What we strive for at the end of the day is
to have clients who are extremely happy
about the work we do after all this is who
it impacts – they are the ones who live or
work in our designs.”
WORKING IN THE
CARIBBEAN
Although Wright’s is licensed in Ontario,
Manitoba and Nova Scotia. ACI’s opera-
tions in Toronto has also contributed to
designs for a World Trade Centre in Oman
and several lightweight concrete homes in
South Africa.
“As we’ve grown, we’ve gone all over the
place,”Wright said. “We’re not afraid to go
far afield.”
The company went as far as developing
a niche in the Caribbean when it restored
a 200-year-old villa in Barbados. When
Wright and his client arrived in Barbados,
he was given the week to immerse him-
self in the history and culture of the area,
an experience he described as a “huge
eye-opener”.
“As with anything else, if you go to a dif-
ferent country or place… you have to learn
about the local area, the history and the
culture. Putting somebody’s building in
there, you have to know where you’re fit-
ting into that fabric of society,”Wright said.
Going into the project, Wright didn’t ful-
ly realized what a major undertaking it
would become. The challenges of design-
ing a building in the Caribbean proved to
be quite unlike that of building in Canada.
The salty air, for example, eats away all the
metal in the building and termites can be
a nuisance.
“You open up the wall and there’s no wood
in the walls. The plaster is holding up the
wall because the termites have eaten all
the wood behind it,” Wright exclaimed.
Other challenges circle around money and
the project Wright was involved in nearly a
decade ago in Grenada is a good example
of this. This long-term-stay, apartment-
style building was innovative from the very
beginning and was designed to incorporate
modern green technology. ACI designed a
rainwater collection system off the roof
due to water shortages during the dry sea-
son. The building was also equipped with
solar hot water technology.
JUNE 2016
H
business elite canada
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