This post is part of our winter 2019 blOAAg series, Housing Affordability: Built-Form Case Studies. The featured case studies are from the OAA’s 2019 report titled, Housing Affordability in Growing Urban Areas, produced by the OAA’s Housing Affordability Task Group and SvN Architects + Planners.
Case Study 03: Union Street EcoHeritage | Architect: SHAPE Architecture Inc.
Location: Vancouver, B.C. | Year: 2013
Program: High Density Urban Infill Housing | Size: 600 sqm
The EcoHeritage development is comprised of 7 units distributed over three buildings totaling 6,100 square feet of dwelling area. Two revitalized circa 1890’s era heritage homes at the street front sit atop two modern, ground-accessed 1-bedroom units below and two units behind. A 3-storey 1,600 square foot laneway infill completes the development.
Diagram of Union Street EcoHeritage | SHAPE Architecture Inc.
Section of Union Street EcoHeritage | SHAPE Architecture Inc.
The urban design relevance of the project rests both on the unique housing arrangement and on the charged social space which emerges from the tight adjacencies between residences. This intense social adjacency acts as a kind of glue between the individual dwellings, sewing them together on the site and extending the potential for charged social exchange to the neighbourhood beyond. By extending the public/semi-public approach from the street front to the centre of the site, access and flow from the surrounding neighbourhood is allowed to permeate from the formal frontage along Union Street to the rear laneway to the south and vice versa.
Union Street EcoHeritage | Photography Credit: Eric Scott + Ema Peter
The project obtained funding from the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources LiveSmart program through a highly competitive process. The goal of the LiveSmart program is to construct the 100 most energy efficient residential units and schools in BC. Operating from sound first principals of passive design and solar orientation, the project uses highly insulated, air tight walls, solar hot water heating, and an electric car to reduce its energy footprint.
Diagram of Union Street EcoHeritage | SHAPE Architecture Inc.
Union Street EcoHeritage | Photography Credit: Eric Scott + Ema Peter
Further reading: https://shapearchitecture.ca/projects/union-street-ecoheritage/
Photography Credits:
Eric Scott | https://www.ericscottphotography.com/
Ema Peter | http://www.emapeter.com/
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Official release date of the full report to be announced shortly.
The report, Housing Affordability in Growing Urban Areas, was prepared by SvN Architects + Planners Inc. (John van Nostrand, Liana Bresler and Blair Scorgie with the support of Eric Pitre and Jorge Quesada Davies), with the direction and assistance of the OAA Housing Affordability Task Group.