Description

60 Richmond Street East is the first co-op association housing project in Toronto for many years, and showcases an innovative and sustainable approach to urban infill. Located on a busy crossroads in the city centre, the eleven-storey building presents an alternative to the ubiquitous glazed high-rise towers in the rest of the city. The building presents a solid mass to the street into which openings and terraces have been carved at various levels. These terraces and gardens serve as places for social interaction. The block provides 85 residential units for residents relocated from a nearby urban revitalisation project. The majority of them work in the restaurant and hospitality sector and support a restaurant and training kitchen on the ground floor, which is supplied with vegetables, fruit and herbs grown in the communal garden on the sixth floor terrace. Organic waste generated by the kitchens serves as compost for the garden. The result is a sustainable ecosystem that the architects describe as an “urban permaculture”. The architecture becomes a medium for cultivating green spaces, for cooling and cleansing the air and for capturing storm water to irrigate the gardens. All of the roofs are built as green roofs that insulate the building and help to reduce the build-up of heat in the urban realm.

The proportion of massive to glazed surfaces of the building creates an optimum balance between natural illumination and cross-ventilation, preventing the interiors from overheating when the sun shines. Unlike most other residential projects, this building is clad with a high-performance ventilated thermal insulating façade that avoids all thermal bridges. A sophisticated mechanical system conveys heat from the warm south face to the cooler north side of the building. A heat recovery system rounds off the energy-efficient concept of the residential building.

The majority of the residents are members of the workers’ union “Unite Here” and work in the hospitality and restaurant sector. Many of the tenants have been relocated as part of the revitalization of a nearby social housing project. The project is a collaboration between the city council, the workers’ union and Toronto Community Housing Corporation and aims to be a cooperative housing project built and run according to economical and ecological criteria, with strong links to the hospitality trade and the production and processing of foods in particular. The union members run a restaurant and training kitchen on the ground floor, which is open to the public.

The site in the centre of Toronto is owned by the city and was previously occupied by a warehouse that was often used as emergency housing and for temporary social services. The redevelopment re-designates the site as a location for permanent affordable social housing.

The project began in 2006 and was planned and built from 2006 to 2010.

The project was built by the city’s housing corporation and is run in cooperation with the residents. The land is leased from the city.

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Originally published in: Annette Becker, Laura Kienbaum, Kristien Ring, Peter Cachola Schmal, Bauen und Wohnen in Gemeinschaft / Building and Living in Communities, Birkhäuser, 2015.