Gerrard Healthy Housing

For : P+R Development

This project is the first project for an environmentally conscious builder/developer in Toronto as an infill rental project. Addressing the chronic affordable housing crisis this building replaces a single-family home on an urban arterial, ten minutes from the core by Go Train, with eight generously scaled, two-bedroom rental units, and two, three bedroom, Laneway Houses close to existing amenities like parks, schools, and community facilities.

The approvals were all within the restrictive Zoning Guidelines and only required a severance of this fifty-foot-wide lot. Hoping to be a prototype for other such infill opportunities close to the centre of the city, this project explores several experimental materials and construction processes to create deep affordability and sustainability.  Using prefabricated wood framed cavity walls will reduce on-site labour, costs, and site construction transportation emissions.  Entirely concrete free, it will be Passive House Certified and targets an almost zero embodied carbon palette by using a variety of innovative insulations like foamed glass gravel subfloor insulation, and preserved wood foundations.