Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Houzz

Medium

LinkedIn

Get in touch:

FooterContent

Stay updated with our latest Ottawa architecture insights and projects in our News section. Engaging blogs await!

News From Award Winning Architects - Linebox Studio

In someone else's words.

News

A growing body of research — and a new wave of experimental housing - suggests that architecture has a measurable impact on human wellbeing. Here's what that means for how we design.

It's a question worth asking directly: can architecture make people healthier, happier, more connected? The answer, increasingly supported by research and real-world experimentation, is yes — but only if we design for it intentionally. The built environment shapes behaviour, mood, and social connection in ways that are both subtle and profound. Most housing is designed around minimum viable standards. The most interesting work happening today is designed around maximum human flourishing.

Linebox Studio is currently in the early research phase of a new development project centred precisely on this question. We're exploring what 'light-touch, human-centred' architecture can mean today: materials that age well and improve with time, spatial layouts that encourage connection without removing privacy, systems designed for adaptability as households change over decades. We're drawing on exemplars like Living Places Copenhagen — a brilliant model of how real-life testing and architectural experimentation can reshape the way we think about residential design.

The fundamentals matter enormously here. Natural light isn't a nice-to-have, it's a primary health determinant. Acoustic quality shapes stress levels and sleep. The presence or absence of outdoor space, shared amenities, and well-designed thresholds between public and private life all have measurable effects on how people experience their homes. The best residential architecture takes all of this seriously and considers it as a coherent spatial thesis about what it means to live well.

As housing supply becomes the defining urban policy challenge of this decade, there's a real risk that quantity crowds out quality. We'd argue the false economy is obvious: buildings that don't support the wellbeing of their residents cost more in the long run; in social services, in turnover, in the erosion of neighbourhood quality. Designing for human flourishing isn't a luxury tier of housing. It's the right baseline. 

Can Architecture Actually Foster Wellbeing?

The Living Places Question: Can Architecture Actually Foster Wellbeing?

CLV's second adaptive reuse project with architects Linebox Studio

Article by David Sali, Ottawa Business Journal

The developer that transformed a vacant commercial building on Albert Street into an apartment complex is poised to launch its second office-to-residential conversion project in downtown Ottawa".

https://obj.ca/clv-group-to-convert-laurier-building/

CLV Group to convert former office building into apartments

Building is close to ideal for adaptive reuse

A new business networking event organized for women by Ottawa business leader Melissa Reeves, COO Linebox Studio

Article and photo by Caroline Phillips, Ottawa Business Journal.

A new business networking event organized for women by Ottawa business leader 

 lived up to its name by giving this morning’s attendees just the lift they needed to get on with their day feeling energized, motivated and ready to take on the world".

https://obj.ca/working-title-hosts-new-womens-networking-event-boost/

Boost! A New Women's Networking Event

Boost! New Women's Networking Event

Article by Dave LeBlanc, the Architourist. Globe & Mail

Link to the complete article in the Globe & Mail

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/toronto/article-horizontal-homes-dance-with-an-old-church/

"Horizontal Homes" dance with an old church

Sr.Architectural Technologist (Revit) Ottawa

Linebox Studio is a collaborative architecture studio with offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. In over 15 years of work, we have amassed a reputation for progressive designs that meet exacting sustainability standards and our work has received many awards and distinctions. Linebox offers a unique consolidated approach to our offering. Our work includes all facets of design ranging from architectural and interior design, LEED/sustainability integration, furniture design, procurement, lighting and landscaping.

We do not design offices, restaurants, hotels or houses. Instead, we challenge and explore what is it to work, meet, play, sleep and entertain. We encourage discovery and idea-sharing as a fundamental part of our design process.

An organized and meticulous individual with minimum 8 years of work experience as an Architectural Technologist. You love the details, and can provide intelligent input on constructibility, materiality and detailing from the early stages of concept design to the completion of construction documents. You have a portfolio of details and construction documents showing a variety of projects and a solid understanding of the design and drawing process.

In addition, you’re good when it comes to “pivots” and can think outside the box. You have also proven your abilities to assist in project coordination and the management of technical requirements in the projects you’ve worked on.

Someone who can work with our group of architects and designers to efficiently craft beautiful presentation drawings, and transition the project towards detailed construction drawings. Experience with CLT and wood frame is needed.

-Diploma in Architectural Technology or Degree in Architecture from a recognized program

-Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience

-Strong hands-on experience with architectural detailing on complex projects

-Experience with CLT and/or wood frame construction

-Excellent oral and written communication skills

-Desire to work as part of a design-focused team

-Extremely well organized with good interpersonal skills

-Strong knowledge of Ontario Building Code

-French/English bilingual, a definite asset

-Adobe (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) ○ Enscape, SketchUp

Please include a cover letter, resume and portfolio in your email application

New Year, new opportunity. We're hiring!

New Year, New Opportunity. We're Hiring!

A new innovation hub in Canada's largest Tech Park

Getting the chance to design spaces at Hub350 was a bit of a dream. The project is a nearly 13,000 square-foot space, forming the entry to Kanata North, Canada’s largest technology park. In truth, it’s a very logical fit for us. But that didn’t lessen the impact of the win.

Linebox has somehow always been fortunate to be present at the precipice of Canadian tech greatness. When we designed Shopify’s headquarters, we saw their meteoric rise happen so fast, we had to design another space for them just to accommodate their growth. Of course, now famously, with the onset of the pandemic, they exited the in-person work-space realm and shifted (perhaps permanently) to remote work. For some, that’s understandable. And far be it for us to question the genius mindset that impels that ship. But at the same time, while we may have all seen some of the benefits of remote work, the majority of us have also come to understand the price of an absence of human contact. There's a mental toll that many have experienced, yes. But there’s a societal, industry and opportunity cost, too.

Hub350 addresses that head-on. It wasn’t conceived to combat any of this. After all, who knew the next tech disruption would be in tackling an emerging work pattern brought on by a global pandemic?

None-the-less, the brand new ecosystem for industry at 350 Legget Dr, less than half and hour from the Parliament Buildings in downtown Ottawa, is our latest office canvas.

Unlike the headquarters we’ve designed for Shopify, ElementAI, Klipfolio, BenchSci and GSoft, the new Hub350 won’t serve a single company. It will serve a community. The design seizes the opportunity to meld minds from industry, academic and finance worlds. In the heart of Kanata North, there will now be a place for burgeoning businesses, entrepreneurs, newly-minted and future generations of skilled workers and investors to co-exist and collaborate. There is something about being in physical presence with others that, despite brilliant emergent IT, humanity just can’t replicate in the virtual world. Zoom meetings don’t allow for the accidental interaction that happens when in a meeting place designed to filter in experts and professionals from the 550 companies that surround the space or the 33,000 employees that work for the myriad of tech sectors they represent.

We’ve mapped out every office feature that has provided the winning model that’s helped propel tech start-ups to tech giant status and applied it to something like a community nerve centre. Open-concept meeting rooms allow for interaction with capacity options, while inviting the buzz of the energetic hub to keep the sessions lively. Smaller private offices deliver places for focus. Lounges offer the all-important down-time and a venue for more casual run-ins that so often end up being the forum for a brilliant solution. Soundproof booths can be used for powering through detailed work or sharing an idea whose genesis isn’t yet ready for public consumption. Seating areas and with presentation-style seating host a range of activities from relaxation to life-changing pitches made by founders intent on impressing potential investors. And to take the services and ideas to the wider world, there’s a full-service media studio. Producing stories and broadcasting promotional materials from a state-of-the-art studio like the one onsite rounds out the experience that will be available to so many Ottawa region individuals and businesses.

We’re excited by the depth of this project. Queen’s, Ottawa U, Algonquin College, Carlton U, Salesforce, Telus, and RBC are all anchor partners.

Having a physical space to foster businesses, thoughts, dreams and ideas with like-minded people is the legacy that will generate so many more industry-leading powerhouses. If the pandemic has proved anything, it’s that people need the inspiration of others to light and relight that spark that urges the germ of an idea into a grander success that solves problems, feeds mouths and changes lives. That’s a powerful thought that we don’t forget when we’re designing. Culture matters. And the way a space accommodates it can encourage it immeasurably.

The Kanata North Technology Park houses the second biggest sector in the City of Ottawa, just after the government in the downtown core. The ability to attract and retain knowledge workers relies on the type of thinking that is conceived at Hub350. In fact, it’s innovations like this initiative, that will drive tech talent from around the world to converge in the nation’s capital, increasingly tipping the balance of tomorrow’s technological generation in Canada’s favour. Being a part of it is an honour and it gives us endless confidence in the future of the Ottawa market.

A Space Is Only As Good As the Ideas It Fosters

Hub350

For a quarter of a century, Mont Sainte-Marie has been without a hotel. When one last stood open, it employed hundreds and welcomed returning guests to a place they felt was somewhat their own.

Those who know the mountain and its community enjoy a lifestyle that allows for an atmosphere full of friendly run-ins with a relaxed sense of time for leisurely conversations and laughs. It’s a care-free outdoor play world that escapes the masses at ski villages an hour further from the nation's capital. Nobody at Mont Ste. Marie is forced to line up for franchised lattes and costly apres-ski that coaxes tears from the corners of narrowing wallets.

MSM, as it’s known in this tight community, is different. It’s a neighbourhood with a mountain at its core.

Its only problem is the limits of its open-heartedness. We who’ve been fortunate enough to share the beauty and fun of the hill in all seasons have nowhere to put guests up for the night other than what beds we might have below our own roofs. There are more and more Ottawa people discovering the slopes at Mont Ste. Marie and the family-friendly, care-free, safe environment it offers. But unless they build a place of their own, they’ve got to make their way home in the darkening evening snows, hoping their windshield washer fluid is topped up past the only gas stop in between them and home.

As the architects lucky enough to be charged with creating a beautiful hotel whose interests serve visitors and the community equally, designing a structure that fits in with the vernacular of the region is our mandate. When we set pen to paper, our purpose from the beginning of the planning was to enliven the very best of the community here. We’ve made research trips to the famed alpine regions of Switzerland to connect with the root of mountain vacation architecture and we’ve incorporated elements of that long-established sensibility and knowledge. It’s this and a mixture of our own history of hospitality design and our experience with maximizing utility of shared spaces that continues to excite us about this project.

Four of the six stories are enveloped under the fold of a metal roof. The suites are housed there with balconies that punctuate the façade. Slope-side, the roof offers an enormous canopy that shelters the second floor outdoor patio.

Our vision for the hotel project is based on the outline of the developer’s call for an 80-room ski-in, ski-out, bike-in, bike-out boutique hotel. The restaurant, bar, pool and spa will give visitors an experience like no other, just an hour’s drive from Ottawa.

What energizes us most with projects like these – beyond creating an incredible building – is the opportunity to invite connections between people that might not otherwise occur. One of the other brilliant things about this sort of project is the number of specialists it demands. We’re pleased to leave the challenges of landscaping, sewage and road engineering to the expert hands at the helm of each of those disciplines while working in concert with all of the accumulated knowledge at the table.

We’re excited for the coming years of positive change that will shape the hill we love so much.

Overnight Stays at Mont Ste. Marie May Not Happen Overnight. But They’re On Their Way.

Mountain Side Hotel

Ottawa-based architect Andrew Reeves remembers a night about eight years ago when he was attending an industry awards dinner at the Shaw Centre. His attention had been focused not so much on the prize that he’d won for best bathroom design, but on a building off in the distance.

That building, still under construction at the time, was the landmark office tower Performance Court. It was also the future headquarters for Shopify. Reeves and his firm, Linebox Studio, had been hired to shape what would eventually become 170,000 square feet of office space spanning 10 floors for the fast-growing e-commerce company. 

Reeves was holding his trophy but looking across the street at the big job that lay ahead. “I was freaking out, going, ‘This is everything. This is my career. If we don’t deliver this thing…’”