Q4A’s work on this significant, socially oriented project, includes design development, renderings and detailed design drawings. This is an affordable rental housing project designed with a particular focus on supporting women escaping domestic violence.
Chappelle Affordable Housing
Creating true community, this project was thoughtfully designed with the support for women escaping domestic violence at the heart of design and visioning explorations. This special use-group led the Q4 team to re-imagine the traditional forms of rental communities.
Q4A team analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of a typical approach to adapt the site to meet the specialized needs of the future residents.
Our work included comprehensive studies of the psychological and safety needs of the residents, and continually refining the design to ensure it was a home-like setting that was supportive and efficient.
The site is located in the Edmonton community of Chappelle and is one of the first purpose built rental developments in the city, with 30 percent of the suites being offered at below market rates. Units range from 1 to 3 bedrooms, with at grade entrances. The project scope includes schematic design through to construction.
Chappelle is designed with intent and care. It’s a project that brings awareness of the importance of designing for a sensitive population.
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Q4A master planned the site, and features were carefully thought-out to give a sense of pride, home, safety and community. The project provides homes with welcoming facades that are surrounded by ample green spaces and a playground area, while still maximizing the number of dwelling units.
The land had unique connection conditions on all sides; lane access to the East, street connection to the North; green space to the West; and a transition to single family residential to the South.
The design needed to respectfully address all of these context-situations while keeping the architectural language simple, unified and repeatable, to reduce construction costs.
Three unique building types were developed: rear lane garages, front drive garages (with reduced height transitioning to the residential area), and units with exterior connections to the front and back with shared parking.
All buildings have entrances that face inward towards the internal community to connect residents and encourage interaction, particularly important for giving a sense of safety and security to the people calling the project home.
The buildings were designed as stacked townhomes to increase the site density, allowing for larger units and ground-oriented entrances. To keep the designs simple, the units for each building type were repeated throughout the complex, with architectural accents added to ends and corners. Additionally, board and batten and shake siding were interchanged as a simple way to add variety and interest to the buildings and create a streetscape that integrated with the existing community.
With all strategies incorporated into the project we were able to maximize the number affordable housing units available in the development and created a vibrant milieu for residents.
