Y House, designed by Saunders Architecture.Ema Peter/Ema Peter Photography
Up a winding road off the scenic 1A Highway between Calgary and Banff, stands an iconic property in an idyllic setting: the Y House.
Designed by Saunders Architecture, an award-winning firm led by Canadian Todd Saunders based in Norway, the 2,093-square-foot home was completed last year, and it’s now for sale.
Less than half an hour away from the amenities of the city, and just 20 kilometres from the Mount Yamnuska trailhead in Kananaskis Country, the Y House not only offers expansive views of the foothills, the property itself is a sight worth seeing.
Y House, Calgary, by Saunders Architecture.Ema Peter/Ema Peter Photography
1 of 17
Enveloped in weathered steel and glass, the brutalist exterior of the single-storey building stands out among the rolling hills of Carraig Ridge, an architecture-forward subdivision west of Calgary. The home’s protective armour-like envelope conceals the delicate, subdued interior finishes in natural oak and off-white marble, ensuring the prominence of the landscape from within.
Mr. Saunders said the design was informed by a need to preserve the site’s natural features, as well as a sense of stillness. “The view is very important,” he said. “Quietness is very important.”
To ensure optimal views, the design team created a 3-D map of the site’s terrain and its vegetation, a process so precise Mr. Saunders compares it to a surgical procedure. Because of this project’s complexity, it took seven years to complete, he said. “We took our time because there was no rush to sell it.”
Perched on a ridge, the Y House offers distinctive views of the landscape: a lake and a mature spruce forest, the grasslands of the foothills and, in the distance, the Rocky Mountains.
The home’s unusual, Y-shaped footprint is essential to the design program. Besides maximizing views, this layout creates privacy for the home’s two bedrooms, which share a storey with the open-plan living and dining areas.
“The kitchen is the heart of the house,” Mr. Saunders said. “Whereas the bedrooms are places where you retreat to get quietness at each end; so if you’re in one bedroom, noise doesn’t disturb the person in the other.”
Conceived on spec, the Y House is a sanctum for the architectural connoisseur; for the busy professional seeking a respite from the everyday hustle for a weekend, or for an entire season. But designing a house of this kind without a specific user in mind was as unique a process as the property itself.
“You have to meet a lot more needs; you have to really know how people live,” Mr. Saunders explained. “That’s where the client, Carraig Ridge, really trusted our work.”
Listed last October, the $4.1-million property is one of 29 homes currently for sale in the Calgary region at a price more than $4-million. The Y House is also a standout among the sprawling, lodge-style houses typical of this area.
“This is an opportunity for somebody to purchase a home that is built to the highest standard of quality,” says the listing agent, Spencer Stupka, a partner and associate broker at Charles Real Estate in Calgary. “We like to frame it as not just a typical real estate sale, but an art sale. Art that you can live in.”
After three months in the market, the Y House has piqued the interest of a handful of buyers from Calgary and from abroad.
“We have people that are looking at it as their primary residence, and also people looking at the property as a secondary residence, or a third or fourth property,” Mr. Stupka says. “People that want a very laid back, quiet, private life; where they can be detached from the city while still being only 20, 25 minutes from a grocery store.”
Calgary’s top end of the residential market has tended to move more slowly than in other Canadian cities, but this seems to be changing.
According to a report produced by Sotheby’s International Realty, in the second half of 2023 the prairie city outperformed the rest of Canada in sales over $1 million.
In January alone, 97 properties sold for $1 million or more in Calgary, a 70 per cent increase relative to the same month last year, as the number of listings in this price range also rose.
“As soon as listings go up, so do sales,” says Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist of the Calgary Real Estate Board, about her city’s heated market. “Most of the listing growth is in the higher end of the market – that’s almost 11 per cent of the listings.”
Historically, the share of listings in the upper end of the market represented about 5 per cent.
This doesn’t mean luxury options are expanding in the Calgary region, however. It’s a matter of supply and demand for a particular kind of product in specific locations.
Million-dollar-plus homes within Calgary city limits have been commonplace in exclusive neighbourhoods such as Mount Royal and Elbow Park. Increasingly, generic bungalows and semis in high-demand areas in Calgary’s inner city are being listed in this price range.
“Usually, you would expect to see a little bit higher [supply] in the upper end versus the lower end of the market,” Ms. Lurie says. “Because there’s fewer buyers that can afford in that range.”
In January, the sales-to-new-listings ratio of properties asking for $1-million or more in Calgary proper was 43 per cent, up from the typical 30 per cent. By contrast, in the Bighorn region, where Carraig Ridge is located, roughly eight out of 10 properties listed in January sold within one month.
According to Ms. Lurie, this translates into increased choice for buyers from B.C. and Ontario, who have become accustomed to heftier price tags.
“Some of the strength that we’ve been seeing as of late somewhat supports the fact that we have migration coming from higher priced markets,” she says, noting that this is driven by Calgary’s employment gains in high-paying occupations. “Median income might be one thing, but there’s also some pretty high earners in the city.”