A New Model for Urban Development

by Hugh Kruzel for Peace and Environment News

2005-10-11

We are at one of those important crossroads. It seems we will have to stop doing what we have been doing or face the (many) consequences. Are there more challenges facing us today, or are we just so much more aware?

Summer was a time for reading and reflection. Witold Rybezynski's Home: A Short History of an Idea (1986) actively compresses the innovations of the last several hundred years, but I am struck by the chrono-centric attitudes of those living the time. Just as Modern Art was followed by Post-Modernism what are we going to call this period of transition we call 2005?

Steam machines were supreme in the 1800s, while electricity rearranged domestic life, and society, in the 1900's. The first use of electric lighting in a home was 1880. Over those intervening one hundred and twenty-five years many things have taken place. I don't know if people in the middle of it all see theirs as the best of times, but there is a sense of acceptance and embracing of technology. Just because "it is" does not mean that is the way it should or can be. Smokey, inefficient fireplaces were favoured strongly over closed stoves well into the 1850s. Think of tallow candles illuminating your world if you lived 150 years ago. What will we think of internal-combustion engines in 2100?

What does this bring us to and what is the connection with EcoCité? Well, the sense that innovation happens, and that change will replace ideas and operations of the present. Home construction today is part of an evolution in privacy, individuality, and technology. Perhaps it is in fact more a reflection of some time prior rather than of current, or future. I am not talking of the nostalgia of the fiction of neo-colonial architecture but the reluctance of many to embrace new paradigms. Why are there not more straw-bale houses, or rammed-earth structures? Why does the average homeowner accept that asphalt roofing shingles have a life-span of only 15 years? Why are there five-car driveways and three-car garages? Are we so short-sighted? Why are not all new homes R-2000?

At a Green/Earth Day in the spring, the folks at The Healthiest Home & Building Supplies directed me to a display down the aisle. This brief contact with Cheryl Gladu resulted in many discussions and a longer interview—appropriately at Bridgehead—that encouraged thoughts about where, and how, we live.

Previous activity in Montreal, though on a smaller scale, has helped the EcoCité team hone their ideas and skills. The former Villa Deli site, on Bank Street at the Canal, is their first residential Ottawa experiment. Architect Christopher Holmes is certain that our capital city is central in generating a Canadian eco-housing revolution. As they approach a pre-construction subscription of approximately 80 per cent, I am certain this is no "experiment": the market is hungry for new direction and opportunity.

Firstly (recent gas price hikes aside), people are "increasingly sick of sitting in traffic" says Gladu, and commuting is but one of the elements where we have seen "the suburban promise become the suburban nightmare." She points out that a Toyota Prius hybrid will be parked in a dedicated spot alongside EcoCité, while within a one kilometre radius there are three Vrtucars available for residents who want to car-share. It is possible to live here without owning a car, and even without car-sharing. Being on the edge of the Glebe and other neighbourhoods, work and play are only steps away.

Rather than inserting a building into a community irrespective of the urban ecology, EcoCité will add to the Bank Street corridor. A store-front, ground-level bookstore will enliven the streetscape.

But it is what is going on inside that really fascinates me: reduction of energy demands, non-toxic materials, and water conservation are at the core. Ground-source heating and cooling and energy-efficient appliances mean savings for the householder, but also mean less strain on an over-burdened system. While the kitchen offers interesting layouts, you won't find the more common particle-board construction. No off-gassing of dangerous chemicals "normally" used in glues and finishes will ever plague residents.

Gladu promises this and future ventures will never be of the cookie-cutter variety. Each will be a "one-off in a case of jewels" of unique projects. Enthusiastically Gladu stated "We will produce something different each time—valuing vibrancy—where it will become increasingly desirable to be green."

New housing typologies will continue to incorporate innovation, and for 2005 EcoCité will be the epicentre for change in Ottawa.

Hugh Kruzel is an educator and writer.

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