The New Plex
© Philippe Fournier 2023. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited unless advanced written permission is granted by the author. Final self-directed research project completed in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Architecture degree at McGill University. Summary: A multiplex is a low-rise multifamily residential building with two or more separately accessed dwelling units, built at a similar scale to a traditional house. To address severe housing shortages, many jurisdictions across North America and around the globe are reforming long-standing zoning laws to permit multiplex construction across vast areas of land which formerly only permitted building single-family houses. This opens up a new frontier of design possibilities for builders: how should these buildings be designed? Though well established across the province of Quebec and once historically common in many other places, multiplexes are rare in the rest of postwar North America, with the majority of private households now dwelling in single-family detached houses. The scale of the housing crisis demands a radical expansion of denser building stock, but the carbon intensity of large-scale new construction poses environmental problems. As an example of ‘missing middle’ housing, multiplexes have many advantages which make them opportune for addressing both the housing and climate crises simultaneously. While increasing density and housing options, plexes have the advantage of being small enough to construct in light wood frame, embodying low carbon and employing local materials and trades. Their human scale and adaptability can allow them to blend unobtrusively within the built character of many established suburban neighborhoods. Their low capital requirements would permit a competitive market to emerge among small builders, while their rapid constructability lends itself well to prefabrication and other efficient construction techniques. This project revisits historical North American multiplex designs, makes the argument for streamlining multiplex construction in contemporary infill suburban contexts, investigates their regulatory and practical constraints, and explores ways of designing the typology in order to improve its environmental performance, cost effectiveness, and above all the quality of life for residents.
© Philippe Fournier 2023. All rights reserved.
Reproduction prohibited unless advanced written permission is granted by the author.
Final self-directed research project completed in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Architecture degree at McGill University.
Summary:
A multiplex is a low-rise multifamily residential building with two or more separately accessed dwelling units, built at a similar scale to a traditional house. To address severe housing shortages, many jurisdictions across North America and around the globe are reforming long-standing zoning laws to permit multiplex construction across vast areas of land which formerly only permitted building single-family houses. This opens up a new frontier of design possibilities for builders: how should these buildings be designed? Though well established across the province of Quebec and once historically common in many other places, multiplexes are rare in the rest of postwar North America, with the majority of private households now dwelling in single-family detached houses. The scale of the housing crisis demands a radical expansion of denser building stock, but the carbon intensity of large-scale new construction poses environmental problems.
As an example of ‘missing middle’ housing, multiplexes have many advantages which make them opportune for addressing both the housing and climate crises simultaneously. While increasing density and housing options, plexes have the advantage of being small enough to construct in light wood frame, embodying low carbon and employing local materials and trades. Their human scale and adaptability can allow them to blend unobtrusively within the built character of many established suburban neighborhoods. Their low capital requirements would permit a competitive market to emerge among small builders, while their rapid constructability lends itself well to prefabrication and other efficient construction techniques. This project revisits historical North American multiplex designs, makes the argument for streamlining multiplex construction in contemporary infill suburban contexts, investigates their regulatory and practical constraints, and explores ways of designing the typology in order to improve its environmental performance, cost effectiveness, and above all the quality of life for residents.
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The New Plex
Project Outline
Narrow Lot
<25’
Wide Lot
36’ - 40’
Detached
Custom
Model 01:
Habitat Plex
Attached
Custom
Model 02:
Sky Plex
Detached
Custom
Model 03:
Flex Plex
Attached
Very rare at this
lot size; building
would fall into
‘small apartment’
scale category
This portion of the book proposes 3 of my own
new custom designed multiplexes. Similar to the
historic precedent types discussed in Part 1, these
three designs can be thought of as new ‘types,’ in
that they are intended to be standardized templates
that could potentially be mass-replicated on many
sites with minor augmentations, rather than one-off
projects tailored to a specific context.
The designs address three ‘typical’ infill site
conditions: detached on a narrow (25’) site, attached
on a narrow site, and detached on a wide site (40’).
These dimensions were chosen after consulting data
on suburban lot sales in the Greater Toronto Area
in the past few years, which showed the weighted
average width for all lots sold was 25’, while the
majority of all detached house sales involved lots
36’ wide or more, with 52% occuring in the range
of 36’ - 40’ alone.
Narrow and wide sites represent urban and
suburban neighbourhood contexts respectively,
while the detached or attached condition reflects the
building’s relationship to its neighbour, which will
impact internal circulation, fire egress, bedroom
layouts, passive lighting and thermoregulatory
strategies. For all three designs I imposed a set
of design objectives, shown on the following
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