In British Columbia’s capital regional district, where housing prices are among the least affordable in all of Canada, the municipality of Esquimalt has given the go-ahead to a development that will offer community-oriented, Passive House–certified, market-rate condominium housing at prices middle income households can contemplate. To achieve its affordability, sustainability, and liveability trifecta—garnering an associated height and density bonus from the municipality—the 83-unit, twelve-story development will combine prefabrication with mass-timber construction, topping out as one of the tallest wood buildings in North America.

“The goal is sustainable, attainable, liveable, community-oriented housing that empowers the end user,” says Oliver Lang, a principal at Vancouver-based Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture (LWPAC), the project’s architect.