Passive House Apartment wins international award

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Fort St. John’s Passive House Apartment won a 2021 Passive House Award earlier this month.

The apartment building, created in partnership with the City of Fort St. John and BC Hydro, received the award from the International Passive House Conference.

Construction of the fifty affordable renting units started in 2017 and was finished near the end of 2019.

The building contains five wheelchair accessible units, 35 two-bedroom and 15 three-bedroom units within a six-story wood-framed structure.

BC Hydro provided funding to reduce building costs, and BC Housing was responsible for the building’s development, construction, management, and ongoing operation.

During Site C construction, units have been primarily made available for BC Hydro employees and their families. Once Site C is complete, all 50 units become available for low and moderate-income households.

The units are designed to be bright and spacious with large windows that provide a lot of natural light and features that meet Passive House standards such as energy efficiency, highly insulated walls and a building orientation that optimizes solar gain.

The building is Canada’s 2nd largest and is globally the most northern certified Passive House building.