60 Richmond 

Toronto, Ontario

Photo Credit: Teeple Architects

CASE STUDY

Initial Research by: Desiree Theriault

Edited by: Samantha Miller & Nicole Brekelmans

Case study compiled in 2017

Project: 60 Richmond

Type of Urban Strategy: Permaculture, Sustainable Design

Type of Project: Urban Infill / Housing Cooperative 

Location: Toronto, Ontario 

Date Designed/Planned: 2008

Construction Completed:  2010

Designer: Teeple Architects 

With the rapid growth of urbanization across the world, there has been a necessary need for cities to address their diminishing resources, exploitation of the environment and its extensive population growth. How can architects and urban planners begin to address this issue? How can they provide a sustainable solution that begins to reconstruct the earth’s bounties?

60 Richmond Housing Cooperative designed by Teeple Architects, acts as a catalyst for the future of urbanism and living architecture. The project marries both the functionality of urban structure and the sustainability and self-sufficiency of the environment providing a new architectural expression that addresses the issues of rapid urbanization and the diminishing of earth’s resources. 60 Richmond Housing Cooperative becomes a full-cycle ecosystem asking its residents to be a part of its ecological processes. The project features multiple outdoor gardens at different levels that provide the residence with passive design cooling and cleansing, rainwater harvesting and storm water management. Additionally, the gardens also provide the residents with fresh, local food creating a more sustainable self-sufficient community. The project also features a restaurant operated and owned by the residents of 60 Richmond Street. The result of these elements fosters a resilient, self-sustaining village within a building – a revolution for the demands of social housing.