Location: Woodstock, ON
Client: Indwell
Year of Completion: 2019
Construction Budget: $6,179,000
Architect of Record: Invizij Architects
This project is helping to lead the way towards Oxford County’s goal of using 100% renewable energy. It redeveloped a 1970s bungalow-style group home into 34 one-bedroom apartments for tenants living independently with supports. The project targets Passive House International certification, with net-positive electrical generation on site. The development also has modeled greenhouse gas emission reductions of 70% compared to a baseline Code building.
Programmatic elements for the complex include a community kitchen and gathering spaces, laundry facilities for the tenants in the building and the broader housing complex – 61 units total, and meeting rooms and offices for support staff. Native landscaping and outdoor tenant amenity spaces extend the development’s intentional community-building attributes across the site.
The construction utilized a Passive House-certified prefabricated wall system called BuildSmart, which achieves an R55 effective thermal blanket around the building. The development also includes a full-building energy monitoring system, helping advance industry knowledge of how high-efficiency designs actually perform. This should prove useful in achieving our necessary low-energy, low-carbon future. The industry information sharing from the project is supported in part by Natural Resources Canada and CMHC.
