbelt.ca), thanks to our friends + neighbours freckle creative….the blog will be shifting to there I think, once Patrick gives me the run down on how to post.

Meanwhile, we’re busy working on our Churchill Square LRT canopy, more Derrick Club changes and a couple of houses.  Oh, and suffering through Revit 2010 menu changes.  Some sneak peeks for your entertainment….

but we don’t design arks

2009 started out with some excitement – a flood in the neighboring business which made it’s way into our office.  Fortunately damage in our space was minimal - the presence of the nearby Saskatchewan River has made us wary of the possibility of flood and affected some design decisions.  We just didn’t anticipate a water line in the building would beat the river to it.  Strangely enough, the biggest loss was some millwork trim suspended far above floor level but which nevertheless did not react well to the humidity and tore itself  away from the construction adhesive.  We may have to rip out the drywall on the party wall which is a bit depressing as it’ll mean removing a feature wall containing our power and network….one step forward, two steps back.  The plants were delighted with the increased moisture levels, so maybe there’s a silver lining?

pondering purity

On August 24th of this year Riitta Immonen, one of the co-founders of Marimekko died.  CBC’s “As It Happens” spoke to Ritva Koskennurmi-Sivonen, a lecturer on textiles and clothing at the University of Helsinki, about Ms. Immonen’s revolutionary designs.  Ms. Koskennurmi-Sivonen noted that Ms. Immonen’s designs were often labelled “simple” but that Riitta never used that word herself and rather preferred the word “pure” to describe her work.  That statement resonated with me and has been swirling around in my thoughts since.

We have discussions in our office about what is an edmonton architecture?  How do we create a regionally responsive form and “style” (although I loathe to use the word style as it smacks of consumerism and marketing)?.  There is something in the power of the word pure that gets close to what I’m interested in investigating in my/our work.  The rawness of the Canadian Northern landscape is indeed about purity.  Distilled, our work responds to our landscape which is sky, earth and light.  Above all else it is light – the need to bring it inside in the dark months of winter, the intensity of it reflecting off snow, the clarity of the natural palette.  While I never really look forward to winter I am always awestruck when it arrives and I am once again mesmerized by the amazing range of blues, purples and grey that are present in the shadows of snow drifts.

Somehow an edmonton architecture needs to capture this purity and reflect it.  Respond to the elegance of our light and land.  Simple is a somewhat derogatory word.  Pure embodies the magnificent natural world that surrounds us, even in the city.  The clarity of the North Saskatchewan at this time of year, where the water runs clear and I can see the river bed below.  The straight lines of the aspen trunks, denuded of their golden leaves.  The cloudless sky that shades from almost white at the horizon to a deep, clear blue of infinity above.  Somewhere in these ideas is an emerging language for an Edmonton architecture which is worthy of these surroundings.  Now I just have to articulate it.

fall in edmonton

Granted, it was a few weeks ago, but how can a person not love a fall day like this?  THAT is a quintessential Edmonton blue sky.  Now if only we could do something about those skysquatters.