SO, FILL ME IN... 07/23/08

Words :: Natasha Evdokimoff // Images :: Dave Duncan

There’s nothing new about infill residences in Calgary, at least in terms of their presence. Developers have for decades been savvy to the financial advantages of building two long, lean houses on a home site that previously hosted a modest, albeit wide 1950s bungalow. There are hundreds of infill properties within a tight radius of downtown, and more going up every day. Standard stuff in a market where modern inner-city residences are much in demand and land values have reached stratospheric heights.
If you think you know infills, however, brace yourself for the inspiring 5-storey spectacle designed by Thomas Debicki. Determined from the start to create an infill the likes of which the city has never seen, Debicki has succeeded in spades. What he’s managed to construct, through a series of evolving drafts and tireless rounds of approvals with city planners, is a house that not so much defies the stagnant brownstones and tired two-storeys that surround it, as leads the way out of the stymied Calgarian architectural labyrinth.
Approaching from the sidewalk, you quickly get a sense of how unique the home is. Debicki shunned a standard façade in favour of darkly painted concrete bestowed with banks of expansive windows. The visual impact is striking, particularly at night when the house is beaming with light. What’s even more impressive though, is the home’s front elevation. Because there is no accessibility to the property from the rear, an underground garage was required. Rather than dig a dismal parking pit, Debicki opted to lift the main floor up from street level and insert the garage underneath, accessible via a gently sloping driveway. The home towers over most others, but it’s longer than most too. Aiming to capitalize on the property’s depth, Debicki pushed the building envelope forward on the lot, starting just 20 feet from the front property line. The result is a commanding architectural presence virtually within arm’s reach of the street. Approvals weren’t easy. City regulations stipulate that infills occupy only 60 percent of lot depth. Running 74 feet from front to rear on a 110-foot lot, Debicki’s design occupies 67 percent of the depth of the lot on which it stands – an overage that didn’t go unnoticed at City Hall.
“This house was built with several bylaw relaxations,” Debicki says. “City planners will eventually accept what makes sense. You have to present why your idea works. What we’ve done might be unorthodox, but it’s all logical from a design perspective.”
Defying convention is something Debicki seems very comfortable with. Professionally, he’s something of a rogue. He chooses to work independently, without the blanket of accreditation from the Alberta Association of Architects or the comfort and legitimacy of a midtown office. Ask him for his business card and you’ll get a chuckle and a wry smile. He hasn’t had any printed in more than two years. It seems his work speaks for itself – particularly when Debicki is giving you the grand tour of his latest project.
Walking through, you can’t help but be impressed. The home exudes style yet is simultaneously casual and minimalist – free from any of the pretense you might expect from a piece of real estate valued at $3 million. Designed and built on spec, the property went on the market almost before the last coat of paint was dry.
The first step prospective buyers take from the modest front foyer is into the home’s galley kitchen, defined by a simple arrangement of subtle cabinetry along the east wall. The dining area is to the left, and although glass walls make the space attention grabbing, the eye is quickly drawn back down the length of the kitchen’s 16-foot island toward the living spaces at home’s south end. Call it natural attraction. How often do you see a mature fig tree growing in the middle of private residence?

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