Photo: Rendering courtesy of Public Architecture
Vienna House explores and showcases mass timber as a solution to help alleviate the current shortage of affordable multi-family housing. This seven-storey, hybrid residential building will have 123 units ranging from studios to four bedrooms, accommodating a demographically diverse range of residents including low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities.
It is designed as a mass timber and light-frame wood hybrid structure, making it an efficient and replicable typology. The main structural building system includes cross-laminated timber roof and floors and light-frame wood closed envelope panels. It will be Passive House-certified and take advantage of mass timber’s thermal mass and natural insulating benefits.
As a Mass Timber Demonstration Program project, the design team is sharing their learnings about mass timber hybrid prefabricated construction best practices, focusing on not-for-profit housing owners/operators, and the consultants and builders who work with them.
