The paired buildings are a landmark at the centre of the low-slung University of Calgary campus.
 
PROJECT MacKimmie Block & Tower Redevelopment, University of Calgary, Alberta
ARCHITECT DIALOG
PHOTOS Tom Arban, unless otherwise noted
Glass has fascinated medieval cathedral builders, German Expressionists, and modernists such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. As German art critic Adolf Behne wrote, commenting on Bruno Taut?s Glass Pavilion for the 2014 Cologne Werkbund exhibition: ?The longing for purity and clarity?the glowing lightness, crystalline exactness?for immaterial lightness, and for infinite liveliness found in glass a means of its fulfillment?in this most bodiless, most elementary, most flexible material, richest in meaning and inspiration, which like no other fuses with the world.?  And yet the extensive use of glass cladding has been often challenging?or plain irresponsible in terms of environmental sustainability?in the Canadian context. More recent technologies, however, including the use of double-skin façades, allow for designs that are both fully glazed and well-insulated. While double-skin systems are intricate, expensive, and time-consuming to install, this technology has been deployed with impressive results in the recently completed deep-energy retrofit of the MacKimmie Tower and newly built adjoining Hunter Student Commons at the University of Calgary. The project supports the university?s aggressive sustainability policy: by 2023, the institut...