Arlington is an affordable housing apartment building located in a gritty urban setting. As the 40 unit building is separated from the intercity bus station by a busy commuter street servicing the Queensway (main highway), we sought to capture playfully the looseness of bus culture and the comings and goings of suburban commuters as they rose to or dropped from the immediately adjacent freeway.

From images of sail-like canopies seen in visits to Helsinki and Barcelona we created three dramatically angled and spiked metal canopies that animate the building’s sometimes skewed volumes. These forms are distinguished by using mahogany marine plywood, metal and brick as cladding materials. In response to each unit’s small size, windows are generous in dimension while simple, built-in maple furniture maximizes space.