Net Zero

Seeing a modular build come together is an amazing sight: A building seems to almost magically appear in a day! If only it were as easy as waving a wand — in reality, it takes a community of well-coordinated workers to make it happen.

Stacie Beever with the National Affordable Housing Corporation wants every Canadian to have access to affordable housing. For years, the NAHC’s main focus was on home ownership, but that goal has shifted to more of a focus on rentals. “If the rental market is left to dwindle and no new developments are taken on, vacancy rates continue to fall while the cost to rent skyrockets,” said Beever, who is the chief operation officer for the NAHC.

Residential buildings made up one-quarter of Saskatoon’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 — that’s 913,000 tonnes of CO2. So when the City began to draft its Low Emissions Community Plan in 2019, residential buildings were one of the sectors that could be improved to reduce emissions and slow the effects of global warming.

To the untrained eye, a modularly constructed building looks nearly identical to one built using traditional methods, but Jeff Enns with Grandeur Housing hopes that people will take notice of the role that factory construction played in bringing the Willowview Heights Net Zero project to fruition.

The Canadian Home Builders’ Association has embarked on an exciting mission: to provide healthier homes for Canadians using the fastest and most efficient methods, including Net Zero technologies. Big Block’s Willowview Heights is one of the first multi-unit residential buildings (MURB) qualified under the CHBA Net Zero Home Labelling Program.

Collaboration is better when you have different disciplines at the table together, and the Big Block team saw this in action through a series of design charettes we undertook as part of the Willowview Heights Net Zero Ready project.

In May 2021, our tradespeople laid the foundation for the Willowview Heights project. The basement crawl space was excavated and the footings were poured; sewer, water and storm lines were done; and we installed the ICF block that forms the foundation walls.

Big Block Construction is leading the way to the future of energy-efficient, sustainable housing in Saskatchewan with the province’s first Net Zero multi-unit residential building.