28-04-2025
White: Building houses faster and better
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ATCO began in 1947 as Alberta Trailer Hire, building trailers for Alberta's budding oil and gas industry. Fast-forward to today and they have evolved into one of the world's premier modular housing companies.
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They are probably best known in Alberta for building the comfort camps for the oil sand workers north of Fort McMurray in the 1990s and 2000s. These camps are complete communities that include not only housing, but modern recreation facilities and dining halls.
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In 2019, ATCO stepped up to create its first Veterans Village in Calgary's Forest Lawn — a collection of 20 tiny homes (300 square feet) for Canadian Armed Forces members in need of housing. This concept has since been expanded to several other Canadian cities including Edmonton, Kingston and Winnipeg — with more in the works.
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Today, ATCO has two divisions working to help solve Canada's housing crisis — the existing ATCO Structures (camps and larger buildings) and the new VIVA Homes by ATCO (resulting from the acquisition of Triple M Housing (2023) and NBR modular (2024). These two divisions will allow ATCO to be a major player in new home construction in Calgary and beyond.
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ATCO Structures was engaged by Attainable Homes Calgary (providers of below-market homes for rent and ownership) to create its new Downtown West residential building at 1010 6th Ave. S.W. The double pitched-roof building looks like three six-storey attached homes. In reality, it has 84 new rental homes, created by stacking 48 modules on top of each other and took just 69 days to assemble. This summer look for ATCO Structures and Attainable Homes Calgary to announce the construction of a 180 below-market home project in Albert Park/Radisson Heights.
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VIVA Homes
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Perhaps you have recently driven by ATCO's world headquarters just off Crowchild Trail at 50th Avenue S.W. and wondered, 'What is that huge black and white house doing there?' It is VIVA's demonstration building, showcasing how ATCO can create four homes (two three-bedroom homes on top of two one-bedroom homes at street level) on a typical 50-foot by120-foot Calgary infill lot, using their modular technology. FYI: This is not a public show home; it is for home builders and developers to see what VIVA Homes is capable of building.
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The biggest advantage of VIVA's modular building process is you can go from 'shovel to sleeping' in 48 days. It takes just six weeks to complete the modules needed, which are then shipped to the site 'fully loaded' — complete with windows with blinds, kitchen and bathrooms with cupboards, vanity, sinks, showers, backsplash, as well as electrical, plumbing and flooring. Just tie in the services and move in the furniture.
