Modular apartment building in downtown Calgary aims to address housing affordability

A six-storey modular apartment building is set to be completed in downtown Calgary this December, just eight months after construction began.

With boxes built in an automated factory and assembles on site, the building along 6 Avenue SW in the west end of downtown is kind of like a lego project.

The actual apartment boxes are built at a factory in Calgary before the modules are transported on trucks to the site. The process is designed to save time and money.

“I think that’s great,” says Calgarian Janine Trotta. “Working in this area, every block you see somebody sleeping. And it’s proven if people have a safe place to live, their motivation goes up.”

The building is a partnership between ATCO Structures and Attainable Homes Calgary — a non-profit created and owned by the City of Calgary.

“It’s up to us to investigate what the best techniques are, de-risking the process, and we found in the partnership with ATCO and what we’re able to do here is a very, very successful way to do it,” says Attainable Homes Calgary president and CEO Jaydan Tait.

Officials behind the project say all the modules can be craned into place within 10 days.

“It’s) a very fast pace in a highly densified area with very little impact for waste, materials, traffic, and personnel on the project site,” says Adam Beattie, president of ATCO Structures. “It’s all delivered off-site.”

Ground broke on the project in April and the goal is for work to be fully completed by December. The pace and method of construction have raised questions about safety and reliability for some Calgarians.

“How strong it is, how it stands up in case there’s a fire in the building,” asks Shaheera Panday.

The modular building is going up right across the street from a conventional build, which is also an Attainable Homes project and took nearly two years to complete.

Tait say the quality of the modular build is likely higher.  

“So, from the 21 days it takes to build a modular unit unto itself, it’s built with all the trades on site, all the professional people on site building the units,” he says. “All the material is the same material you see here within a quality-controlled environment with a high degree of replication.”

Once completed, the building will have 84 studio apartments renting for around $1,100 per month.

Tenants are expected to start moving in and calling the space their new home in January.