In a storefront in Canmore, Alberta, 3DS took a selection of the most basic rustic materials and created an environmentally sustainable real estate sales center with a stunningly contemporary look and feel. Recycled materials are used extensively, including a huge reclaimed timber bar top. Lifestyle activities, amenities and aspects of the area’s distinctive character are shown throughout the space, both in the display graphics as well as in the fixtures and components themselves. Visitors are surrounded by illuminated interactive display panels and embedded monitors. The entire experience is completely controlled from a single iPod Touch. In this unique fabrication, which evokes a very modern mountain lodge, there is even a full-service cafe, an uncommon feature in presentation centres design.
The contemporary character is carried through to its nearby sister facility, also in Canmore, Alberta. The Mountain Village Presentation Center celebrates the rough mountaineering life in a polished, modern style. An enormous 17-foot-long “picnic table”, displays ski resorts and other recreational facilities within a 50 mile radius on a hand-carved wooden map. Although brand new, the table map looks weathered and worn, carved into by years of successive campers. As the center’s focal point, 3DS sculpted two full-sized Elk from reclaimed wood, in recognition of the huge natural Elk migration corridor that runs through the property and of the Developer’s measures to preserve that corridor. Surrounded by expertly carved Birch trees under custom wire mesh lighting, visitors gather and talk around a virtual campfire.