The majority of Canadian apartment building designs look like hotels, with long hallways and staircases at either end. It’s a design that virtually every low and midrise apartment building adheres to, which produces a rather dreary look, but even worse, it appears that there are even environmental drawbacks. In response, many are now advocating for single staircase apartment building designs.
The government of British Columbia is considering updating its building codes to allow for single staircase apartments. There are nearby cities that allow single staircase apartment buildings. Seattle is one of them as they allow buildings up to six storeys to have just one staircase. If adopted, this change could significantly influence the design of new apartments in Vancouver, where demand for more efficient, sustainable housing continues to grow.
The reasoning behind the proposed change is that single staircases result in less material being used in construction, which results in buildings with lower embodied carbon. Going with single staircases also improves the design of a building since they create more usable space, creating a smaller building footprint and allowing for better cross ventilation, while still being fire safe.
Conrad Speckert, who wrote his thesis on point access blocks (aka single staircase apartments) at McGill University, submitted a request for a national level code change which will be examined in the next cycle of building code priorities between 2025 and 2030.
According to Speckert, Canada is the second most restrictive country in the world in terms of building single staircase apartments, with Uganda taking the number one spot.
If the code is accepted at a national level, then all provinces will be enabled to begin designing apartment buildings according to the specifications as set out by the apartment building design code change request.
This would allow for more low and mid-rise apartment building designs with just single staircases, providing residents with the benefits of cross breezes while also resulting in a lower carbon footprint. This is just one of the many ways in which Canadians are aiming to make buildings more sustainable and eco-friendly.
Point Access Block Apartment Building Designs
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According to provincial housing codes, every apartment building with more than two floors has to connect to two staircases for fire safety reasons. Yet, according to a report commissioned in 2021, apartment buildings having only single staircases can still be more than fire safe enough to meet fire safety needs.
This report also states that point access blocks have more two and three-bedroom units that can accommodate larger families. This is in contrast to the majority of the country’s apartment buildings, dual staircase units, which house mostly studio and one-bedroom units. A change that will surely help solve the nation’s housing shortage.
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