A rendering of the New Monica multifamily housing project in Ingelwood, Calgary’s oldest neighbourhood.Bold Workshop Architecture
Gentle density has taken Calgary by storm. In just two years, construction was started on about 5,000 row houses. The row house spurt was largely driven by a change to the city’s land-use policy, which made densification possible on residential lots that had previously allowed for only one or two dwellings.
Although city council recently revoked this policy change, 24 months of having R-CG (Residential – Grade-Oriented Infill) as the base residential land-use policy left a visible imprint on Calgary’s established neighbourhoods, bringing into focus the effect land-use policies have on a dwelling’s built form.
On a typical lot, R-CG enables the construction of bulky rows of four three-storey dwellings flanked by a block of parking garages. On larger parcels, a courtyard often separates two identical blocks of row houses. Lawned front yards separate the dwellings from the public realm, while a narrow walkway connects the sidewalk to the steps leading residents into their home.
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Francisco Alaniz Uribe, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s school of architecture, landscape and planning, said that land use is instrumental in determining the physical shape a building can take because it dictates the building setbacks and heights permitted on a given parcel.
While regulating these aspects can foster a harmonious relationship between a building and its surroundings, a lack of flexibility can also stifle creativity, he said. “If setbacks are very strict, you end up with the same type of product over and over, but if they are more flexible, the same buildable surface can deliver different building types.”
Permitting up to a maximum of four dwellings per lot, plus secondary suites, R-CG allows buildings to occupy between 45 and 55 per cent of a parcel, and caps the maximum building height at 10 metres. Generally, this land-use policy also requires a building’s massing to be located at least three metres from the front property line. Depending on a lot’s configuration, minimum rear setbacks can range between 7.5 and 1.2 metres.
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These prescriptions have contributed to the proliferation of repetitive row house developments in Calgary, and limit the types of “missing-middle” housing that can be built on a typical parcel.
But R-CG isn’t the only land use that can enable gentle density in Calgary. According to two Calgary-based designers who are developing their own multifamily projects, other residential land-use policies offer the flexibility needed to produce more innovative building forms, and to adequately serve the housing needs of an increasingly diverse city.
All of the dwellings in the New Monica project have windows on at least two walls, offering views into the complex’s courtyard, rather than into the parking stalls on both ends of the site.Bold Workshop Architecture
For architect Kayla Browne, redesignating a 66- by 170-foot parcel fronting two streets in Inglewood, Calgary’s oldest neighbourhood, was essential to bring her ambitious vision to life.
Although R-CG would have allowed the architect to build a row-house complex of 16 dwellings, Ms. Browne opted to change the site’s land use to H-GO (Housing – Grade Oriented) to maximize its potential – even if that added several months to her project’s timeline.
“R-CG doesn’t lend itself to a site that is atypical and oversized,” says Ms. Browne, who founded her architecture studio, Bold Workshop, in 2019. Had she kept the R-CG zoning, Ms. Browne explains, the 16 dwellings comprising the New Monica multifamily would have occupied 60 per cent of the site, forcing the removal of seven mature trees on the property.
While the City of Calgary approved Ms. Browne’s redesignation application early in 2025, neighbours appealed the city’s decision, adding four months to the redesignation process. It wasn’t until June this year that construction preparations finally began on the Inglewood site.
The wait was worth it. The flexibility of H-GO, a land-use policy introduced in 2023 to bolster the supply of missing-middle housing in Calgary’s established neighbourhoods, allowed the architect to accommodate three distinct dwelling configurations across two different building layouts.
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Facing New Street SE, one building boasts seven garden-level suites topped by the same number of two-storey stacked townhomes. The other building, closer to St. Monica Avenue, contains two two-storey homes rising above a parking garage.
Notably, all 16 dwellings have windows on at least two walls, offering views into the complex’s cozy courtyard, rather than into the parking stalls that flank both ends of the site.
This is a level of livability that’s seldom possible in R-CG districts, Ms. Browne says. With H-GO, “we had the freedom and flexibility to place the units and stack them in whichever way we wanted.”
A bespoke land-use designation known as Direct Control, is also helping drive design innovation in Calgary.
The Goodweather, a low-rise multifamily building that has eight units across two three-storey buildings, nears completion in Sunnyside in Calgary.Studio North
The Goodweather, a low-rise multifamily comprising eight dwellings across two slender three-storey buildings, is nearing completion in Sunnyside. Located a four-minute walk from a light-rail station, the rental complex responds to the needs of two underserved groups in Calgary’s inner city: seniors and students.
On the ground level, four zero-step homes fulfill the accessibility requirements of residents with mobility challenges. Up a set of exterior stairs sit the spacious two-bedroom townhomes Studio North designed with roommates in mind.
Sitting on a parcel that faces a quiet residential street on one side and a tree-lined playground on the other, the Goodweather boasts two façades punctuated by brightly coloured trims, as well as an expansive mural painted by local artist daniel j kirk.
Much like the New Monica multifamily in Inglewood, the unique layout of the Goodweather was made possible by a land-use change.
Initially zoned for M-CGd72 (Multiresidential – Contextual Grade-Oriented District), the site was redesignated to a direct control district tailored to fulfill Studio North’s award-winning vision.
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“We know enough of the rules of the zoning that we can dream up a desired outcome and find the appropriate avenues to make it a reality,” says Damon Hayes Couture, partner and creative director at Studio North.
Building outside a prescribed box, however, is a venture few can tackle.
“There’s a bit of a race to the bottom with developers who want to minimize their soft costs,” he said. “For the financials to make sense, everything has to be cookie-cutter – the system rewards sameness and predictability.”
Mr. Hayes Couture’s observation echoes Prof. Alaniz Uribe’s, who believes that design innovation is thwarted by more than prescriptive land-use policies.
“The reason missing-middle housing looks all the same is that it’s being produced within an economic framework where everybody builds for the largest group they can sell to,” he says. “The more specific your design is, the higher the risk that it won’t sell fast.”