Housing Design Catalogue: 7 Alberta renderings revealed

The federal government has unveiled dozens of house designs – including seven specifically for Alberta – as it works to combat Canada’s housing crisis.

The Housing Design Catalogue, an initiative under Canada’s Housing Plan, was created in an effort to help build more across the country, and takes inspiration from post-war housing design catalogues developed between the 1940s and 1970s.

The government says use of the standardized designs will speed up construction as the homes are confirmed to be created in compliance with the building codes.

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“These standardized designs will help smaller homebuilders cut through the complexity, speeding up the time between concept and construction and lowering costs of building,” explained Erskine-Smith, minister of housing, infrastructure and communities, in a March 7 news release.

The catalogue has 50 standardized housing designs for rowhouses, townhouses, fourplexes, sixplexes and detached accessory dwelling units.

Housing Design Catalogue - Alberta Housing Design Catalogue accessory dwelling design for Alberta. (Housing Design Catalogue)

The designs are specifically tailored to seven regions, including Alberta, and were developed by regionally based architecture and engineering teams to align with local climate zones, regulations, construction methods and materials.

As such, each design is intended for use within their designated region – and using a design outside of a designated region might requre additional modifications to meet local requirements.

The designs were created with several principles in mind, the feds said, including accessibility, energy efficiency, financial feasibility and use of regional construction methods and materials.

The final architectural design packages will be released this spring, including estimated construction costs.

Here are the seven designs created for Alberta: