April 15, 2010
Habitat for Humanity/Fleming College project ready to begin
Fleming College’s Sustainable Building program and the Peterborough chapter of Habitat for Humanity are just about ready to begin construction of their combined project, a LEED Platinum certified home on Towerhill Road in Peterborough, Ontario.
The project blends Habitat’s simple, decent and affordable housing requirements with Fleming’s commitment to the highest ideals for sustainable housing. You will be able to follow the construction process on the Fleming students’ website at www.sustainablebuilding2010.ca.
The plans for the building will give you some idea of the sustainable features and designs. At every point, the building is designed to use the highest quality, most durable, most sustainable materials and systems.
January 22, 2010
What Do Habitat for Humanity, Fleming College and LEED All Have in Common?
The project for the 2010 offering of Fleming College’s Sustainable Building program is to build a home for the Peterborough affiliate of Habitat for Humanity to LEED Platinum certification.
This is our first time undertaking a residential project with the program, and it’s exciting to bring everything we’ve learned on our previous five public buildings to this project. Affordable and sustainable housing are both personal passions of mine and this project combines them both.
We’ll be building on a lot donated from the Province of Ontario to the City of Peterborough to Habitat, on Towerhill Road in an existing subdivision in the north end of Peterborough.
We’ll be creating a 1200 square foot, 3-bedroom bungalow that features prefabricated straw bale wall panels, grid-intertied photovoltaics, solar hot water, radiant heating and an entirely non-toxic interior.
For the first time, we’ll be certifying a project through the LEED for Homes program of the Canada Green Building Council.
The project is in the design phase right now, and I’ll keep this page updated with the plans and developments as the process moves along.