Jessica Iozzo, Anna Halleran, Melissa Favas, Jackson Ramsay
Carbon Positive Affordable Housing:
flex-lot

The city of Hamilton has been designed to prioritize the car over the pedestrian. In doing so, there is an abundance of under-utilized brownfield sites. Hamilton’s population has been increasing as people seek affordable housing outside the GTA, since rent and housing prices are higher than ever. Hamilton provides an opportunity to explore and develop new ways of growth, using carbon positive temporary housing to create a novel method of affordable, entry level housing.

Flex-lot is a proactive, accessible affordable housing scheme in Hamilton that utilizes carbon positive sustainable strategies. As a subversion of the traditional family home, Flex-lot creates a new modular development pattern that responds to the future growth of our cities and the current climate emergency. Flex-lot provides mobile affordable housing units that can be implemented in urban and rural regions. One module is confined to the area of a typical parking space, with an expandable seating area that can be deployed on sites that are less restrictive. The materiality of the project utilized low embodied carbon materials through its wood frame construction, and wood and repurposed steel cladding. Additionally, the use of repurposed steel pays homage to Hamilton’s history of steel production.


Toronto Metropolitan Department of  Architectural Science Toronto, CA.