This housing project's integrated approach to sensitive environmental issues is significant. While energy efficiency has been a priority, the project also uses recycled building materials, takes a "green" approach to landscaping and site use and tries to tackle the issue of reducing operational waste. The project is also state-of-the-art in terms of indoor air quality, comfort and usability. Few new building projects have tried to tackle all these aspects simultaneously.
The project consists of 84 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments and several handicapped accessible units. The design challenge of this project was to include the numerous conservation features while creating a pleasant social and living environment with spacious apartment layouts, all within the provincial housing ministry's normal fiscal limitations. Currently, housing co-ops are disappearing from the scene in Canada as governments cut back on their commitment to "social housing". Projects have generally been funded through a combination of federal and provincial funds, and must comply to technical, spatial and capital cost constraints. Such conditions make it difficult enough to design and build a project that meets conventional expectations. To design a project with many innovative features is, therefore, a considerable achievement. The Co-op is pledged to financial as well as environmental responsibility. Since many new "green" products and technologies are more expensive than their more commonly used counterparts, different features were researched and only those measures that could demonstrate long-term operational savings and reasonable economic viability were selected.
The project is located on a pleasant site with many existing trees in an established neighbourhood within walking distance of downtown Ottawa. The 4-storey building forms a "U" shape around a central, south facing courtyard that contains a children's playground, composters, garden plots for food production, a garden pavilion (tool shed) and communal outdoor patio space as well as individual patios. The building interior space planning follows relatively conventional lines, but each apartment has a generous balcony and many have windows on two exposures. Unfortunately, the flat roof may present problems in the future (we know of few that do not in the Canadian climate), but the design choice was due to a combination of budgets and civic height restrictions. It is in less obvious aspects that this building is of exceptional interest. Only eight new on-site surface parking spaces have been provided, with an additional existing sixteen spaces available for lease. This represents a victory of common sense over municipal requirements which normally require a large number of parking spaces in relation to the number of apartment units: however; residents do have other transportation options available such as a municipal bus stop by the front entrance, and over 200 underground bicycle storage spaces are provided, which can be easily accessed by way of a card-operated door system. Balconies always present a challenge to Canadian designers. Warm summers make them very desirable, but very cold winters turn them into very efficient outdoor radiators if the balcony slab is a cantilevered extension of the interior floor slab. In this project, the balcony slabs are constructed separately, allowing the interior structure to be almost totally wrapped in a thermal blanket thus eliminating the thermal bridge. This concept was first developed by Ralph Erskine, a British architect who spent most of his working life in Sweden. The Conservation Co-op represents one the few examples of this approach in North America. However, it must be noted that this particular example leaves something to be desired by the excessively heavy concrete used as structural support. Nevertheless, this is a long overdue implementation of an idea which is very appropriate to the Canadian climate. A relatively invisible but praiseworthy feature is the use of natural gas for water and space heating and, interestingly, separate metering for each unit. Hot water and hydronic space heating is provided by a highly efficient gas fired hot water heater located in each unit. The main gas lines and all meters run along a service corridor, under the building, providing easy access for inspection and metering. Again, our hat is off to the client group which insisted on this approach despite the somewhat higher charges that result from individual gas accounts as compared to one central account. The logic behind this decision, one that is well supported by empirical data, is that individual co-op households will be more likely to behave in an energy-conserving way if they are billed directly.
 All units are provided with separate heat recovery ventilators and a balanced ventilation system. This is a far superior approach to the traditional means of supplying air from a pressurized corridor and exhausted through the bathroom and kitchen fans. An interesting mini R&D project associated with the co-op is the provision for gray water recycling in a group of eight suites: a small research study that is being sponsored by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The system uses bathtub water for the flushing of toilets within the same cluster of eight units. Water consumption is being monitored as well as any operational difficulties. The building was completed on November 17, 1996 at a final cost of about $5.95 million (Cdn). With a gross building area of 9,100 m2, this works out to $654/m2, a very modest cost given the features in the project. As well, nineteen tons of construction waste was separated and recycled on this one project. The building is now occupied and the commitment of the co-op members to environmental principles is demonstrated in the Co-op's Code of Environmental Practice . This code requires, on pain of eviction for continued non-compliance, several rules of behaviour; including the following :
Below are lists of the main features of interest to accommodate...
 building orientation for maximum solar gain in the winter; summer solar shading using sun screens and fin-walls on the balconies; double-glazed, argon-filled, lowE windows; wall insulation of RSI 4.93 and roof insulation of RSI 7.04; low-flow plumbing fixtures; exterior site lighting with photovoltaic lamps; individually metered high efficiency combination gas water and space heaters; fluorescent light fixtures in most public areas and in each suite; use of heat recovery units for all suite ventilation; thermal bridging eliminated by structurally separating balconies from the building structural slab; few surface automobile parking spaces, combined with generous bicycle parking and easy access to public transit.Waste reduction : Reuse : Environmental protection : Reduction of health risks : We commend the client group and the design team for this solid achievement and for their commitment to environmental considerations.
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