The Tin Box, Canadian Retail, Office, Residential and Warehouse Building, Architecture Images
The Tin Box in Canmore
Mixed-Use Development in Alberta, Canada – design by MODA, architects
6 Feb 2017
The Tin Box
Design: Modern Office of Architecture + Design (MODA)
Location: Canmore, Alberta, Canada
The Tin Box

MoDA was approached in early 2015 to reimagine an existing commercial building ? essentially a large house ? on Main Street in the historic mining town of Canmore, Alberta into a mixed-use development of retail, office, residential and warehouse. One of the first questions we asked was: How do you marry the old with the new in an interesting way within the framework of Canmore?s stringent design guidelines"
The Rocky Mountain vernacular of the existing house speaks to Canmore?s past with its gabled roofs, decorative accents and use of natural materials. Rather than demolishing the house we saw an opportunity to create a dialogue between the past and the future. We abstracted the existing house by rendering it completely white in an almost ghostly manner. To complement this spectral condition, we wrapped it with a quiet, contemporary addition that derives its language from a modern interpretation of the existing building as well as from the local mining history. Clad in glass, charred cedar and standing seam metal, the new addition both contrasts and respects the existing building with an innovative interpretation of the vernacular.

One of the challenges...