330 Goldstream Avenue: An energy-efficient, affordable housing project

Completed 330 Goldstream Ave, a six-storey, light-wood frame multi-family building for affordable housing.
Photo: James Jones Photography, courtesy Cascadia Architects

Prefabricated, energy-efficient design for high-quality, affordable housing

This 102-unit affordable housing demonstration project—developed by Greater Victoria Housing Society (GVHS) and funded by BC Housing—showcases how prefabricated multi-family construction can achieve BC Energy Step Code Level 4 while remaining cost-effective. Its energy-saving replicable design makes full use of lean project delivery (LPD) methods, prefabricated panels, and digital design tools. The series of seven technical bulletins found below delve into different aspects of this innovative social housing construction project to present this project as an example that can be replicated in other jurisdictions.

Lean Construction: High-Performance Wood Social Housing Project

Introduction to the goals, features and challenges of this affordable housing demonstration project.

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Lean Construction Practices

The developer of 330 Goldstream Ave, Greater Victoria Housing Society (GVHS) had a tight budget and timeline. They contracted Kinetic Construction who offered to use Lean Project Delivery to help manage the project, streamlining the construction phase to address these constraints.

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Energy Efficient Light Wood Social Housing Project

GVHS chose to voluntarily achieve Step 4 of the BC Energy Code—the highest step for multi-family residential buildings. The objective was to attain the highest level of occupant comfort and to manage ongoing operations costs while protecting against overheating.

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Prefabrication

Because of the tight timeline, 330 Goldstream was built using prefabricated, light wood-frame exterior and interior wall panels with site-framed light-wood floor joists to condense the construction schedule.

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Digital Tools

Kinetic Construction, the general contractor for 330 Goldstream, led the adoption of a suite of digital tools. Kinetic helped the owner, consultants and construction team to build proficiency with the tools, and served as technical support.

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Regulatory Perspective

The City of Colwood was the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) for the 330 Goldstream project. The City is a progressive municipality that is open and committed to supporting owners and project teams proposing innovative projects through the regulatory process.

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Project Debrief

The 330 Goldstream project team adopted Lean Project Deliver ("Lean") principles during the construction phase to improve project efficiency, productivity and performance. An important tenet of Lean is for the project team to debrief on what worked, what didn't and key lessons learnt.

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330 Goldstream Avenue

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Internal view of Brock Commins Tallwood House, showing mass timber columns, light frame construction, and prefabricated wooden panels.
Prefabrication

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Cowichan Tribes Rapid Housing Project
Cowichan Tribes Rapid Housing Project

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