We’ve often ruminated over the adage, without fully understanding where the statement comes from? Probably suggested by an head-strong architect no doubt ;)

We have many friends who are in the arts, sculptors, painters, photographers who seem comparably creative in the art and design fields. Our best guess is the reason or fundamental point of the term can only imply the difficulty or curve ball the client brings to the design process. We recently had a client in Edmonton who added just that.

Everyone can attest, the weather in Edmonton from the end of November to the beginning of April is an absolute write off. Netflix, Pj’s and little else. If you don’t play hockey or curl, you’ve lost a quarter of your life. So we have a curious uncertainty when a young Edmonton family approached us with a design challenge we had never came across prior.

With 2 kids approaching University age, they want to inhabit a recreation property they have in the forest, and also want to wait until the turbulence of supply chain management has softened. Waiting gives them financial comfort but don’t like the concept of not being able to use their Northern Alberta getaway. After a few meetings without much traction we finally understood what they were looking for - a 3-season getaway. ‘Glamping’ is the half brother to what we endeavoured to achieve.

Like us, they see environmental sustainability and financial sustainability as one in the same. They wanted a safe and comfortable way to be in nature and off the grid. They had no interest in being on their acreage in the dead of winter, and would retreat back to their home in Edmonton. Design wise, having to design for 3 seasons instead of 4 is a game-changer. With thermal mass and a good heating source we believe we can serve them with a structure that will brave temperatures -5C and above. Gandhi always believed the key to sustainability was to work within a 200km radius of your location or closer. Therefore heating any structure would seem to naturally gravitate to wood heat. The clients have a 20 acre parcel in thick forest. We believe this will be an endless source of dead-fall lumber for heating.

Waste drives us and this client mad. While the concept of glamping sounds nice, Micro Enviro Cabins was really what we are going for. All materials had to be re-usable or return to the soil. What will become of the micro cabins when our clients move to have a permanent structure? The landfill is unattractive as an option. Interviewing the client, they have a small garden in their Edmonton house, so that was the gateway strategy. Greenhouses that would be used in the short term as a conservatory of sorts-that allowed for sleeping and modest gentrification, and to be seated in the heart of the forest(to eliminate over-heating of the dead of summer. Our preliminary efforts would point to an experiential oneness with nature.

Our first crack, we tried to use the Planta Greenhouses to get a one space fits all design solution. Day beds would work for both daytime and night time use, there is a small kitchenette/washroom that breaks up the space, with the main source of heat being a pizza oven. In this scenario we do not want to insulate below the floor finish, as we want to take advantage of the floor mass. The pizza oven would have a tendency to overheat the structure, so wasting a little heat into the ground floor would temper the space and carry residual heat into the night. The internal heating sources would be intended for the cooler times of year, with outside cooking in mid summer.

The all in one envelope idea struggled to capture the hearts of the client wife as she thought seeing the forest was important as being in it. While the poly carbonate greenhouse solution checked many of the boxes, it fell a hair short. We went in a contrasting design solution. Rather than having the whole family in one area, break them up into pods and situate them nearby. Smaller spaces would allow for easier heating but the same concepts seemed sound. The solution was to opt for a greenhouse with a conservatory like finish, with 100% view potential.

We seem to be closer with this option but be some definite wrinkles remain. Fresh air supply, privies and alike. A hotel room is often a 16’x12-14’ plus the washroom space. We started by searching out some best practise providers of greenhouses and found a 16’ x 12’ greenhouse seems to be to optimal cost ratio. Larger than this, spans get more difficult and the cost reflects the difficulty. Adding a hot tub to the exterior helps free up some space on the inside. It might be glamping, but there is no-need to be animals:). While it does not replace a shower or tub, a hot tub in this context would remove the camp-fire smell before bedtime.

After the client has moved to a more permanent structure, they will sill have greenhouses, which if they don’t use can be resold. While the poly-carbonate green houses capture more space for less money, they don’t allow for the direct experience in nature that the tempered glass option does. While smaller limits some of the comfort, they are easier to place in natural clearings without removing trees. In 5-10 years these will be removed with hopefully minimal impact to the forest.

The benefits of utilizing a greenhouse structure also include the financial predictability. The client has the ability to erect these themselves and build out the remainder of the services. Thermally these projects are not the best for Edmonton in the dead of winter, but the use dictates the envelope doesn’t have to work as hard given the 3 season mandate. We’ll keep you posted.

For us, this design explorations sits between Architecture, Interior and Sustainable Design. We would not have ended up with this solution had our clients not pushed us in this direction. This might highlight what a client brings-in this case a positive force.

We are continuing to develop the concept as we work into detailed design. Plumbing and water realities are next to be solved, and will be posting our biological filtration blog in tandem with this article. More to come!