Graduate student's innovative plan for housing includes straw bales, green roof and solar panels

DAVID BEBEE RECORD STAFF Chantal Cornu, 26, executive director of the Grand House Student Co-op Inc., has championed an idea for student housing in Cambridge that blends traditional and eco-friendly design.

Barbara Aggerholm  Jan 30, 2006

Anyone looking at the sloped, tree-filled property in Galt's core area could be excused for seeing only that.

But if you're Chantal Cornu, a University of Waterloo graduate student at the nearby school of architecture, you see so much more.  You see an innovative house for 10 university students -- an eight-minute walk from school -- designed and built by students using traditional and "green" construction materials and methods.

You see a chance for architecture students to take their skills outside the classroom into the community.  You see the possibility of solar panels or wind turbines, a radiant heating system using hot water tubes in the floor, straw bale insulation, a green roof, and other construction materials and methods that do not threaten the environment.

Cornu, 26, is the executive director of the Grand House Student Co-op Inc. and the originator of an idea that has drawn together students, professionals and community members.

Her skills in architecture, her experience in straw-bale construction in Canada and Nicaragua and her travels in Europe are helping to fuel a vision of an eco-friendly, terraced 3,000-square-foot house that fronts on Ainslie Street in Galt's core.   While working on a master's degree at the school of architecture in Cambridge,  Cornu got the ball rolling in 2004-05 with applications for seed money for a 10-bedroom co-op residence.

A group, mostly made up of students but drawing on expertise from professors, city officials and businesspeople, formed an incorporated non-profit housing co-op.  They got $20,000 -- a $10,000 grant and $10,000 loan -- from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation; $1,500 from the Ontario Co-operative Association; and a $10,000 grant from the Co-operators General Insurance Company.

Members attended co-op conferences here and in the United States.

They located a possible site in Galt's core last year, but decided against it after tests showed the property was contaminated.  A further search identified 40 more sites in Galt's core. They narrowed the list to one vacant property, a sloped site between Ainslie Street North and Roseview Avenue, and placed a bid with the owner, the City of Cambridge.

Their $55,000 offer was accepted last October. Grants and fundraisers helped pay the 10 per cent deposit.

It was a piece of land that needed someone with imagination.  "It's an odd piece of land nobody would expect to build on," Cornu said in an interview at the School of Architecture.

The site has lots of trees and an old stairway, which has been closed off, that wends its way down the slope from Roseview Avenue to Ainslie Street.

The property is an old road allowance that was never opened, said Don Smith, Cambridge's chief administrative officer. Because it's in the core area, the group is eligible for incentives such as no development charges and no building permit fees.  "It's one that the students found themselves after a lot of research, to their credit," Smith said.

The city closed the road allowance and offered the property for sale. At least two other people put offers on the land, but the student group's bid was the best, Smith said.  The deal hasn't closed yet, but the students have a purchase and sale agreement with the city.

Meanwhile, Cornu is working on the home's design.  She has enlisted help from students in other faculties, architects at the school and in the community, and from experts in straw-bale construction.  Students in a third-year environment and resource studies class are reporting on the site's ecological restoration. Architecture students are researching water-management systems, energy systems and other features.

They're investigating the use of recycled materials, such as the solid maple flooring donated by a local businessperson.  "We're looking at using local materials and products and showcasing them," Cornu said.  Cornu is familiar with straw bale construction, having worked with a Guelph company that specializes in ecological building. After graduating from high school in her hometown outside Sudbury, she worked in Europe for a year. On her travels, she saw better ways of constructing houses and people who conserve because they must.

She has volunteered on Habitat for Humanity builds, helped teach sustainable building workshops in Nicaragua, and built a bunkhouse with a Grade 11 class on Pelee Island.

Now, the challenge for the Grand House Student Co-op is finding a company to give them a mortgage. The group has a co-signer, but traditional banks aren't breaking the door down to help finance a small, $250,000 student co-op project, Cornu has found.  "I'm confident we'll get funding eventually. It's just taking longer than I thought," she said, adding there will be more fundraisers for the project over the winter.

The house is a dream that Cornu is determined to see come to light.  Those who know her believe it will.  "It's an interesting concept," Smith said. "It's an alternative form of housing, but I think it has real possibilities. . . . I think it's a good project and I think they've been very careful and very conscientious.  "She (Cornu) is tenacious and I think she will be successful."

Rick Haldenby, director of UW's School of Architecture, said the project is welcome.  The School of Architecture is also hoping to build a 20- to 30-bed residence for first-year students some day.  But the beauty of the  Grand House project t is that it was initiated by students and it's driven by students, Haldenby said.  "It's her (Cornu's) determination. It's a good idea; she's got good support from other students; she applied for seed funding; the city has been co-operative.  "There are so many ways it's good."

baggerholm@therecord.com                                                         File:   gvsa  /  r_060130_archgradhouse.doc