Passive House Student Living at University of Toronto Scarborough

Project Background

The University of Toronto has the ambitious goal of building their next Student Residence to the Passive House standard. This project is the first of its kind in Toronto, Canada to apply the Passive House standard at this scale and for this typology. Student health and wellness was critical to the University of Toronto’s design goals and the design elements inherent to the Passive House standard will provide a superior indoor environment. Specifically, a student living in this residence will experience superior indoor air quality, better thermal comfort, and less noise from the outside. The project has a dense residential program but the building massing includes three distinct wings to help cluster students and facilitate community. The ground floor includes a commercial kitchen, cafeteria, offices, and student life spaces. The commercial kitchen has a high predicted annual energy demand, requiring selection of the most efficient cooking equipment to align with the energy goals of Passive House. The commercial kitchen design is all-electric with no gas equipment and the ventilation design includes both exhaust heat recovery and demand controls.