Crystal Bueckert
“It’s like putting together a puzzle,” Crystal Bueckert, the architectural technologist behind Saskatoon’s dynamic Bldg Studio, says of the process that goes into creating the airy, space-efficient homes that have become her trademark. Now, with a move to a new studio (in co-working hot spot the Two Twenty), Bueckert is steadily growing the business she established in 2011. Her largest venture to date, the recently completed Mosaic townhouse complex in eclectic Riversdale, combines the development’s three core tenets of “modern, green and affordable”—the compact units, kitted out with heat-recovery ventilation and a fruit tree-filled courtyard, feature sleek finishes, plenty of natural light and flexible open floor plans. All 12 units were sold during construction.
“I love making people’s ideas come to life,” explains Bueckert. A successful home design, she explains, is about “using space efficiently, not wasting square footage.” The result is the streamlined, conservationminded infill properties that Bldg Studio has become known for (concrete-topped flooring, which provides radiant heating in the winter and natural cooling in the summer, is a staple for Bueckert)—designs high in demand in a rapidly growing city like Saskatoon.
Inspired by her background in fine arts (she has a BFA and she worked in galleries in Toronto for years), she’s also been instrumental in helping to launch a new design exhibition and retail space within her studio, set to open next month. Featuring products from local designers such as posters and T-shirts by Hardpressed Print Studio and handcrafted furniture from Modern Element, “it’ll be a place for the design community to come together,” says Bueckert.