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CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION, Spring/Summer 1997
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Housing technology centre to be built at NRC
A new three-building research and demonstration centre to be built at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) will accelerate the development and application of new technologies for the Canadian housing industry while supporting the export of Canada's world-class capabilities in housing, according to Sherif Barakat, Director of the Indoor Environment Program at NRC's Institute for Research in Construction.
The Canadian Centre for Housing Technology - a partnership between NRC, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the housing industry - will conduct research, evaluate and demonstrate new technologies, accelerate the market acceptance of innovations and showcase the Canadian housing system to the country and the world.
"The development of housing technology has always been a collaborative effort between industry and government," Dr. Barakat said. "This new centre will serve the needs of the housing industry by accelerating the acceptance and marketplace application of innovative products, systems and practices that will make the industry more competitive both here in Canada and internationally."
The announcement of the new centre was welcomed by the housing industry. "We are very pleased about it," said John Kenward, chief operating officer of the Canadian Home Builders' Association (CHBA). "It is very important for Canada to have somewhere to show the housing excellence that we have achieved in this country."
Representatives of CHBA and other housing industry groups met in Ottawa in late May to provide their input into the design of the new facility. It is proposed to consist of three full-size detached houses with one or two adjacent building lots for experimental construction, all located at NRC's Montreal Road campus in Ottawa.
The first two houses would be identical in size, type and base construction. They would be built to R2000 specifications with state-of-the-art construction techniques, housing systems, and control and communications technologies, and would incorporate Healthy Housing principles. The first house would be operated as a control unit, while the second would be the laboratory, where features can be altered or added allowing the relatively quick assessment of new components and systems. Both houses would be fully computer-controlled, with instruments and electronic links for remote control and data acquisition.
The third house would be similar to the first two, but with a different floor area. It would accommodate the demonstration of new technologies and provide a showplace for the Canadian housing System - an electronic gateway to the housing industry across Canada - as well as meeting facilities and capabilities to house visiting government and industry researchers.
Tim Mayo of the CANMET Energy Technology Centre, who is seconded to NRC to act as the project manager, said the facility will allow the entire housing system to be studied. "When we look at housing research, there has never been a place where the research can address the interactions of the whole system," he said. "Now we will have a whole house to work in."
For CMHC, the key attraction of the new centre is that it will be a showcase for Canadian housing technology. "The centre will be a housing technology resource that allows stakeholders to come in and participate," said Jim Robar, the corporation's manager of housing technology. "So industry will be able to come and see innovations in a typical housing environment and interact with the researchers who are developing these technologies."
For more information about the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology, contact Tim Mayo (the project manager) or Mike Swinton (the research manager) at (613) 993-9580.
