The GTA Construction Report – May 2009 – PAGE A3
Archetype House looks to the future of ‘green’
MATTHEW DESROSIERS – The GTA Construction Report Editor
regulate that portion of the
construction.
Work is complete on one that’s come down in price to However, the project has
of North America’s greenest a cost point that it makes achieved Energy Star and
homes, and it’s located in sense for builders to start of- GreenHouse certification.
Toronto. fering it. It still remains an They are still finalizing the
The BILD TRCA LEED for Homes certifica- Arche- upgrade because it’s not a
type Sustainable House is a paid through savings invest- tion, however it looks as
project designed to demon- ment.” though House A will achieve
strate the sustainable options House B, however, boasts a Gold rating, while House
builders have, and offer a a wide range of technolo- B comfortably reaches Plat-
glimpse into the future of gies. These include a ground inum, said Bryden.
sustainable home construc- source heat pump, evacuated Because all the materials
tion. tube solar thermal system, a were donated, as well the
The project involves two micro co-generation unit, labour, BILD has commis-
semi-detached homes, la- four kilowatts of photo- sioned a study by a few dif-
beled House A and House B. voltaic cells that backfill the ferent estimating teams to
Larry Bryden, BILD grid, and a three-kilowatt determine the value of the
One of Canada's greenest homes, the Archetype House,
(Building, Industry and wind turbine. project. House A is 1,800
was officially launched on Earth Day.
Land Development Associa- “It’s all feasible, but is it sq.-ft., while House B is
“Residential buildings play an important role in conservation.”
tion) representative and proj- economically plausible for a 2,200 sq.-ft of finished
consume about one third of meeting the growing de- Between 350 and 400
ect manager for the production builder to do space.
Ontario’s energy supply,” he mand for energy efficient people were in attendance at
Archetype House, said while that,” Bryden said. “But if Neither of these homes
said. “Projects like the Ar- homes and our collective the ceremony.
both homes are structurally we were to look out 10 years will every be lived in, Bry-
chetype Sustainable House goal of fostering a culture of
similar, the processes and and see the populace paying den said. They were de-
technologies in both are the real cost of energy and signed to be demonstration
vastly different. trying to deal with climate facilities. As part of the Liv-
“In House A, we went control, then it’s entirely fea- ing City Campus at Kor-
through a process of evalua- sible that in 10 years, houses tright in Vaughan, the
tion and landed on what we are going to have to have Archetype House will con-
would consider best prac- that.” tribute to an education pro-
tices available to the produc- Energy savings in both of gram on sustainability.
tion housing community these homes are expected to It is anticipated that over
today,” he said. “On House be significant, with House A 150,000 students and mem-
B, we looked out five or 10 saving 30-40 per cent on en- bers of the general public
years and looked at products ergy use, and House B actu- will visit the site annually.
and technologies that we ally producing more energy Bryden works for Re-
would expect to be main- in a year than it consumes. liance Home Comfort, and
stream, best practices.” The Archetype House his time on the project was
Some of the technologies was registered for a list of donated by the company. Al
were foreign or still pre- certification programs, in- MacDonald of Habitat for
commercialized, he said. But cluding LEED (Leadership Humanity acted as the con-
the majority of technologies in Energy and Environmen- struction manager, and the
in House B were just outside tal Design) for Homes, TRCA (Toronto and Region
the return on investment GreenHouse, R-2000 and Conservation Authority)
spectrum. These include Energy Star. sent Alex Waters as project
things like ground source The homes missed the R- manager as well.
heat pumps, and renewable 2000 rating, but only Ontario’s Deputy Pre-
energies. slightly. The test relies heav- miere and Minister of En-
The only renewable en- ily on the buildings enve- ergy and Infrastructure, the
ergy present in House A is lope, and since the project Hon. George Smitherman,
solar thermal, he said. was put together entirely by attended the launch on Earth
“That’s a technology volunteers, it was difficult to Day.
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