The City of Toronto is incorporating mass timber into an affordable housing pilot project, a first-of-its-kind development for the city that will take a climate action approach. If approved, the pilot project would create one of the largest wood buildings in Toronto?a 10-storey building with 200 rentals.

Designed by R-Hauz, the building will use the Toronto Green Standard Version 4, which outlines that 25 per cent of the raw materials meet at least two of the listed criteria ? one of which is the wood products must be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or CaGBC-approved equivalent.
City-owned parking lot on Dundas Street West to be turned into affordable rental housing using prefabricated mass timber construction, image courtesy of Joe Cressy via urbantoronto.ca. ?Right now, as the construction industry looks for sustainable ways to meet increased housing demands around the world, mass timber is taking centre stage.? says Francois Dufresne, president of FSC Canada. ?However, not all mass timber is created equal. It is critical to assess not only the distance the timber needs to travel but also the source of the wood.?

The pilot program will focus primarily on mid-rise development but can also include analyzing both missing middle housing types such as laneway houses, duplexes, triplexes, four-plexes, townhouses, and low-rise apartment buildings, and tall building development through a mass timber form.

On April 25, Mayor John Tory announced that a ...