Vienna House – National Housing Demonstration Project & BC Mass Timber Demonstration Project

In response to both the global climate crisis and the regional housing affordability crisis, BC Housing, British Columbia's housing authority is building an innovative zero-emissions rental apartment community in East Vancouver, "Vienna House" - - a national housing demonstration project. Scius is managing the overall research program on behalf of BC Housing.

In November 2021, the project was submitted for rezoning to the City of Vancouver. To support the application, Scius authored a study on the building form decision making process, which set out all the considerations that the team took to land on an innovative courtyard configuration.

In 2024, Scius prepared a suite of case studies for BC Housing that discuss technical aspects of the project up until the start of construction. These include:

Builder Insight - Vienna House No. 1 - Overview of Innovations

Builder Insight - Vienna House No. 2 - Process Innovations

Builder Insight - Vienna House No. 3 - Use of Wood, Prefabrication and Mass Timber

Builder Insight - Vienna House No. 4 - Digital Project Delivery and BIM

Builder Insight - Vienna House No. 5 - Testing of Envelope Details

Builder Insight - Vienna House No. 6 - Landscape and Public Realm

Builder Insight - Vienna House No. 7 - Sustainability and Resilience

Producing these reports are some of the many tasks led by Scius as part of our role as overall Research Manager for Vienna House. They will yield a wealth of lessons and, as part of the opportunity to learn, there are a number of other research projects that will aim to capture those learnings. These include efforts by:

1. BC Housing: Integrated Building Adaptation and Mitigation Assessment (in partnership with UBC); and Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience;
2. University of British Columbia: Integrated Research and Education;
3. FP Innovations: During construction, possible testing for building lateral vibration, floor vibration and acoustics; over the longer term, possible monitoring for durability, building envelope performance, occupant comfort, energy efficiency and building lateral performance;
4. Timber Engineering Inc. - comparative study of CLT and cold-form steel (CFS) structural system;
5. Integral Group: DHW CO2 Heat Pump Study;
6. Dunefield Consulting: An Exploratory Review of Social Housing Models in Vienna.