The house is located on a very narrow plot of land at the corner of a city block. On the west side is a three story building, to the east is a busy street, the south side has another three story building with multiple units. Only the north and east façade are exposed to sun.
The plot of land is in a residential area, with buildings of two to four stories permitted. I chose to take the full lot width and pull back the north facade to line it up with the adjacent triplex. From here the general volume was established 5mx20mx15m. A house for a couple, with minimal space, the main idea of the house is circulation. As you enter the front door, your path is weaved across each function.
Having four floors with no southern or western exposure, two massive light wells, on the north and south of the house is flooded with natural light, provided by a roof skylight system. The house is divided into three zones, the north has circulating stairs, the centre has all the functions stacked and the south has the second stair circulation. A service cavity along the perimeter of the entire house is where the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are housed. This makes for easy access if any repair or relocation is needed, and also protects the high performance envelope.
The perimeter is poured in place concrete foundation with a small crawl space holding all the services. From there we go up with solid limestone blocks, the Lioz Abancado. This limestone has a very high density of 2690kg/m3, water absorption of 0.2% and a porosity of 0.4%, making it an excellent stone for our climate. The supporting structure is with mass timber beams that hold the NLT flooring. NLT flooring is Nail-Laminated-Timber, a solid wood flooring that is exposed to the floor below, adding warmth with a beautiful ceilings in the entire house.
The site location and external parameters, made it diffucult to achieve the energy balance needed, to be passivhaus certified. However the house is passivhaus low ernergy ready, constrcution methods and standrads are all the same, the differences are in the energy demands required, it has met all the requirements, pre-construction. A solid stone house that is fire proof, and has an extremely low carbon footprint. We should also mention that the blocks can be disassembled and reused, or broken down and used for other industries. Then again this is intened to last 100+ years!
The plot of land is in a residential area, with buildings of two to four stories permitted. I chose to take the full lot width and pull back the north facade to line it up with the adjacent triplex. From here the general volume was established 5mx20mx15m. A house for a couple, with minimal space, the main idea of the house is circulation. As you enter the front door, your path is weaved across each function.
Having four floors with no southern or western exposure, two massive light wells, on the north and south of the house is flooded with natural light, provided by a roof skylight system. The house is divided into three zones, the north has circulating stairs, the centre has all the functions stacked and the south has the second stair circulation. A service cavity along the perimeter of the entire house is where the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are housed. This makes for easy access if any repair or relocation is needed, and also protects the high performance envelope.
The perimeter is poured in place concrete foundation with a small crawl space holding all the services. From there we go up with solid limestone blocks, the Lioz Abancado. This limestone has a very high density of 2690kg/m3, water absorption of 0.2% and a porosity of 0.4%, making it an excellent stone for our climate. The supporting structure is with mass timber beams that hold the NLT flooring. NLT flooring is Nail-Laminated-Timber, a solid wood flooring that is exposed to the floor below, adding warmth with a beautiful ceilings in the entire house.
The site location and external parameters, made it diffucult to achieve the energy balance needed, to be passivhaus certified. However the house is passivhaus low ernergy ready, constrcution methods and standrads are all the same, the differences are in the energy demands required, it has met all the requirements, pre-construction. A solid stone house that is fire proof, and has an extremely low carbon footprint. We should also mention that the blocks can be disassembled and reused, or broken down and used for other industries. Then again this is intened to last 100+ years!
Technical data:
Location: Montreal, Canada. Project: 2020. Land area: 128 sqm ( 1377 sqft). Building foot print: 106 sqm ( 1147 sqft). Number of stories: 4. Materials: Concrete cast in place foundation, dimensional limestone: Lioz Abancado , mass timber beams with NLT floors.
Collaborators: Lens-images rendered images exterior. Play-time.es rendered images interior. 475highperformance for all high performance materials. Lamilux daylight system, glass roof. Element5 mass timber beams and NLT floors. Solancis dimensional limestone Lioz Abancado.
Location: Montreal, Canada. Project: 2020. Land area: 128 sqm ( 1377 sqft). Building foot print: 106 sqm ( 1147 sqft). Number of stories: 4. Materials: Concrete cast in place foundation, dimensional limestone: Lioz Abancado , mass timber beams with NLT floors.
Collaborators: Lens-images rendered images exterior. Play-time.es rendered images interior. 475highperformance for all high performance materials. Lamilux daylight system, glass roof. Element5 mass timber beams and NLT floors. Solancis dimensional limestone Lioz Abancado.