Situated on a parcel defined as periphery — a piece of land forgotten by the City of Calgary and inappropriately zoned — this residential remnant directly borders commercial zoning and existing mass to three sides. Faced with an overbearing and mass-intensive commercial neighbour, we were tasked with finding the potential for a development that could accommodate a bike shop within a live-work typology.
The RATH House becomes a zipper — a hybrid form that sutures the fractured zoning of the area and blends the residential into the commercial zone. With a commitment to a material and massing strategy that befits a commercial development, a basic brick form was conceived that speaks to the massing and materiality of the adjacent commercial lots. Pulling that form upward and perforating the entirety of the street-face, the commercial form breaks — providing a shielded porosity that houses a residence within.
