Habitat has Biggest Job ever in City
By Lindsey Wiebe/ WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Winnipeg, Manitoba
February 4, 2009
34-home development stresses green housing
It's the biggest, greenest development ever for Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg.
The non-profit affordable-housing agency announced plans Tuesday for a new 34-home development on the former site of Sir Sam Steele School, a project that will follow strict environmental standards.
"This by far is the biggest undertaking we have ever developed," said Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg CEO Sandy Hopkins.
Hopkins said the project at Chester Street and Nairn Avenue will use less wasteful construction practices. Finished homes will be more energy- and water-efficient and have better air quality, he said.
Early work on the project is already underway, with 12 homes expected to be completed this year.
Habitat for Humanity homes have followed Manitoba Hydro's Power Smart Gold Standards since 2006, but the new development will also meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building standards.
The development will include single-family dwellings ranging from 800 to 1,000 square feet, and side-by-sides covering 1,200 square feet over two storeys.
Hopkins said following environmental building rules "actually makes the homes more affordable for our families" by cutting back on future costs.
Architects Rudy Friesen and Marten Duhoux with the Friesen Tokar architecture firm said the homes' windows and overhangs will be designed to take advantage of passive solar heating and landscaping on the yards will include native plants that don't need watering.
Paints and carpets that release fewer chemicals into the air will be used in the homes, and shower drains will include special copper pipes that can recapture heat and channel it back to hot water tanks.
Many of the measures don't cost more, "you just have to plan for them," Friesen said.
Funding for Habitat's green building program comes from Investors Group, Manitoba Hydro and Home Depot.