Deep retrofit Towers and surrounding communities for a low carbon future: Our sizeable legacy of post-war residential towers collectively produce several megatonnes of greenhouse gases each year and are among the most carbon-intensive housing types in Canada’s urban centres. However, these towers are uniquely positioned to emerge as models for low-energy retrofit. Deep retrofits can reduce their impact by as much as 80%, while also modernizing this housing typology for the next generation. Engaging in deep retrofits provides a platform…

Canada has a remarkable legacy of postwar tower housing that defines many of our urban centres. There are nearly 2,000 postwar apartment towers located throughout Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe Region alone, representing nearly half of the region’s affordable rental stock. Supported by government policy and incentives, hundreds of thousands of units of apartment block housing were built in the postwar years throughout the country. This housing was mostly privately developed, intended to house the middle- and working-class populations. Today, this housing accounts…