Over the last five years, EllisDon Community Builders has been working with non-profit, Indigenous and government housing providers to reveal the hurdles that obstruct new housing projects. This work has made it clear that a standardized design solution would allow for more housing to be built faster, with less upfront cost and risk.

Our solution: Base Design, a mid-rise design template tailored to address the “missing middle” layer of housing infrastructure. We are making excellent progress and are excited to deliver a licensable product in 2025.

What is Base Design?

Base Design addresses the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) goals for housing sector mobilization. Our mid-rise design template is tailored to the "missing middle" layer of housing infrastructure. It will be ready for Class B (substantive) cost estimates, with CMHC’s technical requirements and local building code compliance already built in. It builds certainty into the design, planning and approval processes – when housing providers are typically faced with complexity and risk – and saves significant time and costs in this crucial pre-construction phase of projects. Base Design is applicable across the community-building space including, for example, affordable, supportive, and student housing. It is adaptable to locations, site-specifics and, critically, the programming of residents’ requirements nationwide; and it can be implemented with any construction method, from traditional to prefabrication, modular and more.

The CMHC Housing Supply Challenge 

CMHC has recognized Base Design’s potential by naming it one of nine finalists (from a starting field of 252) in the national Housing Supply Challenge. Housing providers across Canada have expressed interest in using Base Design to stimulate projects that are crucial in addressing the housing crisis: we received 27 letters of support from across Canada, representing more than 7,000 units of housing. In the coming months, we will continue to develop our design, an online configuration and estimating tool, and licensing terms for Base Design. We look forward to making our final presentation to the Housing Supply Challenge in February.

The Future of Affordable Housing

Of course, Base Design is just one tool in Community Builders’ suite of offerings. We anticipate using Base Design in all projects, especially under our “Housing as Infrastructure” model, and look forward to employing the vertically integrated expertise available from EllisDon’s Financial Advisory, Construction, Sustainable Building Solutions, and even Furniture Equipment and Design teams.