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Housing the Unhoused

The solution to the housing emergency — a crisis as acute in Toronto as it is seemingly everywhere — is to give unhoused people homes. But construction takes time, and people need places to live now. With a new proposal, Housing the Unhoused, local firm SvN is offering a transitional solution: a suite of modular 8.8-square-metre cabins to be constructed quickly on vacant lots in neighbourhoods near transit. The private units will be built to Passive House principles, made of low-carbon materials like cross-laminated timber, and clustered around shared amenities. They will also be elegant and cozy, proving that a temporary solution needn’t be a slapdash one.

Team: Aaron Budd (SvN) with John van Nostrand (Two Steps Home); Jina Lee and Katerina Gloushenkova (SvN); and Jackson Wyatt (CABN)

Award of Merit: Ideas, Prototypes and Unbuilt Projects
Housing the Unhoused

This suite of modular cabins is conceptualized to be constructed quickly on vacant lots.

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