WHA PASSIVE HOUSE

The WHA is collaborating with Integra Architecture on an employee housing project committed to environmentally sensitive practices. The project is targeted to meet the PasssiveHouse standard exceeding the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s sustainability requirements for wood frame low-rise developments and will be the first multi-family building with PH Certification in Whistler.

The development is located in the Cheakamus Legacy Area, the same neighbourhood as two other Integra’s project built as part of Whistler Olympic Athletes’ Village.

The apartment consists of 20 rental units to be operated by the Whister Housing Authority. With the benefit of buildings built to the Passive House standard, this building will have an extremely low life cycle cost for heating, cooling and overall electricity. In return, the WHA will be able to maintain the building at a lower cost. This will translate to lower rent costs for the local employees.

The massing of the building was important in establishing the overall scale of the development within the neighbourhood while maintaining compactness to achieve Passive House standards.  The building is clad mostly in white and grey cementicious panels.

Site constraints dictated the building’s siting resulting in poor solar orientation that would lead to substantial overheating without exterior shading devices. The operable sliding shades provide shading and at the same time create an characteristic feature on the building’s façade. The project will provide rough-in to support future photovoltaic panels situated on the roof for additional energy efficiency and sustainability.