Main Authors: Daniel Pearl, Mark Poddubiuk, Bernard Olivier

Contributors and Associated Team Members: Jennifer Towell, Josée St.Onge, Martine Bédard, Martin Roy, Katarina Cernacek and Sudhir Suri. 

Themes: Social Equity & Inclusion | Energy & Resource Efficiency | Urban Regeneration

Status: Built / Operational since 2011

The rehabilitation of Benny Farm puts forward a new model for neighborhood development grounded in affordability, community participation and sustainable construction. Originally conceived as veterans’ housing in a 1947 garden-city setting, the redevelopment expanded the site into an improved government-subsidised neighborhood with 785 homes for low-income families, seniors, young mothers and people with disabilities. 

Its significance lies not only in the buildings, but in the process and infrastructure behind them. The project combined preservation, rehabilitation and new construction with green public space, material reuse, waste minimisation, improved indoor air quality, durable building envelopes and renewable energy systems. Geothermal heat exchange, hybrid solar power, radiant heating and cooling, heat recovery, and grey-water and storm-water reuse were integrated to improve performance and reduce long-term costs for residents.

A key innovation was the creation of Green Energy Benny Farm, a nonprofit green utility company established to manage the district geothermal heating system. This legal and economic model helped protect residents against rising energy and water costs while demonstrating how collective ownership and shared infrastructure can support both environmental and social goals. 

Benny Farm also became an important reference point for wider change. Although only part of the original vision was realised, the project influenced the wider master plan, helped shape later work such as Rosemont, and contributed to shifts in policy and practice around affordable green housing in Montréal and beyond.

Global Holcim Foundation Awards Jury – 2006 

This community-driven initiative was recognised for its innovative merger of urban, architectural and landscape design, and for demonstrating the benefits of cost-efficient, sustainable augmentation of infrastructural services. The global jury particularly praised the active involvement of owners, tenants and users in the planning and execution of the neighborhood upgrade.

The project’s proposal for public and private financing was also commended for strengthening the communal economy while giving residents greater leverage over their housing conditions. Jurors highlighted its environmental and social sensitivity across multiple scales, from contextual integration to the detailed performance of individual structures and systems. 

Importantly, the jury saw Benny Farm as a transferable model. Its integrative strategy offered lessons that could inform similar efforts elsewhere, while its emphasis on long-term maintenance, monitoring and public awareness made it a compelling example of responsible collective investment in the civic realm.

Holcim Foundation Awards Jury for North America – 2005

Conceived as a hybrid of urban, architectural and landscape design, this collaborative effort was praised by the regional jury for foregrounding socioeconomic processes within a community-driven housing project. The scheme demonstrated how integrated design could produce low-cost sustainable buildings through energy-saving measures, water treatment procedures and waste management strategies. 

The jury particularly recognised the project’s ethical and social ambition, noting that it offered an ecologically sensitive living environment to people who would not normally be able to access such a choice. It also highlighted the likely reduction in health care and utility costs, and the project’s broader vision of involving stakeholders in the decisions that shape the built environment. 

Among the technical strengths, the jury singled out the geothermal radiant heating and cooling system as a meaningful contributor to long-term energy savings. Overall, the project was recognised as a financially viable and aesthetically sensitive contribution to sustainable neighborhood planning.