Ever heard of Hidden City Design? It's a group of building professionals specializing in turn key green and modern homes in the Ottawa/Gatineau region. They basically design and build modern homes from scratch that you can buy.
The first time I heard about this concept was through the Cassels Avenue project by Reigo and Bauer in Toronto. I just love the way they integrated a modern minimalist home in a traditional neighborhood, as shown below.
I'm glad we have that here too. Check out the beautiful kitchen of the Carruthers project, a semi-detached home in Mechanicsville, which includes several eco-friendly features such as tank-less hot water heaters, renewable bamboo floors, energy efficient equipments and organic paint.
Next on their list is the Keyworth Collection project,three modern single family homes individually designed for buyers looking to live in an environmentally responsible way. This project features several eco-conscious items such as radiant floor heating throughout the houses, integrated garbage and recycling units and rain collectors. Looks like this project is well underway based on the latest Google Street view.
I'll definitely keep an eye on them to see what else the come up with.
Photos: Hidden City Design | Reigo and Bauer
14.2.11
Turn-key modern homes in Ottawa
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I believe the Keyworth homes were all finished in mid 2009.
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
ReplyDeleteThese houses are fantastic! Great style and a great concept. Where is the Keyworth Collection? I want to drive by and check them out :-)
ReplyDeleteKeyworth Ave is three blocks east of Island Park, north of Scott and the Transitway cut. Those houses were a total gong show during construction (e.g., the man they hired to clear away all the old hardwood trees from the lot fatally injured himself while working alone without proper safety equipment) and there have been some serious quality issues since completion back in mid-2009. These developers talk a good game about green development, but the construction process was wasteful and sloppy and they have essentially paved over the 100-foot width of the lot for three million-dollar >2000 sq ft single family dwellings (which isn't very low impact or green at all). The city has even singled this project out among their survey of "Bad infills" (see Section 2.2, Finding #3 http://ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/infill/findings_en.html#top)
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad. There's probably a happy medium. I understand not wanting grass but I understand the need for plants. I wonder if grass is really environmentally friendly when you consider the need for water, fertilizers, pesticide, mowing...
ReplyDeleteThe Keystone Ave homes have been finished for well over a year. You can see pictures of them my blog at http://ottawareno.blogspot.com/2010/02/10-examples-of-modern-architecture-in.html. The homes are very stylish, to my eye, but something is clearly wrong with the middle one. Over the past several months they have been doing major renovation work on it. It almost looks like they gutted the whole inside and are now replacing it. Nobody is living there at the moment, so the owners must have moved out. As with any contractor, check lots of references before hiring them.
ReplyDeletethe one in Mechanicsville sounds great.
ReplyDeletesounds like it's a bit of a mess over at Keystone avenue - that's too bad.
i would love to see modern eco homes well built at an affordable price in this city!
there are some very smart things being done in Ottawa- i'm just trying to figure out what the fascination is with galvalume?
ReplyDeleteNo idea? Perhaps it's less expensive? It would be nice to see more variations when it comes to the sidings
ReplyDelete