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Grand House Cooperative:
University of Waterloo, Ontario, students built and live in it
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Although a particularly harsh southern Ontario winter delayed construction, the first residents finally took occupancy of the unique Grand House Cooperative in Cambridge, Ontario, in the fall of 2008. The brainchild of Chantal Cornu, who holds an M.Arch. degree from the University of Waterloo, the $1.1 million (Canadian) project is the epitome of affordable and environmentally friendly architecture. “The UW School of Architecture moved to Cambridge in 2004,” says 29-year-old Cornu. “We really wanted to create housing for students. And because the city and community were so interested, we found an opportunity to connect people from the school and the community with people from trades and industry.”
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Perched on the side of a hill, atop giant steel I-beams resembling stilts, the three-story building comprises 12 bedrooms, two kitchens, four bathrooms, and a common living area. A relatively small construction crew aided by volunteers from the community as well as students from the school of architecture toiled on the project for a little over a year. Students received credit toward their degrees in lieu of pay.
The walls are made of straw bales covered with clay-lime plaster. The upstairs floor is wood recycled from the gymnasium of a local high school. Cornu and her team raised money through local sponsorships and donations with initiatives such as their “Buy a Bale” campaign, which garnered anywhere from $100 to $10,000 per bale.
Along the way there were lots of pleasant surprises. The City of Cambridge, for instance, sold the land to the cooperative for $55,000 then returned the money as a donation a year later. Costs were kept to a minimum through some frugal management, including using locally produced and recycled materials.
Among the residents is 19-year-old Susan Wang, a student who has just begun her second year of architecture studies. “This was my first opportunity to be on-site and work with materials,” she says proudly. “It’s pretty exciting. You walk around and you say, ‘I built that part.’ ”
Grand House Cooperative is owned by University of Waterloo architecture students and members of the community. On top of a one-time $500 deposit, each resident pays a monthly fee of $480 to cover mortgage and operating costs. It could very well become the model for future student-inspired projects.
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