Canadian Funding Corp Reviews CMHC Sustainability Reports

Canadian Funding Corp Reviews Sustainability, August, 2009 – The Government of Canada today marked the start of construction of the Harmony House demonstration project, an energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly home to be built in Burnaby.

The home will be designed by Habitat Design + Consulting Ltd. and constructed by Insightful Healthy Homes Inc. as part of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC’s) EQuilibrium™ Sustainable Housing Demonstration Initiative, which encourages designers, builders and developers to design and build the next generation of sustainable housing in Canada.

Senator Yonah Martin, on behalf of the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Minister Responsible for CMHC, was joined today by Chris Mattock, President, Habitat Design + Consulting Ltd. and Arthur Lo, President, Insightful Healthy Homes Inc., along with sponsors and supporters in the ground-breaking of one of two EQuilibrium™ demonstration homes to be constructed in British Columbia.

“The Government of Canada is pleased to work with the private sector to develop such innovative homes. We congratulate Habitat Design + Consulting Ltd. and Insightful Healthy Homes Inc. on their winning design/concept and commitment to environmental responsibility,” said Senator Martin. “Harmony House is another example in British Columbia of how beautiful and healthy homes can also conserve energy and resources, and reduce pollutant emissions.”

The Harmony House team will integrate optimal solar orientation, energy efficiency and renewable energy systems into the design and construction of the home, in addition to using natural materials with low levels of pollutants. Photovoltaic panels will supply all the electrical energy needs of the home on an annual basis. Excess electrical energy produced during the day will be fed into the power grid. A “green switch” will turn off all unnecessary circuits at night and when the occupants are out. To reduce water use, landscaping will incorporate indigenous plants which will be irrigated with captured rainwater.

“We are very pleased to collaborate with CMHC and are extremely excited about how this project has come together,” said Mr. Lo. “Thanks to our dedicated team of experts and materials suppliers in fields such as solar energy, ventilation and indoor air quality, we are showcasing not just leading-edge design and construction, but what we believe is the future of healthy living.”

”Having the owners on board from the design stage has really helped shape this project,” said Mr. Mattock. “We have designed a live/work space for increased density living that will enable the owners to operate a complementary health care practice from a separate office space, cutting down on commuting and energy costs.”

Harmony House is one of 15 projects that have won CMHC’s national EQuilibrium™ sustainable housing competitions since the initiative was launched in 2006. All EQuilibrium™ projects will be open to both the general public and professional audiences for tours, and then monitored for performance by CMHC for one year, once occupied.

June 30, 2009, CFC Sustainability Blog – Canadian Funding Corp has been keeping its eyes and ears on CBC news to keep up with the latest regarding four new architectural stars. Canadian Funding Corporation CEO Moishe Alexander is thrilled that the architectural firm RVTR wants to do design research on sustainable housing for a northern climate.

RVTR won the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture yesterday. This prize is worth $50,000 and is given so that the winners can travel the globe and learn from a wide variety of architectural structures. The principles of the firm are Paul Raff, Colin Ripley, Kathy Velikov, and Geoffrey Thun.

“It is great to see young, creative minds in this industry that want to make our urban world a better place,” said Canadian Funding Corp CEO Moishe Alexander. “Sustainable housing for northern communities is a huge area of study and is sorely needed. Modular building can be a stunning solution for a many situations.”

“There’s not much of a modular industry in North America,” Thun told CBC News. “When compared to other industrial technologies, home building is really not very advanced.”

He pointed to redundancies in the manufacturing sector, especially in the auto sector, and said creating environmentally friendly pre-fab technologies could fill that void.

“There are significant opportunities for these kinds of technologies to move here,” Thun said, adding that modular building does have the potential to create more affordable housing of greater quality than site-specific building.

In 2010, the design team plans to look at how other northern countries create housing, including Iceland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Thun said the team will be making contact with designers and architects in these countries who are researching modular building and studying how such housing could adapt to different cultural conditions.

“The Scandinavian countries have developed communities based on sustainable housing beyond what we do in Canada,” he said.

The firm has already participated in designing sustainable housing, including a flexible off-grid vacation home called S.W.A.M.P. House. It is also involved in a research project with the University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, Simon Fraser University and U.S. researchers to develop an entirely solar powered prototype home.

A prototype of that home will be shown for the first time in Washington this October.