“The Grand House Student Co-operative is an incorporated, non-profit housing co-op, with the goal of demonstrating sensitive, aesthetic and environmental design, promoting innovative living and exploring both traditional and alternative construction methods.”
building home Grand House Student Co-op Cambridge Ontario Laura Knap and Steven Chodoriwsky
i n 2004 the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo moved from the main Waterloo campus to vastly improved facilities on the banks of the Grand River. It sits in the middle of Cambridge, Ontario’s historic downtown, which was in desperate need of positive development. The school’s move has been both exciting and awkward, as students, faculty and local citizens come to terms with being neighbours. In these critical early years of relocation, Grand House forms a timely, unique and productive incision in the town. In May 2004, four months before the architecture school’s re- opening, incoming graduate student Chantal Cornu arrived in Cambridge looking for a place to live. A little early perhaps, but hers was not to be the typical, tedious search for temporary student accommodation. Armed with maps, phone numbers and
a streak of blind ambition, she assumed the role of ambitious prospector. Her vision: to find land, and then to build a place in the Cambridge community for students to call home. Two years later, with a strong cast of student members, the support of citizens, and generous grants and donations in tow, the Grand House Student Co-operative is now a visible local organisation on the brink of making a building. From Cornu’s energetic first strides, a dedicated core of individuals have shared her goal to create quality, affordable student housing, driven by what it means to build responsibly.
From a diverse set of issues including community integration, environment, patterns of student life and economics, a set of clues
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