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Showing posts from March, 2023

Missing Middle Housing Part 2: Sonderho

Located in the Golden Triangle is a small 3-storey condo complex that is a great example of the Missing Middle. The layouts have features that are not commonly found in condos, and are more likely to be found in a single family house, such as saunas, fireplaces, skylights and rear yards. Both one and two storey units are located in the building. By having 4 separate entrances to the building allows for some through units with windows and terraces both on the back and front. The scale of the building makes it feel like a row of townhouses and not a condominium. Sonderho was constructed c. 1977. Ottawa Citizen. April 2, 1977  

Missing Middle Housing Part 1: Wedgewood Park

You may have heard the concept of the "missing middle housing" that centres on types of housing that are between detached single-family and higher density mid- and high-rise towers. When looking at the new housing developments being built in Ottawa this is something that there is short supply of. To use the cliche "learning from the past", in the following series of posts I will show examples of innovative housing examples that have many of the amenities of a single family detached housing, but with higher density. There was a time in Ottawa when townhouses and other "missing middle" types of houses were built en masse, but at some point they petered off in favour of the two extremes in density - high and low.  Located in Hunt Club Park is an enclave called Wedgewood Park built c. 1986, just southeast of Johnson Road and Tapiola Crescent. The buildings are only 2 to 3 stories tall allowing each condo unit to have a visual connection to the ground. Some uni