What do you mean by ‘crafty Canadiana?’
It’s that classic Canadian approach of using expensive woods and really overworking every little detail. We tried to get beyond that and take in the big picture of the building’s organization and the spatial sequences. The skip stop section for example, is not an invention of ours – it has been a part of architecture for nearly 80 years – but we took the concept a step further to a triple skip stop where you enter into two living rooms and move up or down to four bedrooms. In some ways I think you can achieve a higher level of success thinking that way especially when there's the challenge of a lower budget. Graduate House was supposed to be 73 dollars per square foot and even when we were able to get it down to 85 dollars, Thom kept telling us that that was ‘less than a parking garage in America.’ You see that approach right up into our Perimeter Institute addition where it’s not just about the small details, it’s about the bigger picture creating a high quality of space for researchers to work together exploring amazing ideas. It’s got standard baseboards, but it still looks pretty hot! Grad House was an inspiring experience that is still strong in the memory of many people still working for us.
