Intent
The intent of this design is to provide attractive, live-able, buildable, and most important, marketable housing. The project offers a variety of housing opportunities ranging from two twenty-unit rental clusters to smaller three-, five- and seven-unit building clusters which would be sold. The housing forms developed will blend into and reinforce the existing single family fabric of the community. A large majority of the housing designs are single level on grade and as such are readily accessible to the handicapped and elderly.
The three-, five- and seven-unit building clusters which dominate the development impart a strong sense of neighbourhood identity. The result is a series of mini-neighbourhoods each with a combination of unit clusters. These groups are arranged on the site to offer a large variety of views to and from the units thus creating an exciting, varied streetscape. While maintaining the efficiencies of attached housing, the housing in these neighbourhoods offer the privacy and individuality of detached homes. Interlocking units provide private outdoor space for each dwelling but most important, achieve the appearance of a substantial single-family dwelling. Building forms developed meet with the traditional aspirations of single-family buyers.
The provision of individual garages for the five- and seven-unit groupings introduces a recognizable single-family element while at the same time providing useful car coverage, work area, storage and mechanical area. The garages have been oriented to avoid the monotonous domination of a streetscape by garage doors. They contribute in the formation of private exterior courtyard entry spaces, which in turn act as buffer zones between the privacy of one's house and the public neighbourhood.
The unit clusters have the effect of freeing large portions of land for development of common park spaces. Each neighbourhood has a space where children can play and be supervised within view of their own home.
The concept of mini-neighbourhoods has been carried over to the design of the rental units. The twenty-unit clusters are grouped around a central park-like common area off which all entries to the units are located. The play space for small toddlers is a central feature and is easily visible from all units. Elements of single-family design have been injected, such as the creation of individual entries from grade level and the provision of private outdoor space in most cases a patio area with rear yard. The two-storey nature of the building forms is intended to blend with the one and one-half-storey housing forms of the existing community. Parking is located to the outside of the clusters to intensify the sense of park-like space surrounding the units.
Energy
Conservation of energy was tackled primarily in the design of the building envelope. Utilization of R-20 insulation in the 50 x 150 mm walls and R-40 in the ventilated attic space goes a long way to reduce energy loss through the building skin. The design also made efforts to ensure that there was minimal infiltration of cold air into the building by the careful application of vapour barriers and caulking of exterior joints. Vestibules were incorporated in every unit to further reduce heat loss in the building. By connecting the building together, the amount of exterior wall surface was significantly reduced. Wood double-glazed windows of conservative proportions are specified to conserve as much heat as practical.
The proposed mechanical system is basically divided into two categories. One is a forced-air furnace heating system and the other is a central boiler heating plant. Both systems are considered to be about equal in energy efficiencies.
The forced-air heating system has been selected for the individual housing units because of the split title/ownership nature. Each unit will be complete with its own furnace, fuel oil storage tank and automatic temperature control for comfort. The initial cost is relatively low for small groups of housing. Each owner will provide his own operating and maintenance costs.
This system is chosen because of the relative ease in maintenance and servicing. Regular servicing will require only a change of filter and fan-motor lubrication. Intermittent servicing will include the cleaning of the heat exchanger.
A central boiler plant has been selected for the apartment complex. Hot water will be generated by the boilers and distributed to each individual suite which will have its own automatic temperature control. This system is selected due to the servicing nature of the building because usually an on-site maintenance manager is required to look after the complex. The only service required is usually right at the boiler plant and therefore the tenants will not be disturbed.
Both systems selected are flexible and easy to adapt to further change especially to an add-on solar/hot water central-heating plant. The furnace system can be modified by adding a hot water heating coil and the boiler plant can be easily converted and tied into a solar-heating plant. A solar-heating concept will require in-depth studies because of the high initial cost and the long pay-back period of the system.
Construction
The project is designed to incorporate the savings of standard wood-frame house construction. Several time- and labour-saving opportunities were employed to reduce construction time and thus save on costs. Due to the close proximity of bedrock to the surface, it was decided to eliminate basements in the units and thus the need for extensive and costly excavation. This savings allowed most of the on-site trees to be saved and integrated into the landscape. The slab-on-grade solution also allowed savings to be redirected to provide garages and other amenities for the units.
The use of 50 x 150 mm studs on 600 mm centres allows a greater amount of insulation to be used in the exterior walls without increasing construction costs or times. The economy of premanufactured roof trusses employed in conjunction with plywood truss-joists realizes considerable savings in time and manpower.
Drawings
Connecting the individual homes together allowed a single service trench to be dug at each cluster and the services distributed to each house under the slab adding to the savings for land servicing costs.
This construction package will offer considerable savings to the potential developer and ultimately the home buyer or renter while ensuring a high-quality project.
(From competition program)
Where Submission 10 was oriented primarily to free-hold tenure, Submission 17 seemed oriented to the rental and condominium markets. One juror even ruminated on its special appeal for "empty nesters". Where Submission 10 was oriented to vehicular movement patterns, Submission 17 had a cluster pattern which gave priority at least symbolically to pedestrian routes over vehicular ones. Where Submission 10 treated the units relatively discretely, Submission 17 grouped them "picturesquely" to convey a strong symbolic image of an enclave.
One juror summed up his views on Submission 17 in describing it as a very sophisticated version of the current "state of the art" in medium density housing, as opposed to the controversial statement represented by Submission 10 or for that matter, Submission 4. Within this frame of reference, the jury was most impressed with Submission 17, recognizing its adroit orientation to current taste and its complete-ness as a "consumer package". Its massing and elevation treatments were mostly regarded as successful and the designer's ability to create apparent elaborateness out of what were really very simple units evoked admiration from most jurors.
The major reservation the jurors shared about Submission 17 had to do with the fact that it limited its concern with energy conservation primarily to the development of a well-insulated building envelope. The submission seemed to them less interesting in regard to this issue, then in regard to most others.
To sum up then, the unit planning was commended, the site planning admired (within conventional parameters) and the "volumetric dexterity" of the designer well regarded.
(From jury report)
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