atelier BUILD is an architecture firm founded in 1995 by Michael Carroll and Danita Rooyakkers based in Montreal. They design urban infill projects that work with the constraints of small, irregular sites. Their projects include THIN House, TWIN House, BACK House, BOX House, Eco-Cite 1, Super 8, and @Mentana - aiming to create affordable housing through innovative design that considers construction and sustainability. Their most recent project is two contemporary urban cottages built at the foot of Mont Royal.

1. atelier BUILD : Michael Carroll + Danita Rooyakkers
atelier BUILD was founded in 1995 by Michael Carroll and Danita Rooyakkers and is
based on the belief that the processes of design, construction and economics must work
together to create an architecture of lasting integrity. Since 1995, atelier BUILD has
designed several urban infill projects for Montreal’s inner city neighbourhoods. These
projects include, THIN House, TWIN House, BACK House and BOX House, Eco-Cite 1,
Super 8, and @Mentana – an eight unit stacked townhouse development. The most recent
project, two contemporary urban cottages at the foot of Mont Royal have just started
construction - the project completion date scheduled for early 2009.
All the projects are further challenged by their urban contexts. Most of the projects are
located on marginal, interstitial sites within Montreal’s unique urban fabric. The level of
making is extended from the house to the city. The inherent domestic nature of the projects
is tempered by an industrial sensibility. The result is a series of urban infiltrations that make
an argument for a leaner more urbane architecture for city life.
The result is a holistic outlook that ultimately links thinking with making in the design/build
process. As ‘poetic’ pragmatists interested in innovation and the larger project of the
city and the environment, atelier BUILD is both immersed the logistics of designing to the
specifics of the situation with an eye on the larger ‘global’ picture of urban, cultural and
ecological sustainability. Even within the tightest constraints the project extends beyond the
lot line to encompass the larger constructed landscape in which it sits.
atelier BUILD
interstitial intervention

2. BACK HOUSE
1998
3776-78 St-Christophe
Montreal QC Canada
Two Unit Condominium
3,000 square feet.
Back House fronts on a narrow one lane street,
that historically was a ‘service’ lane for rue Saint Hubert.
The project encompasses the renovation of a large house at the
front of the lot and the new construction of a two unit condominium
that replaces an existing garage. Both units have four levels that
are 11’-0” wide and 35’-0” long. The ground level incorporates
a narrow passage from the street to an inner court that separates
the new construction from the existing house. The masonry facade
of the project with its French doors and balconies addresses the
neighbourhood square of Place Roy.
BACK HOUSE

3. TOWER HOUSE
1997
3776-82 av Laval
Montreal QC Canada
Four Unit Condominium
4,500 square feet.
The project covers 90% of the site and is situated on a corner lot.
Natural light was a main concern because of the limited exposure
to sunlight. The solution was to create two towers separated by a
narrow court that allowed for two sets of large corner windows. An
industrial skylight over the stairs creates a lightwell to give natural
daylight to living areas below. Each tower is composed of two units,
with the upper unit gaining a mezzanine and a roof top terrace.
The site is situated in a heritage area and careful attention was
given to seek a balance between a contemporary industrial
sensibility and the existing historical context.
TOWER HOUSE

4. BOX HOUSE
2000
4056 rue Saint Christophe
Montreal QC Canada
Semi-Detached House
1,500 square feet.
The Box House is situated at corner of an alleyway and narrow lane in the
heart of Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal. The site marks the point where the
width of the lane is reduced by half. The house is literally in the middle of the
street. The Box House occupies the margin. The envelope is quite simply a box
with metal appendages. The openings in the box are carefully scribed. The
ground floor’s north window marks the end of a sidewalk. The double height
corner window allows a view down middle of the laneway. The triple height
slot on the house’s west side captures the afternoon sun and a view of the
illuminated cross that tops Mont-Royal.
The house oscillates between an industrial and a domestic sensibility for
a generic, custom designed architecture. The soaring living space with its
mezzanine is zoned between a ground floor studio and a third storey bedroom
with ensuite bath. These spaces are connected by a thirty-six foot high stairwell
with an industrial skylight. Throughout the house, metal frame screens,
expanded metal mesh landings and sheet metal stairs add to the industrial
aesthetic. For the domesticated, the Box House demands considerable
courage.
BOX HOUSE

5. THIN HOUSE
1996
4646-4648 av de L`Hotel-de-Ville
Montreal QC Canada
Duplex
3,000 square feet.
The duplex is situated on a narrow site on the Plateau Mont-
Royal. Each unit is 10’-8” wide and 56’-0” long with a 35’-0” tall
atrium. The vertical division allows an entry door at street level,
a back garden and skylight for both units. The city required on-
site parking and as a result the entry door is made up of three
doors which can open up completely to the street. Both garage
areas are now used as studio spaces. The split in the section from
the front to the back of the house creates a series of flexible live/
work spaces. The design stresses section over plan and volume
over area, with the qualitative aspects of the design overriding
the dimensional restrictions of the site. The result is a thin vertical
loft that seems more spacious than its 10’-8” width suggests. The
exterior addresses the context of the street while maintaining an
industrial edge, with the use of galvanized exposed C-Sections,
folded metal cornices and for the back elevation corrugated metal
siding. The design offers an innovative prototype for the City in
order to develop other narrow and marginal sites for inner-city
neighbourhoods.
THIN HOUSE

6. SUPER 8
2004
2010 rue Amherst
Montreal QC Canada
Eight Units
12,000 square feet.
Situated to the east of the Quartier Latin in downtown Montreal,
Super 8 is a micro-loft development that consists of eight units
that range from 500 - 1200 square feet - addressing an emerging
need for affordable lean spaces in an escalating real estate
market.
The assymetrical facade composed of glazed white and metallic
brown brick, separated by the zig-zag of a galvanized c-channel
is a ‘gestural response’ to the dramatic slope of the land directly
to the north. Also evident to rue Amherst are the
12’-0” x 8’-0” patio doors with minimized glass guards that allow
a full 6’-0” opening onto the busy street below. The entryway
is lined with large format glazed ceramic tile contrasted on the
opposite side with corruguated galvalume wall and soffit that
extend from the street to the lobby.
The project with its concrete floors, floor to ceiling glass and zero
detailing attempts to create a stripped-down architecture for the
array of young professionals that reside in one of Montreal’s up
and coming neighborhoods.
SUPER 8

7. CODE : ZERO
Installation, Designed and Fabricated by Michael Carroll
Canadian Center for Architecture
Montreal QC Canada
“The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A sin-
gle flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly
end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn
the underpassage into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The
intimation of mortality is part of New York now:in the sound of
jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition.”
E.B. White, 1948
CODE : ZERO was an architectural installation designed by Mi-
chael Carroll of atelier BUILD. We were one of six Montreal
design ateliers approached by the Canadian Centre for Architec-
ture to contribute to Laboratoires, a show that commented on the
events of September 11th in New York and the ‘zero-degree’ of
architecture. The show was curated by Mark Wigley (New York)
and Frédéric Migayrou (Paris).
CODE : ZERO was situated in Room 5 of the CCA and was de-
signed as an ‘extended threshold’ meant to engage and destabi-
lize the participant. Eighty aluminium rods, hung from the ceiling
created a double undulating ‘curtain wall’ and formed a narrow
passageway. The second component of the installation was com-
prised of a large translucent screen measuring 5’-6” x 17’-0”
suspended at a 25 degree angle above the floor. This ‘dropped
ceiling’ seemed as if it was caught in a free fall. Projections on the
screen added to the sense of disequilibrium, instability and vertigo
- an inherent part of the physical component of the installation.
CODE : ZERO

8. EcoCité Habitat I
completed 2001
rue Coleraine
Montreal QC Canada
Eight Stacked Townhouses
~ 8,000 square feet
EcoCité Habitat I is an eight unit, inner city, ‘environmentally-sensitive’
condominium project located at the end of a residential block overlooking
a neighborhood park just south-west of downtown Montréal, Canada. The
project is essentially comprised of four ‘towers’ each of which is divided into
two stacked townhouses. The compact square plan is split by a narrow, sky
lit atrium that acts as both a communal space for the residents as well as a
ventilation plenum. The cubic form is terraced towards the south with two
angled window boxes on each side with a square projection on its front – the
surface of which was designed to receive photovoltaic panels.
Although domestic in scale, the interior finishes specified for the project
are decidedly industrial with polished concrete floors and exposed steel
structure. All interior metal work is galvanized and the cabinetry is constructed
of exposed straw board. The industrial palette is tempered with reused,
sandblasted solid wood doors, re-enameled claw foot metal bathtubs and
bamboo stair treads. In an effort to reduce toxicity, low VOC paints, sealants,
glues and finishes were used. In an effort to dramatically reduce energy
consumption, a geo-thermal system was designed for the project with a radiant
heating and cooling system installed in the ceilings of each unit. Glazing was
maximized on the southern exposure to insure a high solar gain in winter. In
order to control overheating, a brise-soleil constructed of folded metal and
expanded metal mesh was installed over the windows and heat-mirror films
were applied on the west windows. In the end it is hoped that the project was
use 80% less energy consumption than conventional new housing construction.
EcoCité Habitat I

9. @ Mentana
completed 2008
rue Mentana
Montreal QC Canada
Six Unit Towntown Deveopment
~ 10,000 square feet + Underground Parking
@ Mentana is a six-unit development situated on an inner-city corner lot in
Montreal, Canada. The project is composed of four towers, each with their
own stair that leads from the ground to a sky-garden that faces southwest.
The two end towers are undivided, however, the two middle towers are
each split from top to bottom to form stacked townhouses – the lower
double height unit is a cubic volume complete with a sleeping loft. The
upper units are more spacious, with a generous open floor plate for the
living/dining and kitchen on the main level with two bedrooms and a double
height bathroom on the upper level topped by a rooftop terrace.
As an elongated box – the maximized envelope of the project sits on a lot
that is twenty-five feet wide and a hundred feet long and is punctured by
two, double-height, portals that provide an entrance to each unit at street
level. Each portal is lined with a tile that contrasts with the project’s two-tone
masonry shell. Besides the portals, the project’s boxiness is further relieved
by galvanized c-channels that are inscribed into the brick façade, and four
balconies, two of which project over the sidewalk on rue de Mentana, and
the other two extend toward the laneway that forms the southern border of
the site.
.
@ Mentana

10. Fernhill Urban Cottages
under construction
81-69 rue Fernhill
Montreal QC Canada
The project consists of one detached and one attached urban cottage
on each side of a renovated 1920’s house. Situated just below
Mont-Royal Park, the site is steeply sloped with substantial retaining
walls along the south and northern borders of the lot. The project
maximizes on the allowable buildable area of the site that consists of
three divided lots. The result is two trapezoidal volumes (one more
elongated than the other) with large expanses of floor to ceiling
glazing and elongated ribbon windows incised within each project’s
‘masonry mass’.
Architecturally, the project is decidedly contemporary in contrast with
more historic tone of the neighborhood. To maximize on solar gain,
a curtain wall system and skylight was introduced on the south wall
of the upper cottage – this is aligned with the house’s tripled height
atrium that features a planted trellis on its exterior and a vertical
‘biowall’ on the interior that lines one side of a folded metal stair.
Each cottage also features a planted roof with expanses of cedar
decking and reflecting pools. Full access to the roof allows immediate
views of the mountain and in the distance the flat urban landscape of
the Plateau Mont-Royal.
Fernhill