What is the future trend of housing?
All indications are that the housing industry will be focusing on improving the building envelope and more energy efficient mechanical systems, as exemplified in the new Ontario Building Code. At Urbandale Construction, we believe this is achieved through quality construction.
When I was starting out in the business, I followed a simple dictum about quality that I’d learned from my father, Lyon Sachs. My father, a structural engineer, firmly believes a quality home is guaranteed when the structure — the foundation and the framing — are done right.
An intelligently designed and skilfully finished structure remains the basis of any good home, but we’ve also moved far beyond my father’s definition of quality. I believe we’ll continue to see the evolving concept of more efficient and comfortable space drive the homebuilding industry both in 2018 and in the coming years.
Building technological advances will also be aided by research projects like the Urbandale Centre for Home Energy Research, a partnership with Carleton University. The experimental facility is used to explore ways of drastically reducing our reliance on conventional energy sources for our homes.
Looking back, I think of how we were building in the 1980s. That was when Urbandale Construction radically increased the air tightness of our homes. We had prior experience building passive solar designs in Mooney’s Bay, and started applying the techniques of air tightness, which we had refined in those earlier homes, to our entire product line. Air tightness, long a benchmark of Urbandale Construction, had to wait for the technology of heat recovery ventilators to catch up so that the air in our new, tighter homes was fresh.
Fast forward to 2018, and air tightness is just one of the many elements Urbandale Construction incorporates into the quality of our homes. It’s part and parcel of how we view what we build as a complex ecosystem whose elements — everything from heating and cooling technology to windows, exterior insulation and even the living space — have to work together to create safe, comfortable, environmentally conscious spaces for our families and communities to thrive.
Now we’re waiting for furnaces and air-conditioning systems to keep pace with us; tighter homes mean smaller heating and cooling systems are required, and we’ll soon see these rightsized mechanical systems coming on stream along with new software to more exactly calculate heating and cooling requirements. As our homes become ever-smarter, we’re going to see these improved mechanical systems interfacing with different zones in our homes so that those needing more heating or cooling will get it, while those that don’t, won’t. More comfortable, cost-conscious homes will be the result.
So what does all this mean for the evolution of homes this year and beyond?
With land and mortgage costs upward bound, the days of ever-larger homes are drawing to a close. So we’re going to need to maximize the quality and functionality of our existing space, which is why Urbandale Construction has devoted so much effort to turning its basements into comfortable and usable additional square footage. Advances like Urbandale’s Proud Foundation System virtually eliminate moisture below-grade, which allows homeowners to enjoy the finished basement that Urbandale Construction offers as a standard.
In conclusion, I believe the future for Canadian housing will be the continual improvement of our building envelopes as well as mechanical systems that are rightsized for this new type of construction.