COOL Housing Project

Status: Current

Research themes: Health and comfort Equity

Research areas: Building design and retrofits for performance improvement; Equitable and resilient housing for communities; Wellbeing and comfort in the built environment

Project Objective

Despite assumptions that Canada is a cold climate, Toronto experiences hot summers which many post-war housing buildings, particularly low income and social housing, are not equipped to safely handle. The Co-designing for Occupant Overheating in Low-income Housing (COOL Housing) project is aimed at addressing overheating within Toronto social housing while working with occupants to understand their current adaptive behaviours to manage their own overheating during extreme heat events.

Approach

The project will monitor indoor environmental conditions and occupant experiences using a combination of temperature and relative humidity sensors and in-the-moment smart watch surveys to collect data during the Summer of 2026. After this initial summer, interventions and adaptations will be co-designed with residents and building operators and implemented to reduce over heating in the study buildings. Resident engagement and monitoring will continue during the summer of 2027 to determine which adaptations are most effective at reducing overheating. Researchers will engage residents and staff at every step of this process with the goal of building and strengthening community connections in order to collect qualitative data on occupant experiences which can be integrated with quantitative environmental data to generate a holistic view of managing overheating that places people first.