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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understood why we moved around so much as a kid.
These experiences have made me very critical of
prevailing Canadian attitudes towards housing, as
well as the relative inattentiveness that design has
given to spaces like the ones I lived in growing
up. Multifamily buildings in North America are
generally not given the level of care that singlefamily
houses are. They are seen as transitional
homes at best, chosen by economic necessity
rather than preference, and afforded less comfort
as a result. To their builders and owners, they
are seen as spreadsheets for generating revenue,
not architecture. To planners and municipal
politicians, they are blights on “neighborhood
character,” legally relegated through exclusionary
zoning to a minority of city lands in less desirable
areas, out of sight and out of mind. To federal
and provincial politicans, their occupants are a
minority of voters, thus their concerns go ignored
and needs unmet. The unspoken implication is
that people who live in such places don’t matter,
and that nobody in their right mind should want
to. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, since
multifamily living becomes poor by design &
neglect, which reinforces the stigma against it.
I hope to push back on some of these assumptions.
I do not believe multifamily housing must be
unpleasant. The multiplex is a case study of a
multifamily housing type which combines the
pleasantries of single family homes – relative
spaciousness, human scale -- with the higher
densities demanded by contemporary urban living.
They are not a silver bullet to the housing crisis,
but rather a piece of the larger puzzle occupying
an intrinsically interesting space of architectural
possibilities.
--Philippe Fournier
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