Industry Profile: RAW Design

When looking at RAW Design’s portfolio, the one word that comes to mind is diversity.

From the Tannery in Kitchener - a conversion of a factory into a new pharmacy school - to BMW Toronto’s headquarters (overlooking the Gardner Expressway,) to the design at Concord CityPlace, there is no doubt, RAW’s work is diverse.

This week the team at the Toronto Star’s NewInHomes.com sat down with Roland Colthoff and Richard Witt of RAW Design to talk about design, the history of RAW Design and what’s next for one of Toronto’s hottest design firms.

NewInHomes (NIH): Lets talk a little about the background of Raw Design

Roland: "I was a partner at Quadrangle, and Richard an associate there. We have been in the Toronto market for 20 years, and in 2007 we felt as though there was a better way of doing things. We had done Cube and the Absolute competition, both of those projects where quite well received by the public and we felt that we could ride that off into a new vision.

Richard: It just seemed like a great opportunity as well, things there progressing well. We did not forecast that there would be a recession, which we weathered very well. It seemed like we wanted to differentiate from Quadrangle, and a bit different from what everyone else was doing.

NIH: What are some of your favorite designs and projects?

Roland: Well they are all favorites, especially the designs we are currently working on. However, if you look at Cube and the Absolute Condominium entry -which got a lot of press- those are ones we always look to. One of the things that we are doing is a lot of is mid-rise and smaller projects...which we enjoy.

Buildings like Cube, a 6 - 8 storey on a main street that can incorporate mixed-use, have tough contextual issues it terms of getting services and parking to the site, as well as how it relates to its neighbours. And so we have ridden that into the Bellefair, which has been very successful and has sold out, 1245 Dundas St W., which is a quite distinct take on how to fit into an urban context.

Richard: The one thing about New York is the ‘intensity’ in the streets. Six to eight storey buildings with retail everywhere.  Herewe are beginning to realize this with projects like 1245 Dundas St. and Motif. We still have some blank spaces too fill in. Toronto has a lot of high-rise projects.  There’s still room for intesification.  

NIH: What is your mindset going into a site? How do you maximize the impact that the impact 

that the building will have on the area?

Richard: Whenever you approach a site you have a few issues that you have to look at before you can move forward. Its not so much inspired by form - although you may look at it and think it is - it’s inspired by contextual issues; the angle of a street and the desire and guidelines of animating the main street level are inspiring.  Things unfold from that. Now there is a certain design applied to it. Its not like I saw something and said 'hey, that looks good'. Surprisingly it does not work that way. The angles of the sun make a difference, issues of sustainability make a difference.

NIH: What are you excited about, what are your future plans?

Roland: We are starting work in Block 37 at CityPlace. Block 33 has been launched as Quartz. Block 37 will front on Bathurst St. It’s nice that we have tied up this whole neighborhood. This will have a significant retail and office component, which I think is good it shows a maturation of the whole CityPlace area.

Richard: One thing we are quite cognisant of is scale. Be it 5 city blocks in Dubai or Block 33 we get a lot of press from the mid-rise, however we want to continue to look at projects from every scale, from single family homes to cottages.

For Example we are working on a concept project for a 250 thousand square meter development in China. The work in India, we are close to getting some big projects there. In Abu Dhabi we have partnerships  and will have some exciting projects coming.

NIH: How do you find planning in Toronto vs. planning overseas?

Richard: It’s a much more mature planning process. I think overseas their strategy is more on a grand scale, where here we have a very municipal view on things. They look to westerners to bring new expertise to their projects.

Roland: Interestingly, the builder in Dubai wrote his own building code. In contrast to what we are doing in China, we also have two small 15,000 Sq. ft. office buildings, we are hoping that those clients push the green envelope and use some solid and incorporate geothermal aspects to the building. I think working at the two poles of the scale is important to us, we do not want to loose sight of either one.

NIH: How do we build up and intensify Toronto?

Richard: In terms of infill building, it becomes an economic issue. Its very difficult for developers to build at 4 to 6 storey’s. Between 4 - 6 and 4 - 8 is very difficult for developers to see the type of profit that they are looking for.

At the same time 10 years ago you would look around the city and there was space, space, space for big towers and suddenly there is not, so I think that the interest is shifting to, ‘how can I make this work?’

NIH: Lets talk about 1245 Dundas St. West.

Richard: The builder wants to make the area better. He has done some small projects in the past, some townhomes and other things, and as he has gotten older he wants a new challenge. The building is currently in for site plan approval, and the current round off comments should be back any day now. Once we have that It can be moved to the marketing stage, and that could start in the next 2-3 months.

NIH: Where do you see the future of design headed?

Roland: There are a whole lot of new products out there. We are trying to clad Cube with fiber cement.  There some new plastics out there that we can use. Some woods are gaining prominence. It is a fairly limited palette that you can use as an architect, however things are changing. There is more coming to the forefront.

The advent and use of computers on site is making the trades more savvy, so you can do much more inventive things. Back in the day a pencil and paper and a blueprint would be at the job site. Now its much more seamless.

Richard: For me the issue of sustainability will really dictate where we go. When you look around at all these big glass buildings with south facing windows with an insulated value of 2 or 3 the standard should be 10 times that.  Soon you may have buildings that will not be leaking energy everywhere,.

I think that issues of sustainability will push pallets. Building departments will say, "that’s not performing well enough"

NIH: Ironstone is a very green building, what features are different here versus a traditional building

Roland: The Geothermal system is the big difference. The envelope of the building is not that unusual, however we are using an insulation that will keep it super tight. One of its main sustainability features is not necessarily a technological thing, but that it is a real form of urban living.

We are hoping it can be a sign of what can happen, so people can live in a more mixed use, vibrant community, so people do not just drive to the next big box.

NIH: What is the future of RAW Design?

Richard: We have grown quite a bit over the past three years. One of my favorite stories is when we where shortlisted for a project only a couple of years ago. I was asked if we had the capacity to do the work. I told him that after two years of growth, we projected that in 8-10 years everyone in Toronto will be working for us and we would have over 5 million employees, based on percentage growth.

I think the message is that there will be some growth, however I doubt so much that in 10 years we will be a 200-250 person commercial firm. We want growth that will help us handle the larger projects, but also maintain the comfort level with our current clients

I know both Roland and I are interested in the design process so it is a very flat structure that we employ.

The team at the Toronto Star NewInHomes.com thanks Richard and Roland from RAW Design, and look forward to their projects maturing, as well as the new projects that they take on.