Timbre and Harmony opens, providing Passive House non-market housing to Vancouver seniors

Ryder Architecture has announced the completion of Timbre and Harmony, a landmark non-market housing development designed to meet Passive House standards.

Designed for people 55 and older and people with disabilities, the project delivers 157 secure, energy-efficient homes along East 12th Avenue in Vancouver’s Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood.

This project received funding through the Federal government’s National Housing Coinvestment Fund and through the Green Municipal Fund’s Sustainable Affordable Housing initiative delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Ryder’s design project management approach helped secure rezoning, development, and building permit approvals in a little over two years. An energy study submitted during rezoning also eliminated the need for a sixth-floor setback, which improved energy performance while allowing for additional residential units.

According to Ryder Architecture, the architectural language draws inspiration from the city’s mid-century optimism, reinterpreting it as a climate-resilient, socially purposeful building.

“Timbre and Harmony is both an homage and an evolution,” said Adam James, principal at Ryder Architecture. “We wanted these buildings to feel rooted in Vancouver’s apartment tradition but to project a new vision of affordability, beauty, and sustainability. The architecture is driven by carefully proportioned façades, abundant natural light, and a shared commons at the heart of community life.”

Commissioned by Brightside Community Homes Foundation, the project nearly triples the site’s capacity. 20 per cent of the units are fully accessible, while the remainder are readily adaptable, enabling residents to age in place.

Two cleanly proportioned, six-storey, L-shaped volumes anchor the site on either side of a central right-of-way.

Between the two buildings, a landscaped commons evokes the lobbies and garden courts of Vancouver’s postwar apartments, reinterpreted for present day with spaces for urban agriculture, outdoor cooking, and social gathering beneath preserved mature trees.

Subtly layered façades are also animated by colourful balconies that feature mosaic tiles, painted trims, and details of earlier apartment buildings.

An envelope-first philosophy achieved a 56 per cent reduction in energy use and carbon emissions, with a heating demand of 12 kWh/m² per year. Features include a low 20 per cent window-to-wall ratio tuned for daylight and thermal balance, an airtight envelope with thermally broken balconies and fixed sun-shades that act as passive cooling devices, triple-glazed windows, ductless heat recovery ventilation, and rooftop domestic heat-pump hot water.

Together, these all-electric strategies demonstrate how to deliver affordable, climate-resilient housing at market-standard cost and on a compressed schedule.

“This project is about more than just adding homes,” said James. “It’s about reimagining the DNA of Vancouver’s apartment housing so that seniors and vulnerable residents live in places of dignity, comfort, and connection, homes that are both timeless and forward-looking.”

Ryder has shown that architecture can advance not only sustainability and affordability but also joy, beauty, and a renewed sense of belonging.

“Timbre & Harmony embodies Brightside’s vision of a future where people of all income levels have a home within a vibrant and healthy community,” said William Azaroff, CEO, Brightside Community Homes Foundation. “Ryder has helped Brightside advance that vision by creating climate-resilient homes that embrace community and social connectedness and represent the future of non-market housing.”