Quayside Village Cohousing

Cohousing means the combination of private and communal living where residents have their own dwellings but share some common spaces. Quayside residents have access to a common area with a kitchen, dinning area, lounge, playroom, washroom, laundry, craft area, guest suite, office space, and a licensed day care. Common spaces also extend to the outdoors, including a shared courtyard, kitchen garden, composting, and recycling facilities. Residents share some meals, co-op management duties, and maintenance responsibilities. With all of these shared spaces and responsibilities, Quayside Village is more than a place to live, it's a community.

This project has incorporated numerous green features. First, its compact development reduces resource use and energy consumption. Residential units are smaller than conventional condominium units. The project was granted a 10% density bonus by the municipality in exchange for including five affordable units. This bonus permitted the building to include two additional units. Four of these five affordable units were sold at 20% below market price and one unit is rented below market value. To encourage residents to age-in-place, the co-op development adopted Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation's Flexhousing strategies. These adaptable units look the same as their regular counterparts but feature wide doors and lower control and switch locations. These units easily facilitate the installation of grab bars to accommodate universal accessibility.

Although Quayside has 60 residents, it has only 23 parking spaces, which encourages residents to carpool, bike, or walk. All kitchen scraps are composted and 63% of all garbage is recycled. Materials from the buildings originally on the site, including stained glass windows, wooden doors, and oak floors have been reused in the common areas. To reduce energy consumption the project was designed in accordance with BC Hydro's Powersmart Program and BC Gas Energy Efficiency Program. An innovative greywater reuse system was installed in cooperation with the North Shore Board of Health and the City of North Vancouver and was funded by CMHC's Research Division. Greywater from sinks, showers, bathtubs, and laundry is reused within the building to flush toilets.

To reduce energy consumption, the project was designed in accordance with BC Hydro's Powersmart Program and BC Gas Energy Efficiency Program. An innovative greywater reuse system was installed in cooperation with the North Shore Board of Health and the City of North Vancouver and was funded by CMHC's Research Division. Greywater from sinks, showers bathtubs, and laundry is reused within the building to flush toilets.

Tours: not available

This post was imported from the 'Greater Vancouver Green Guide', it's part of the 'Green Guide Portal' to the Green Building Brain.