Housing Supply Challenge Round 4 – Building for the Future Shortlist

Explore the shortlisted applicants and their solutions for building a better future.

Adaptive Prefabricated Housing for Remote to Rural Seniors & First Nations Communities
Building sustainable housing in Canada’s north to provide for inclusive climate action that supports our most vulnerable populations
Breaking Ground: Multi-family at the scale of a single-family lots
Carbonated magnesium cements from salt water: A pathway to carbon negative alternative cements cast into highly resilient building envelope panels.
Construct360: The all-in-one construction database and cost estimation toolkit for affordable housing projects in today’s development landscape!
Construction Cost Set Designer
Development of Self-Powered Wireless Switches and Sensors for Reduced Wiring Costs and Enhanced Energy Efficiency
Digital twin-informed engineered timber retrofits for sustainable preservation, upgrading and reuse of existing housing supplies
Eden Dwellings: Innovating construction technology to empower people with thoughtfully designed homes.
Guidelines for residential equipment and architectural assemblies to cope with flooding
Home Relocation & Repurposing Program (HRRP): Providing affordable housing to vulnerable populations by preserving and relocating high-quality homes.
Housing as a product - Our homes won’t be BUILT; they will be manufactured.
Innovative Combined HVAC & DHW All-Electric Solution for Net Zero Ready Affordable Housing
Innovative Formwork Software for Efficient Housing Construction
Intergenerational apartments: A new type of affordable housing
‘Kit-of-Parts’ Platform System (KOPPS) to Provide Affordable, Sustainable and Resilient Housing in Canada
Lemons to Lemonade – Demonstration project revitalizing on-reserve housing to modern standards to keep Elders and young families in the community.
Modular single room occupancy co-living housing system
Moose Cree Housing Design Prototype
Prefabricated 12-storey Mass-Timber NZE Addition for Existing Buildings
Scaling High-Performance Housing Production for the Boreal Climate
Single Stair Alternative Solutions: Construction Innovation for Affordable “Missing Middle” Housing
Skeetchestn Dodeca-Homes: traditional, customizable ready to assemble modular housing system
Standardized and configurable multi-manufacturer volumetric construction system for high-volume orders
Platform for Remote Construction Inspections

Adaptive Prefabricated Housing for Remote to Rural Seniors & First Nations Communities

Michael Green Architecture

Remote coastal and island communities in northern and rural British Columbia face difficulties in obtaining adequate housing due to logistical, supply and site conditions.

Michael Green Architecture is working with industry experts and BC Passivehouse to adapt a pre-built structure to decrease demand for supplies and services in remote locations. The system is easy to adjust, repeat and deploy at short notice. BC Passivehouse will supply the building frame, while an adaptable building kit will be used for foundations, servicing, and structures.

The program considers community material and energy requirements to decrease implementation complexity, time, and expenses.

Building sustainable housing in Canada’s north to provide for inclusive climate action that supports our most vulnerable populations

Wilfrid Laurier University

Over 40% of households in the Northwest Territories don't currently meet the nation's housing standards. One in 6 Indigenous people live in crowded conditions and face higher costs due to logistical and weather challenges.

A team from Wilfrid Laurier University in collaboration with other organizations are creating climate-resilient, affordable and sustainable tiny homes to deliver to remote Indigenous communities affected by the severe housing crisis and climate change impacts. The goal is to withstand the harsh northern climate while being energy-efficient and transported affordably.

Breaking Ground: Multi-family at the scale of a single-family lots

Smallworks Studios and Laneway Housing Inc.

The British Columbia Government is allowing up to 4 units on lots in the province, providing more housing options. This is like the post-war boom and Smallworks, an experienced infill housing development design-build company, is leading the project. Since traditional construction practices may not meet the demand, faster, cheaper, and more efficient building methods are required.

Carbonated magnesium cements from salt water: A pathway to carbon negative alternative cements cast into highly resilient building envelope panels.

ZS2 Technologies Ltd.

ZS2 creates construction materials that are strong, safe, and healthy for the planet. Their approach captures CO2 and uses it to create valuable building materials. Their cement formula is cost-effective, carbon-negative, and energy-efficient. They offer prefabricated building panels and products that lower the environmental impact and construction time. Their method generates carbon credits and reduces waste. They turn waste and minerals into high-capacity CO2 storage cements. ZS2 offers affordable and sustainable alternatives to current practices. Cement is precast into concrete tiles and panels to reduce construction time and energy use.

Construct360: The all-in-one construction database and cost estimation toolkit for affordable housing projects in today’s development landscape!

Construct360

Building affordable homes was delayed in 2022 due to rising construction costs. Nonprofits saw a 50% increase in construction costs from 2021 to 2022 and a 20-30% increase year-over-year. Construct360 will track construction materials and labor costs almost in real-time. The online data system will automatically track key materials and labor costs, providing line-by-line construction costs for different assets and financial models. All non-profit and housing organizations will get free access to the construction modeling online system. Using the construction database, construction estimation models from 2015-2023 will be adjusted to today’s costs to help make cost comparisons and determine the most affordable construction methods for housing completions.

Construction Cost Set Designer

TAS

Construction Cost Set Designer is a digital database of building components that provides upfront certainty of construction costs for rental and condo housing projects. It uses a target-value delivery process derived from high-performance healthcare projects. This solution reduces iterations and overall costs, and TAS aims to pilot it at 880 Eastern Avenue in Toronto, using incubation funding. To support its development, TAS will consult with SvN Architects + Planners, EQ Building Performance, Pomerleau, and Archangel Ventures. Ultimately, TAS intends to scale the solution to an open-source database featuring Canadian-made products.

Development of Self-Powered Wireless Switches and Sensors for Reduced Wiring Costs and Enhanced Energy Efficiency

University of Alberta

Self-powered wireless switches and sensors can reduce the cost of electrical wiring for homes. The battery-powered option requires frequent maintenance for battery replacement or recharging. The project aims to create wireless switches and sensors powered by ambient radio frequency energy, using advancements in wireless power transfer and ultra-low-power wireless transceiver. Their deployment may cut electrical wiring costs by up to 50% and overall construction costs by up to 4%. Homeowners can save thousands of dollars in long-term energy efficiency.

Digital twin-informed engineered timber retrofits for sustainable preservation, upgrading and reuse of existing housing supplies

The Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning/McGill University

Canada is currently experiencing a housing crisis. There is a shortage of available housing and the cost of constructing new houses is high. The situation is made worse by the fact that many existing buildings are reaching the end of their useful lives, while others are vacant and desperately in need of renovation. One innovative solution being proposed is to use digital twin-informed engineered timber to retrofit these buildings. This approach can help improve the structural and environmental performance of existing structures, thereby reducing carbon emissions and increasing housing availability. The project is focused on Eastern Canada, where most of the nation's population resides. It is being led by a team of experts from McGill and Carleton University, with backgrounds in architecture, engineering, government, and conservation.

Eden Dwellings: Innovating construction technology to empower people with thoughtfully designed homes.

Eden Accessory Dwellings Inc.

EDEN Accessory Dwellings (EDEN) uses advanced technology to improve the design, construction, and installation of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). The goal is to create affordable housing options due to rising interest rates, home prices, and limited supply. By manufacturing ADUs in 30 days, retailing their Standard Model at $75,000 with sustainable materials, and enhancing accessibility features, EDEN expects to achieve this goal. The founders of EDEN have extensive experience in construction management and have scaled prefabricated framing structures in their state-of-the-art facility.

Guidelines for residential equipment and architectural assemblies to cope with flooding

Architecture Sans Frontières Québec

Architecture sans frontières Québec and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique propose a guidelines for handling flooding in homes and structures. The solution increases the resilience of homes against urban and open-water flooding, while keeping long-term costs low. Construction and installation techniques for protective equipment will be detailed. Implementation includes assessing capabilities, producing technical specifications, and communicating them to stakeholders and decision-making authorities. This is applicable to existing and new construction.

Home Relocation & Repurposing Program (HRRP): Providing affordable housing to vulnerable populations by preserving and relocating high-quality homes.

Light House Sustainability Society

In British Columbia, 700 high-value family homes are demolished each year. The solution team wants to save and relocate those homes to communities in need, including First Nations and exurban areas. This approach is 40-50% more affordable than prefab or new construction and can be completed as quickly as prefab, but 2-3x faster than new construction. Moving homes also moves housing towards circular economic models and significantly reduces waste. Scaling the solution depends on improving data collection, mapping tools, guides, resources, promotions, and partnerships. The lead organization is the Light House Sustainability Society, partnered with Renewal Home Development, Nickel Bros, Sechelt Nation, Aboriginal Housing Management Association (AHMA), and BC Non-Profit Housing Association (BCNPHA).

Housing as a product - Our homes won’t be BUILT; they will be manufactured.

R-HAUZ Solutions Inc.

Building affordable housing faces multiple challenges such as inefficient custom designs, project delays, and supply chain problems. Productivity in construction has declined in the last 75 years, costing the global economy $1.6 trillion per year. Innovation in materials and building codes is offering new solutions to tackle Canada's affordable housing crisis. Combining modular techniques with sustainable building materials provides repeatable, high-quality housing products that can be built faster, more sustainably, and at a lower cost. R-Hauz is the leader in standardized, pre-manufactured mass timber, and mid-rise housing solutions that make the process faster, more affordable, and more sustainable through technology.

Innovative Combined HVAC & DHW All-Electric Solution for Net Zero Ready Affordable Housing

Peel Passive House Consulting Ltd

Peel Passive House Consulting is spearheading a Net Zero Ready Affordable Housing project alongside key partners. The project is designed to test an all-electric heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and domestic hot water (DHW) solution for use in small, cost-effective multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs). We aim to validate cold air distribution systems as a viable solution for Net Zero Ready MURBs, while demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of switching from propane to low-load electric Cold Climate Heat Pumps units (CCHPs). The project will take place in Bancroft, ON, a rural community that requires affordable housing and overly relies on propane for space heating and DHW.

Innovative Formwork Software for Efficient Housing Construction

Formula Consulting Inc.

Formula Consulting creates cost-cutting software for civil construction ventures. Formwork makes up 40 to 50% of structural costs. Improved design speed and construction efficiency result in avoiding expenses. Formwork refers to temporary structures used to construct large concrete buildings. There's potential for optimization in the formwork process. and there’s been strong interest expressed by industry leader PERI Formwork Systems.

Intergenerational apartments: A new type of affordable housing

Village Urbain

Multigenerational households are becoming more common in Canada due to high housing prices, loneliness, and an aging population. However, housing construction has not met their needs. Multifamily housing doesn't provide enough options for this group. Multigenerational households can save money on care and taxes and increase affordable housing. Village Urbain and Sid Lee Architecture propose a new type of housing called the multigenerational apartment to accommodate different generations and families at affordable prices. This type of housing can help architects, developers, and municipalities create affordable housing.

‘Kit-of-Parts’ Platform System (KOPPS) to Provide Affordable, Sustainable and Resilient Housing in Canada

University of British Columbia

Creating affordable homes in Canada using 3D printing and robotic fabrication faces challenges. To solve this, the "kit-of-parts" platform system (KOPPS) approach is used to build affordable prefab homes. KOPPS simplifies installation of kit-of-parts components based on building codes, minimizing rework and costs. The project is led by UBC with community and industrial partners, aiming to reduce technical and management barriers to housing supply. KOPPS can be used for all types of housing projects.

Lemons to Lemonade – Demonstration project revitalizing on-reserve housing to modern standards to keep Elders and young families in the community.

Ktunaxa Enterprises Limited on behalf of Ktunaxa Enrichment Society

In the 1950s and 60s, houses on reserves were poorly designed and are currently in poor condition. Many of these houses were not built for accessibility or aging-in-place and need to be upgraded. There's a debate on whether to demolish and replace them, while the Ktunaxa Elders Society renovates six of them to meet modern high-performance standards. The project aims to create housing models suitable for young families and the aging population.

Modular single room occupancy co-living housing system

Happipad Technologies Inc.

Happipad is a Canadian provider of home-sharing services. They recognized a need for more people to live together in already existing housing. Happipad suggests using Single Room Occupancy (SRO) modular houses to tackle this issue. The SROs can be mounted onto existing structures to create shared living spaces. Happipad, Elzenwest, and LifeTec are coming together for this project. Happipad will lead the project, Elzenwest will take care of the site installations, and LifeTec will produce the modules.

Moose Cree Housing Design Prototype

Moose Cree First Nation

The substandard construction of housing causes a crisis. Mold issues arise from poor insulation, air quality and air leakage. This poses a risk to families' mental and physical health. There is not enough housing for the high demand in a rural community located on Moose Factory Island in Northern Ontario. The Moose Cree First Nation is developing a new housing prototype with Indigenous-led solutions reflecting cultural values. They seek to create comfortable, affordable, climate-compatible, culturally appropriate housing.

Prefabricated 12-storey Mass-Timber NZE Addition for Existing Buildings

Archangel Ventures Inc

Archangel Ventures proposes adding a Net Zero Emissions (NZE) mass-timber structure to existing class B and C office buildings within 12-18 months. The structure has a 7,500-square foot floorplate that provides about 130 homes. Many of these office buildings have underutilized air rights that Archangel is aiming to repurpose for diverse residential use. By using mass-timber, Archangel Ventures can adapt stranded office buildings using the material's high strength-to-weight ratio. The venture is partnering with Multiplex Construction, Element 5, and TAS to deliver the project.

Scaling High-Performance Housing Production for the Boreal Climate

SHED (Strategic, Healthy, Ecological Design) Ltd.

There's a housing affordability problem despite sustainability efforts. SHED Ltd. and Simple Life Homes are teaming up to streamline housing development. They'll improve existing housing systems, make more in northern Ontario, and have an online platform for people to choose from. They're starting with a pilot manufacturing facility on BMI Groups' former Red Rock Mill lands. They'll also train people in local communities to build new facilities. They'll create a catalogue of the different types of homes and materials they use. The project makes construction easier, lowers costs, and helps local economies.

Single Stair Alternative Solutions: Construction Innovation for Affordable “Missing Middle” Housing

LGA Architectural Partners

In Canada, residential buildings with multiple units need more than one exit for safety. In other countries, small residential buildings can have one exit staircase without compromising safety, which increases efficiency of each floor and makes building smaller properties more possible while improving safety, sustainability, and design flexibility. Architects can propose different methods to prove equal performance with more fire-protection measures if needed. LGA Architectural Partners has over 30 years of experience with affordable housing and will work with a fire protection engineer to submit a proposal. The goal is to create innovative construction for affordable "missing middle" housing in Toronto that can be used across Canada.

Skeetchestn Dodeca-Homes: traditional, customizable ready to assemble modular housing system

Skeetchestn Natural Resources LLP

Dodeca-Homes offers eco-friendly and affordable homes that can be assembled quickly. The design is based on Secwepemc First Nations' traditional homes and is aimed at Indigenous communities facing high demand for housing. Overcrowded, multi-generational homes often create unhealthy living conditions for Indigenous families. Dodeca-Homes addresses this issue by providing modern housing options that can be locked up within a month. Their goal is to create a durable and scalable structure that meets homeowners' growing needs while being compatible with the climate.

Standardized and configurable multi-manufacturer volumetric construction system for high-volume orders

Bureau de Promotion des Produits du Bois du Québec (QWEB)

QWEB has brought together manufacturers of building modules to produce standardized components and connectors that meet high-volume, multi-manufacturer orders for affordable housing in Canada. The Gokit system helps to distribute high-volume orders among different production sites for modular buildings. The objective is to promote construction and building efficiency, with a focus on technical, energy, and environmental performance, to achieve carbon-neutrality.

Platform for Remote Construction Inspections

AECO Innovation Lab Inc.

AECO and First Nations National Building Officers Association are creating a tool to remotely inspect newly built and existing homes using 3D capture. The digital platform will better connect communities with inspection providers, enabling better inspection services for Indigenous communities. This platform allows for rigorous inspections, fostering faster, safer, and more resilient housing. The use of this platform ultimately leads to significant long-term cost savings.