Calgreen Homes gives new meaning to “treehouse”.

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Nick Hahn founded Calgreen Homes in 2018 with a mission to build inspiring inner-city homes. One of his latest creations, a single-family home on Capitol Hill, is proof of that goal.

“Many inner-city stuffy houses are cramped and they can be boring with dark corridors. That's why I like to create special spaces inside,” says Khan, who has a master's degree in architecture and construction management.

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With that in mind, he designed a 3,059-square-foot, three-story infill at 1725 20th Ave., which includes about 30 feet of vertical interior space. The main floor is open to the second floor and the third floor. This open space fills the house with light, which is the perfect environment for growing indoor plants. This gave Khan a great design moment when sketching a luxury home.

“In that sunken area of ​​the main space, I built a foundation wall, thus leaving dirt for the enclosed garden. We installed gravel and weep tile for proper drainage and insulated the foundation. Then we were able to plant trees on the ground,” he says.

The tree in his sky-sparkling masterpiece is Ficus Alii, an indoor ornamental fig tree that develops a thick trunk and grows to about 10 feet or even 33 feet. It's common to grow tropical trees indoors in pots or atriums in Calgary, but a tree rooted in the ground has only been seen in our city before by Peter Hughes, owner of Pete's Plantman.

“That's what a guy who built a house in the Mission Hill area in the 70s did. It also had a two-story open feature, but I wouldn't call it a trend. “I would say living walls are the most popular indoor feature right now,” he says.

Despite the unique biophilic centerpiece, Hahn says none of the functionality has been lost in the $1,589,800 home. It has a full kitchen, dining room, mudroom and half bath. There is a second family room and three bedrooms, each with a private bathroom. The third floor has a bonus room and two covered patios.

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Khan is an architect and designer of his own houses. Another recent project in the same Capitol Hill neighborhood, this renovation, earned his company the 2023 Best Renovation Award from the Calgary Region Appendices for Construction Industry and Land Development in April. It also received national attention on May 10 at the Canadian Home Builders Association's National Residential Excellence Awards. Calgreen was awarded the Best Home Renovation Award for $500,001 to $800,000.

The winning home at 20th Avenue and 18th Street NW was a single-family home built in the 1960s by a well-known local architect. It had many midcentury design elements that Han wanted to preserve, particularly the wall and ceiling paneling and the unique concrete block patio.

“He had a lot of features that I kept. “The house was expanded and a second floor was added,” he says.

Today, Calgreen focuses on townhomes, single-family homes and duplexes.

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