Architecture of Ottawa - Domestic Architecture

Domestic Architecture

Ottawa's domestic architecture is dominated by single family homes. There are also smaller numbers of semi-detached, rowhouses, and apartment buildings. Most domestic buildings are clad in brick, with small numbers covered in wood or stone.

Ottawa has several older neighbourhoods clustered around the downtown core, including the Glebe, Sandy Hill, New Edinburgh, Centretown, Lower Town and Old Ottawa South. These areas were mainly built up in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The houses in these areas tend to be in Victorian or Queen Anne style, but rarely have any conspicuous ornamentation. These are usually two or three storey single homes. Recent infills in these neighbourhoods have often taken the form of townhouses. Red brick, sometimes painted other colours, is the dominant surface material. Most houses have sizable lots, with a driveway running to a shed, or a small lane way running behind the buildings. In the 1920s and 1930s new styles were imported, and many houses from this era take inspiration from the Arts and crafts and Prairie styles.

Like most of North American, the suburbs built in the years after the Second World War were dominated by the ranch house. Areas like Alta Vista and the older parts of Nepean are dominated by these quickly built single storey houses with a garage attached and little overt styling. More recent suburbs have moved to larger homes, generally with two or more stories and with more ornamentation, such as gables, dormer windows, and balconies. This neo-eclectic style dominates that rapidly growing areas outside the Greenbelt, such as Kanata and Barrhaven.

Beginning in the 1960s a collection of large apartment buildings were erected in Ottawa. The first being the Juliana on Bronson St, built in 1962. During the years after the 1960s and 1970s Ottawa embraced a decentralized strategy, and while some of these buildings are located in the core, most are spread out across different parts of the city. Clusters of buildings were placed in former industrial areas such as Lees Avenue and Hurdman. Others were erected in the suburbs that were being built in this era such as Britannia in the west and Heron Gate in the south. The towers from this era share an almost universal design, brick or concrete facades unadorned except for the large numbers of balconies given to each suite. With the general recession in the Canadian real estate market of the 1980s and early 1990s most such developments halted. In the early years of the 21st century residential high-rises have returned, mostly in the form of condominiums. Ottawa has not seen as extensive a boom in condo construction as Toronto or Vancouver, but several prominent structures have been built including the Minto Metropole and a number of towers in the Byward Market area.

The Briarcliffe section of the Rothwell Heights was briefly a showcase for modernist domestic architecture in the early sixties, thanks to the influence of architects Walter Schreier, Brian Barkham, James W. Strutt, Paul Schoeler and Matt Stankiewicz, as well as the area's proximity to the National Research Council, a magnet for international talent.

New residential developments in Ottawa include nationally significant structures featuring a modern sensitivity toward energy efficiency and sustainability. The first certified Passivehaus building designed and built in Canada for residential use was developed by Chris Straka of Vert Design Incorporated in 2010. The duplex, constructed in New Edinburgh adjacent to the Rideau River, demonstrates the integration of modern sustainable architecture into one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods.