Three Pathways for Scaling
High-Performance Housing for the Boreal Climate
SHED is excited to announce that our proposal for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Housing Supply Challenge, Round 4 - Building for the Future, has been selected for Stage 2 development.
Recently, through the support of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), SHED has been analysing the housing crisis from multiple angles, outlining a diversified approach by which to facilitate transformative social, ecological, economic, and technological systems change.
For example, the housing market is in need of development solutions that can meet multiple performance criteria for (i) affordability, (ii) sustainability, and (iii) human wellbeing. Through direct experience in planning, designing, retrofitting, manufacturing, and constructing individual and multi-unit residences, our team is acutely familiar with the challenges of achieving all three objectives, simultaneously. Both custom design and conventional construction can be time consuming to execute. Meanwhile, sustainable products and systems can be expensive and difficult to procure. Drawing on its connections with suppliers, manufacturers, architects, engineers, and developers, SHED has been refining a three-part business model by which to streamline the delivery of its core products and services.
In collaboration with the BMI Group, Red Rock Developments Inc., Simple Life Homes, the Red Rock Indian Band, Grinham Architects, WAASA Indigenous Services Inc., Peel Passive House Consulting Ltd., Neeb Engineering, Lucid Intent Productions and Shared Value Solutions, we have outlined a strategy by which to address immediate priorities for housing within northern and Indigenous communities. Adopting complex systems thinking, this is being framed through six regenerative design typologies and three design-build pathways by which to scale high-performance housing. This approach is intended to strike a balance between standardisation and customisation in the planning, designing, and building of residential units, while also presenting a range of options by which to service diverse needs within the housing sector.
This strategy has been designed for implementation employing Simple Life Homes prefabricated housing system, within the BMI Group and Red Rock Developments Inc.’s development projects in northern Ontario. This would include the revitalisation of the former pulp and paper mill site in Red Rock Township, which comprises a 360-acre brownfield site situated on the north shore of Lake Superior. In summary, our proposed project aims to streamline design and construction processes, strengthen northern and Indigenous economies through local housing production, while also contributing to circular economies, community vitality, and land restoration.