1925 Victoria Park Avenue is a near-net-zero residential complex in Toronto, Canada, that reimagines apartment living by employing a systems-based strategy that prioritises performance and operational efficiency.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

1925 Victoria Park Ave, as Jonathan Diamond explains, is a twelve-storeyed residential building in Toronto, Canada, comprising 185 large-format dwelling units. The project is a culmination of multiple strategies, which include passive design, efficient electric heating and cooling systems, and modular building technologies.

The apartment units are arranged around a central courtyard, with unit access provided by exposed single-loaded corridors for cross-ventilation and sunlight.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

It serves as a prototype for a new systems-based model to deliver sustainable housing at scale and bring about a step-change in the industry. The project seeks to provide a robust solution for the housing shortage and rising home prices.

Infinito Delicias is an adaptive reuse project that refurbishes an old factory in Madrid, Spain, into a mixed-use community building.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

Infinito Delicias, as Camilo García shares, is a rehabilitation project in Madrid, Spain, that aspires to transform a formal industrial building into a cultural innovation hub. It will bring together communities involved in sustainable food production, art, and social entrepreneurship, while also opening itself to the neighbourhood.

The project has been envisioned using a ‘360-degree co-design process’ that brings together urban analysis, real estate exploration, space design, governance, management, identity creation, and business modelling. Camilo also describes Infinito Delicias as a prototype, one that exemplifies a new way of building that is a culmination of social, environmental and economic excellence.

The building’s facade is integrated with a climatic control system that uses a combination of vegetation and manually controlled textile shading to control the amount of solar radiation entering the building.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

It can be quite an effort to create some consensus and alignment between different stakeholders. However, both Jonathan and Camilo agree that integration can improve the synergy between the various moving parts.

Jonathan, for example, points out that bringing stakeholders together in the beginning helped establish shared outcomes. This way, they were able to optimise the functioning of the whole rather than the parts. He ascertains that this integrated approach has been critical to the development of 1925 Victoria Park Ave’s energy-efficient thermal regulation system.

1925 Victoria Park Ave is nearly net-zero due to features such as high thermal insulation, ground-source heat pumps with in-ceiling radiant slabs, and low-energy electric systems.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

Its massing is a middle ground between single-loaded and double-loaded courtyards, designed to maximise sunlight exposure to the courtyard, while also supporting a wider range of biodiversity and programming.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

Camilo emphasises that listening carefully to heterogeneous views is central to the practice of integration. Being attentive helped him and his team to create consensus whenever conflicts arose between the several parties working together on Infinito Delicias.

More than one-third of the total floor area in Infinito Delicias is dedicated to multi-purpose shared spaces that encourage community interaction.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

Programmatic circularity is complemented by material circularity, the use of local biomaterials (wood, cork, etc), and the reuse of 95% of the original building.
© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

The two projects will also have an impact beyond their site boundaries. For instance, 1925 Victoria Park seeks to create a scalable model to improve price control and transparency. Infinito Delicias strives to measure social impact by building on the ‘360-degree’ process.

At this juncture, the question arises: how can we accelerate the adoption of these models? According to Camilo, one solution is to demonstrate how these processes can give birth to an ‘infrastructure of desire’: structures that are sustainable but also beautiful and fun. Jonathan echoes this thought and adds that governments should minimise regulatory barriers in the realisation of such projects.

The design stage of the two projects has been completed and they are both estimated to be completed by early 2025.