Modular precast construction techniques being used for an 11-storey purpose-built rental apartment in Phase I of KingSett Capital’s Valhalla Village development in Toronto could be a low-carbon and affordable way to deliver new housing in Canada with speed and scale.

“The structural column floors and the cladding are all made out of precast concrete and the exterior walls have windows pre-installed in them so, when they get to site, it's the full wall with windows and it allows things to go up quite a bit more quickly,” Michelle Xuereb, the innovation director for the Americas for project architect BDP Quadrangle, told RENX.

“They're able to put up an entire floor, meaning the structure as well as the exterior wall, in nine days.”

Bradford, Ont.-based Modular Precast Systems is providing the pre-engineered structural panels, columns, beams and floor panels while Reliance Construction Group is the construction manager.

In addition to the speed, Xuereb said the modular precast option is quieter, safer, cleaner, requires 70 per cent fewer people, provides higher-quality window installation and is more affordable than traditional construction methods. 

Modular precast use limited in taller buildings

It’s also beneficial from a carbon reduction perspective and, along with a geothermal heating and cooling system, contributed to Valhalla Village targeting a Zero Carbon Building - Design Standard certification from the Canada Green Building Council.

“Your building envelope is closed in quite a bit more quickly, which means you can start work on the inside more quickly,” Xuereb explained. “I think they said they saved something like 50 per cent in winter heat because they didn't have big window openings waiting for the windows.” 

Use of the two aspects of the modular precast system is currently limited to buildings of up to 20 storeys, as it becomes more difficult to use in high-rise towers.

“There's the structural system and then there's the wall system and the great thing is that both come from the same company so they can get the logistics down and everything works together,” Xuereb said.

“You don't have to use both things on one building. This one uses both, but the precast wall system with the windows pre-installed could be used on taller buildings independently of the structural system.”

Xuereb said modular precast construction has been used elsewhere in Ontario, including at 525 New Dundee Rd. in Kitchener, 203 Albert St. in Waterloo, a student residence in Oshawa and hotels in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Brantford.
 
The other Phase I apartment building at Valhalla Village, which is located in the city's Etobicoke district, is 30 storeys and being constructed in a more traditional manner.

This first phase of the development at 300 The East Mall, near Bloor Street West and Highway 427, will deliver 494 housing units. All 172 units in the 11-storey building will be classified as affordable while those in the 30-storey building — which is just being topped off — will be leased for market rates.

Valhalla Village’s second phase

Valhalla Village’s second phase will offer 641 units in two buildings and Jeff Thomas, KingSett's group head of development and manager of its affordable housing fund, told RENX in a separate interview it will offer a similar ratio of affordable units.

“We're working with CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) to advance a loan for the project and we're in the marketplace starting to do tenders,” Thomas said of advance work for Phase II, where initial site work could potentially begin before the end of this year. 

“As things get real, you get a better sense of what customers like and what they don't like, what units are going to work and what units are not going to work, what people want, and how we might want to maybe slightly tweak anything in Phase II to meet those needs.”

Modular precast construction won’t be used on a structural basis in those two Zeidler Architecture-designed buildings because they’re 21 and 38 storeys. 

KingSett Affordable Housing Fund

The fund is active at several other developments as well.

KingSett's Affordable Housing Fund is a partner with Greenwin for a development on a 7.1-acre site at 705 Warden Ave., in Scarborough in Toronto's east end. It was selected after a competitive market offering process which was launched on behalf of the City of Toronto and CreateTO in 2019. 

The site will be transformed from a surface parking lot into a community with:

• 600 new homes, including approximately 250 affordable rental units;
• the expansion of Warden Hilltop Park;
• the renaturalization of land adjacent to Taylor Massey Creek;
• public streets and improvements to the public realm;
• retail space; and
• a childcare centre.

KingSett and its Affordable Housing Fund are also partnering with Greenwin and Tridel for a development on an eight-acre, transit-oriented site owned by the City of Toronto at 50 Wilson Heights Blvd. in North York. 

The former surface parking lot will be transformed to include 1,484 units, including 520 considered affordable, as well as a childcare centre, community space for non-profit organizations, a park, a new road and retail/commercial space.

“We've completed the geothermal and we're doing some site servicing and excavation right now,” Thomas said. “It will hopefully be coming out of the ground in 2026.”

Thomas said KingSett is working on deals with other partners that would enable the Affordable Housing Fund to be used to build another 2,000 units. The open-ended fund was launched in 2020 and raised $180 million, but Thomas said more capital will be added this month.