Sometimes all it takes to start a revolution in thought is for a single person to have a good idea, the right team and the courage to pursue the dream.
John Anjo is one such person. He’s the Director and owner of DwellTech, and his innovative ideas are set to make a mark on the construction industry in B.C. and beyond with a technology as up to date as the virtual reality he employs to show off his
creations. Yet at its heart, his distinctive curved roof designs are both classic and enduring.
It wasn’t an easy concept to get across to people when Anjo first arrived on Canada’s West Coast.
“We encountered some skeptics who said these ideas would never work,” said Anjo. “But luckily, I didn’t have to answer to them. I wanted to do this and, now, with a lot of hard work, we have.”
What Anjo did was to decide that the cottage and small home market was ripe for an alternative to classic frame construction. He believed that there were more aesthetically pleasing and sustainable alternatives that were better suited to the natural beauty of the West Coast he now called home.
Making full use of his 20 years of construction and design experience in the Caribbean, Anjo came to B.C. with the thought that he could improve on the conventional construction methods employed for cottages, resorts, and small homes in suburban or rural locations.
His idea was to take the classic Quonset hut style and adapt it to the 21st century.
“The curved design of our buildings compliment the landscape and are at the same time aesthetically pleasing and calming. They don’t intrude into natural surroundings, they blend,” said Anjo.
The sturdy structures meet or exceed all of B.C.’s building codes and are more environmentally friendly, given that the US steel used for the roof and walls contains at least 30% recycled content. As well, by virtue of the fact that each unit’s materials are custom made on site, there is virtually no waste - no bins of scrap material litter the building sites.
The structures are energy efficient and have a projected service life of 300 years. Not a claim made for the average frame construction project.
“It wasn’t always easy converting John’s visions to specific plans, but he was great to work with,” said lead CAD Tech, Jason Yoo, who has worked with Anjo to bring his dreams to reality.
“But John would sit with me, fine tuning the floor plans and designs to where we now have a variety of beautiful floor plans that really work. I’m proud of the work we did and excited about his vision for a better way of building these structures,” said Yoo.
More information on Dwell Tech can be found at www.dwelltech.ca
DwellTech will be at the Island Agricultural Fair in Port Alberni Feb. 3-4. you can find them and take a virtual tour of a cottage at Booth #45.