Faculty and staff rental housing at UBC’s Vancouver campus has evolved, with the first residents moving into their new homes at one of Canada’s largest residential buildings targeting Passive House certification.
Evolve is a new 110-unit faculty and staff rental building in UBC’s Wesbrook Place neighbourhood. Passive House-certified buildings consume up to 90 per cent less heating and cooling energy than conventional buildings.
The first of its kind on UBC’s Vancouver campus, Evolve aims to be one of the most energy-efficient multi-family residential buildings in Canada. It will provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the benefits and trade-offs of Passive House construction, and share the learnings for the public good.
“Evolve demonstrates UBC’s commitment to the vision of a net positive campus and provides affordable housing that has a reduced carbon footprint and promotes health and wellbeing for the occupants,” says Penny Martyn, green building manager at UBC Sustainability. “Research conducted on the building will be shared among the property development community to make future buildings more energy efficient.”
Evolve’s Passive House design elements include: