Future Cities Canada Spotlight: Housing Innovations

Biindigen (Two Row Architects and KPMB Architects)

Biindigen (the Ojibwe word for “Welcome”) is a housing hub development in northeastern Hamilton, Ontario. It was designed to reflect Indigenous ways of thinking, knowing and being. Biindigen’s innovation has been the understanding that housing affordability can be better achieved when considered alongside other community well-being costs. This includes affordable child care and health care, and proximity to nature.

Healthy House Apartments (P&R Developments Inc.)

Recent amendments to the Toronto Zoning Bylaw have created opportunities for re-imagining single-family housing. Healthy House Apartments takes advantage of those emerging laneway bylaws. It replaces a single detached house with two semi-detached fourplexes with laneway suites. These are certified to a Passive House standard. This gentle-density approach addresses land ownership and availability issues. It also increases housing availability, which could help lower average housing prices for buyers and renters.

HousingNowTO.com (HousingNowTO)

HousingNowTO.com is a volunteer-run, pro-bono open-source web platform. It shares and explains the details of the City of Toronto’s affordable housing development sites. Its team of experts update and translate information for residents affected by development projects and municipal processes and operations. This bridges the communications and information gap between housing professionals (such as planners) and the average resident. This increased engagement helps improve support for affordable housing development.

Love the Laneways (The Laneway Project)

This initiative seeks to transform neglected urban laneways into vibrant community places in neighborhoods undergoing housing intensification. It seeks to protect and support the culture and landscape of neighborhoods through low-cost, community-centered improvements. These are chosen by the residents as a way to retain the vibrancy of their neighborhoods. They also provide spaces and opportunities for engagement by new residents.

Modular Housing Initiative (City of Toronto)

This project builds small-scale infill housing by using high-quality, pre-fabricated modular homes. It also helps connect people experiencing homelessness with homes and appropriate supports to help them achieve housing stability. The use of modular housing reduces construction time and cost, helping meet the immediate needs of people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Partnerships with non-profit service providers also help support resident needs, including access to food and health services.

NEXII Whole Building Solution (NEXII Building Solutions Inc.)

NEXII is a whole-building solution that improves the energy efficiency and climate impacts of new and existing buildings. It focuses on energy retrofits and green design to improve existing housing and commercial building spaces. It also invests in a smaller footprint for new developments. This model reduces residential operating costs for renters and homeowners, and reduces construction costs and waste for developers and investors.

Parcel (School of Cities, University of Toronto)

Parcel is a digital matchmaking platform to connect creative mixed-use initiatives and stakeholders. This supports forming public–private–non-profit partnerships to deliver mixed-use affordable housing and elderly care facilities. Parcel acts as a new way to facilitate and spark collaboration, matching networks based on needs, resources and constraints. This helps create the strong partnerships needed to speed up affordable housing in mixed-use projects.

The Rooming House Project (Dixon Hall)

The Rooming House is a restoration project of 4 rooming houses in Cabbagetown (a Toronto neighborhood). It combines historical restoration and sustainable retrofitting with affordable housing and integrated social support. The project demonstrates the importance of non-profit organizations with specialist knowledge working with municipal partners with land and/or resources.

SAFERhome's Measurable Certification for Universal Home Design (The SAFERhome Standards Society)

This project is a certification standard to support accessible design and residential modifications. Its focus is allowing seniors to age in place and supporting residents with disabilities. Developing a standard is critical for addressing community and accessibility needs for aging populations, young children and people living with disabilities. Ensuring that housing is intentionally built to be adaptable and safe reduces the cost burden from homeowners and landowners.

SHINE (Seniors Services Society of British Columbia)

SHINE aims to ensure that seniors can age in place and avoid housing precarity. Research has indicated that navigating online platforms for housing and health is a growing barrier for aging populations. The SHINE platform takes a collaborative approach to supporting housing navigation, community service connections and community collaboration. Its innovation is supporting aging in place by first developing a deep understanding of the challenges and barriers seniors face.

Tower Renewal Partnership (Centre for Urban Growth & Renewal)

This nonprofit initiative works through research, advocacy and demonstration to transform postwar towers and their surrounding neighborhoods. Its goal is to make them more sustainable, resilient and healthy places, fully integrated into their growing cities. It focuses on deep energy retrofits that enhance the sustainability of both the housing supply and the community. Renewing postwar towers is also an opportunity to use existing infrastructure to retain affordable housing.

Usine de peinture Bétonel (Brique par Brique)

This project is converting a paint factory (peinture Bétonel) into a social housing cooperative of 30 affordable and wheelchair accessible units. Located in Montreal’s Parc Extension neighborhood, the community-driven design will be supported with community resources. This includes child care, translation services and cooperative management training. This is made possible by its innovative financing model, which uses community bonds and earnings from Brique par Brique’s business activities.