This blog follows the latest trends in high performance housing from an insider's perspective. I am the General Manager of one of Ottawa's leading homebuilders - Urbandale Construction, and it gives me a firsthand view of how the industry is changing. I've seen the barriers that builders face when trying to market new technologies and I've been working directly to overcome these barriers to bring new energy efficient designs into Urbandale homes.

October 12, 2011 No Comments

Urbandale Donating Home for Research Facility at Carleton University

I’ve been keeping this quiet for a couple of years because it was not official, but now that it’s been reported in the Ottawa Business Journal, and the Ottawa Citizen, I suppose the cat’s already out of the bag.  Urbandale will be building a house on the Carleton University campus to be used as a research facility for advanced energy saving technologies.

I’m really excited about this project, because it will support new research into home construction and it will keep Urbandale at the cutting edge of new technologies and design techniques.

The residential construction industry is notoriously conservative when it comes to implementing new technologies.  With a few exceptions (mainly related to the way we air seal and ventilate our homes) houses built today are not that different from the way they were built twenty years ago.  Construction companies don’t typically invest in research and development, and no one wants to take a chance by putting a risky new technology in someone’s home.  The research facility that we are building will help speed up the implementation of new technologies by allowing us to test and monitor them in a real house setting so we’ll know if they’re suitable for our purchaser’s homes.

I can’t say too much else about the project right now because we’re still at the design stage.  Carleton is currently deciding which model of home they want us to build and what technologies they want to incorporate in the home.  I’ll be sure to post more on this as the project develops.

Posted by Matthew

LEAVE A COMMENT

Please note: Comments should be related to the above blog post.
All other comments will be removed.

Name (required)

Email Address (required - will not be published)

Website:

Comment:

Return to main page
Subscribe to the RSS

CATEGORIES:

ARCHIVE:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Matthew Sachs

B. Eng. LEED AP

  • General Manager of Urbandale Construction since May 2008
  • Vice-Chair R-2000 Renewal Committee
  • Member of Energy Star Technical Advisory Committee
  • Greater Ottawa Homebuilders Green Committee
  • Recipient of Canadian Homebuilder’s Association 2009 R-2000 Builder of the Year Award
  • Participant in Natural Resources Canada’s Technology Roadmap for Sustainable Housing
  • Energy Consultant with Marbek Resource Consultants (Feb 2002 – May 2006)
View Linked In Profile

ABOUT URBANDALE CONSTRUCTION:

Ottawa's Quality Homebuilder for 30 Years. Building R-2000 and Energy Star Homes in Kanata Lakes, Riverside South, & Bridlewood in Ottawa, and in eQuinelle in Kemptville. For more information on Urbandale Construction, please visit www.urbandale.com.