At MOSS SUND, sustainable design isn’t a trend—it’s the baseline. If you’re starting a new home or renovation and feeling overwhelmed by green building jargon, don’t worry, we’re here to break it down for you.

Net Zero

A Net Zero home is one that produces as much clean energy as it consumes—meaning it has zero net greenhouse gas emissions. These homes are built for efficiency:

• Super-insulated from roof to foundation
• High-performance windows and doors
• Airtight construction to prevent heat loss
• All-electric systems—no gas, oil, or propane
• Powered by renewable energy (like rooftop solar or green grid electricity)

At MOSS SUND, all of our staff are trained in Net Zero design. It’s a no-brainer for us—and for the planet.

CHBA Net Zero Programs

Offered by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, these programs set the standard for Net Zero, Net Zero Ready, and Net Zero Renovation homes in Canada. Certification is based on modeled energy performance and focuses on improving the building envelope and mechanical systems to minimize energy use and maximize comfort.

Passive House

The Passive House standard originated in Europe and is all about keeping heat in and cold out—with as little energy as possible. Think:

• Super-insulated walls and roofs
• Ultra-tight building envelope
• Triple-glazed windows
• Advanced heat recovery ventilation
• Elimination of thermal bridges

It’s rigorous, but incredibly effective. Carolyn Moss is a Certified Passive House Designer, and our team is trained in applying Passive House principles to residential projects of all kinds.

LEED for Homes

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a well-known global certification that rates homes across eight performance categories, including:

• Energy and water efficiency
• Materials and resources
• Indoor air quality
• Durability and resilience
• Community and location

It’s a holistic system designed to encourage thoughtful, healthy, high-performance homes – and yes, we’re LEED certified too!

Pretty Good House

Less about certification, more about common sense. The Pretty Good House movement is a set of flexible, practical guidelines for building high-quality homes that balance:

• Energy performance
• Design and aesthetics
• Budget
• Climate responsiveness
• Health and comfort

It’s not about perfection—it’s about making good, smart choices with a long-term view.

Zero Carbon

A Zero Carbon home minimizes carbon emissions from both construction and operation. That means:

• Careful material choices
• All-electric systems
• Exceptional energy efficiency

At MOSS SUND, our goal is to design homes that are beautiful, functional, durable, and low-carbon—places that feel great to live in and tread lightly on the planet. We’re pragmatic too: we aim high, but don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.

Have questions about what’s best for your project? Let’s chat.

As Ontario continues to address the housing crisis, big changes are happening in small spaces—literally. Recent updates to the provincial regulations around Laneway Homes and Garden Suites (also known as Additional Residential Units or ARUs) are making it easier than ever for homeowners to build secondary dwellings on their property.

Whether you’re dreaming of a rental income stream, planning for multi-generational living, or simply looking to add value to your home, these regulation changes open the door to new possibilities.

A Quick Recap: Laneway & Garden Suites

Introduced in Toronto’s zoning by-laws in 2018 and 2022 respectively, laneway houses and garden suites are self-contained residential units located on the same lot as a detached, semi-detached, or townhouse.

They’re typically tucked away in the backyard or laneway, utilizing underused space to create much-needed housing while keeping the neighborhood’s character intact.

So, What’s New?

In a bold move to boost housing supply, the Province of Ontario has introduced changes that override local municipal by-laws, making it easier to design and build ARUs across the province. These updates simplify the planning process, reduce design constraints, and expand eligibility to more properties.

Let’s break down the key changes:

1. Goodbye, Angular Plane

Previously, secondary suites had to conform to a 45-degree angled roofline, which often compromised the design and layout of second floors. Now, angular plane requirements no longer apply to properties with 1 or 2 units in the main dwelling.

What this means: Designers and homeowners have more freedom to build full-height vertical walls right up to the roofline—no more sloped ceilings!

2. Increased Lot Coverage

The new regulations allow up to 45% lot coverage for properties with a laneway or garden suite.

What this means: More flexibility to add rear additions to the main house or build a larger ARU—without running into zoning headaches.

3. Minimum Lot Size? Not Anymore

Forget the minimum lot size restrictions—if you have a legal lot, you’re good to go.

What this means: Smaller lots, which were previously excluded, are now eligible for garden or laneway suites. More Torontonians can now take advantage of this opportunity.

4. Floor Space Index (FSI) Limits Removed

The FSI—formerly used to limit total building size on a lot—is no longer a barrier when adding an ARU, as long as setback and height rules are met.

What this means: Bigger suites are now possible. For instance, a property that was previously capped at 0.6 FSI can now maximize its footprint without restriction—great for livability and design flexibility.

5. Closer to Home: Reduced Separation Distance

The required distance between the ARU and the main home has been reduced to just 4 metres (down from 5–7.5m, depending on height).

What this means: Even tight backyards can now accommodate a suite. This change dramatically increases the number of eligible properties, especially in dense urban areas.

What This Means for You (and for the City)

With these updated rules, up to 80% of Toronto homes could now support a laneway or garden suite. That’s a game-changer for homeowners and for the city as a whole. These changes lower the cost, reduce timelines, and expand eligibility—making it easier to increase density while preserving neighborhood character.

More importantly, this is a crucial step toward building a more sustainable and inclusive city.

Ready to Build Your Suite?

As architects, we’re thrilled to see these updates—and we’re here to help bring your vision to life. Whether you’re in the early stages of exploring possibilities or ready to submit a permit application, we’ll guide you through the process and design a space that works for your goals and your lot.

Get in touch to learn more or visit Garden Suites – City of Toronto  for further details.

Significant transformations are on the horizon for diagnostic imaging in Ontario. Starting spring 2024, the Ontario government began accepting applications for more private clinics to offer publicly funded MRI and CT scans, with licences anticipated to be issued this fall. This initiative aims to address the unprecedented wait times, reducing them from 90 days to a targeted 28 days, and hopes to add 100,000 more scans per year to the province’s capacity. Currently, there are only seven private clinics providing these essential services, underscoring the critical need for expansion.

Alongside this expansion, exciting advancements in AI technology are revolutionizing diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy in hospitals. AI is now integral in image analysis and real-time tracking, enhancing the speed and precision of diagnosis and treatment. Deep learning algorithms enable automatic delineation of tumors and surrounding tissues, optimize radiation dose distributions, and improve the quality of MRI, CT, and PET scans through techniques like super-resolution imaging and noise reduction.

Moreover, AI facilitates adaptive radiotherapy by continuously adjusting treatment plans based on real-time data, including monitoring tumor changes and patient movements. This dynamic approach ensures that radiation beams are accurately targeted, maximizing tumor control while minimizing damage to healthy tissues. Predictive models further personalize treatments by forecasting tumor changes, allowing for proactive adjustments. AI’s capability to analyze vast patient data sets also drives improvements in treatment protocols and contributes to ongoing research.

In light of these technological advancements, MOSS SUND is proud to announce the completion of our latest project at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. We have designed a state-of-the-art treatment room, known as a vault, for the Varian Ethos—one of the newest generations of adaptive therapy equipment. This project highlights our expertise in working at the leading edge of care and treatment, integrating cutting-edge technology into healthcare facilities, providing environments that support the latest advancements in patient care and treatment efficiency.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to innovate and enhance healthcare architecture, ensuring that facilities are equipped to meet the evolving needs of medical professionals and patients alike.

The next step towards Garden Suites being permitted in Toronto as-of-right has been released!

The City of Toronto draft Garden Suite regulations can be reviewed here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-168225.pdf

Highlights of the proposed regulations include:

• Lot Coverage can be maximum 40% of the rear yard for the Garden Suite, up to a maximum of 60 square metres (more than the 30% max currently allowed for Laneway Suites)
• Garden suites can be excluded from the property’s permitted FSI.
• Permitted height will be the same as current Laneway suites: 4 metres height where the Garden Suite is at least 5 metres from the main house, and up to 6 metres height, where the Garden Suite is at least 7.5 metres from the main house
• Angular planes required on all four sides of the building starting at 4.0m at the front and sides and starting at 2.0 m at the rear
• A maximum 45 metre travel distance, with a minimum width of 1 metre and a vertical clearance of 2.1 metres, from a public street to the entrance of a Garden Suite, would be required for emergency services.
• Results from Garden Suite survey are appended to end of report.
• Preliminary considerations for sustainable building practices include promoting sustainable design standards for Garden Suites that improve such aspects as energy efficiency and increased building resilience to heat waves, power outages, and flooding.
• A report recommending Official Plan policies and Zoning By-law regulations to permit Garden Suites, as-of-right, across the city, will be presented to the Planning and Housing Committee in the fourth quarter of 2021

When I was 5 or 6, my family would park our station wagon at the end of Old Mill Road. It was winter and the sun had long set. We would ski through the woods, the moonlight reflecting off the snow, past the sugar shack to our family cottage. It is one of many favourite memories. I recall the complete silence of the forest except for the shushing of skis on snow. We would arrive at the cottage, turn on the baseboard heaters, throw a log in the cast iron stove, and fall asleep in our beds, still able to see our breath crystallizing in the air above us. In the morning we would shuck off our blankets and clothes down to our t-shirts, as the stove and heaters had done their overnight jobs a little too well. The warmed cottage always had a wonderful smell of wood, smoke and earth.

My grandfather bought our family cottage property in 1962, long before my night skiing adventures. Our cottage was originally an unassuming old wood frame hunting shack surrounded by juniper bushes. Over 60 years the cottage has been lovingly renovated by three generations of our family. Our sweat and fingerprints are literally all over the building. My grandfather began the perpetual renovations by adding two small bedrooms to the back of the cottage, barely large enough for double beds. 30 years later those bedrooms were partially torn down and rebuilt larger in size. The homeasote fiberboard interior finish was replaced by cedar cladding that has since patinaed to a beautiful honey colour. Doors and windows were added, moved, filled in, and moved back to their original locations. A loft, whose sole access for many years was a roofing ladder stolen from the boathouse, increased the sleeping capacity by two. The loft has since been removed after a third bedroom was added. I believe that my uncle has rewired the cottage five times over. During our last renovation, a rather large one by our measure encompassing 800 ft² of the cottage, the building department requested that we upgrade the existing foundations. The original boulders the building was sitting on apparently were not to code.

Up until the last renovation, there was never a grand plan or design that tied everything together. The cottage grew and evolved as our family did. It was these cottage construction projects that put me on the path towards a career in architecture. I learned so much from first watching, and then helping, my grandparents, parents, uncle and aunt, brother, cousins, partners, and neighbours come together to build something that was always so much greater than the sum of its parts. Some of the most important architectural design lessons I have learned, in or out of school, have come from renovating the cottage with my extended family.

Live on the property and observe daily rituals before making any major design decisions. Wait and see what your favourite path to the shoreline is before building a dock or a deck. Site your building or addition only after you know how you naturally move around and use the land.

Listen carefully to everyone who has a stake in the cottage, young to old. You never know where the next great idea might come from. Every family member at our cottage has a deep love and appreciation for the property and the work done by the generations before them. Each has their own insights and beliefs about what makes the cottage great, and in turn, different ideas for how it might be improved. Part of each family member’s dedication to the cottage comes from the lasting imprint each have made on the cottage design.

Plan for flexibility.  Cottages can be in families for generations, and use patterns change over time. It is hard to plan for all scenarios but creating flexible multi use spaces that can be used in different ways by season and over time ensure that a renovation will stand the test of time.

Know when to ask for help and bring in the professionals. There are times when calling the township planners, a building official, an architect or a builder might save you a lot of frustration and time that could be better spent with your family on the dock. Architects are trained to facilitate conversations and help people express their ideas. This can be extremely helpful for families undertaking design projects.

Renovations can be stressful – make sure to take the time to have fun as a family and continue to enjoy the cottage.  During our last renovation we had a hard 4 o’clock stop, which is when our family croquet tournaments commenced.

Our cottage is now a four season multi generational cottage. I can turn on the furnace with my phone before we leave the city for the cottage. I park 20 feet from the cottage door and carry my sleeping boys to their warmed beds. The temperature is the same in the morning when we wake up as it was when we got into our beds, and the smell of wood is still there.  Our family renovations made over many years have enhanced the use of our cottage, and made it possible for generations past, future, and present to enjoy the cottage together as a great big family, all while retaining the original charm of the old hunting cabin.

 

Paul Gorrie works with MOSS SUND Architects.  With over 15 years of architecture & design experience in residential, recreational, and institutional projects, his favourite project remains his family cottage on Gloucester Pool.

Blower door testing is back!  Now that the lockdown in Toronto has been lifted, we are proceeding this week with ‘pre-construction’ blower door tests for 4 of our current projects.

Blower door testing is used to measure the air tightness of a home.  Identifying and addressing leaks is a key factor in improving a home’s energy efficiency, comfort and durability.

During a blower door test, all windows and doors are closed and a fan is placed in the frame of the main door.  The fan is run to depressurize the house, drawing air through all the small holes.  The operator determines the ACH (air changes per hour) based on the readings, dimensions and volume of the home.

Locations of leaks can be determined using a ‘smoke pencil’ (though the back of your hand can do just as well)

This project, an older semi in Leslieville that underwent a major renovation and addition, was tested last year.  In this case the tesing company also used a technique where the fan was reversed, the house was filled with theatrical fog then pressurized to see where the smoke would exit the house.  Good thing we had notified the neighbours as a large hole was found on the party wall!  Compartmentalizing attached homes (sealing them off from each other) can also help with sound and odour transfer.

Unfortunately we do not have a ‘before’ reading for this project, but, judging by what was found during the reno, we expect the reading would have been 15 ACH or higher.  The first construction test got a reading of approximately 8 ACH and in the end, the house was brought down to 3.4 ACH.  This is below the level required for new home construction (for attached homes).  As we move homes toward Net Zero, we aim to achieve 1.0 ACH or less.

Questions?  Looking to improve the energy efficiency and comfort of your home?  Get in touch!  As you can see, we love this stuff!

The pandemic has had a profound effect on our daily lives and the spaces we inhabit.  Our traditional ‘homes’ have become nursing homes, classrooms, offices, gyms, cafeterias and more.

We have had calls from clients who see the tragedy that is happening in our long term care homes and are wondering about alternatives – from purchasing rural properties to creating communal retirement living to re-imagining city homes to accomodate seniors and care givers in a more intimate and familiar setting.  We’ve also talked tiny homes, modular building, seasonal to full time cottage conversions and long term escape plans.

In the city, homeowners are looking to maximize the use of the space they have: lowering basements, additions with office and gym space and laneway suites for multi-generational living.

Our clients at 5E Long Branch were thinking ahead.  With a college nearby, they wanted a small affordable bachelor unit to provide accommodation for a student and some extra income for them.  On the ground floor, they requested a full bath and office that could be converted into a bedroom in case they, or their parents, needed an accessible space.  We created a great home office, just off the main living area, that has it’s own entrance and large windows overlooking the rain garden courtyard.

Thinking ahead and choosing an option that works, not only creates the safe haven we need now, but also prepares for the future and adds significant value and/or a rental revenue stream when things return to ‘normal’.

MOSS SUND has been creating low energy, sustainable homes for over 25 years.  Over that time the energy target has decreased to the point where Net Zero homes are now within reach.  A net zero home is so efficient it can produce, on site, as much energy as it consumes.  With some projects we can get there now, with others there may need to be a phased plan, but renovating without taking a serious look at energy efficiency is a thing of the past.

The City of Toronto has declared a Climate Emergency and is committed to increasing efforts to combat climate change.  As part of this mandate, they have set a target that all new homes are to be Net Zero by 2030 and all existing homes in the city must be upgraded to net zero by 2050.

To aid in this effort, the City has created the BetterHomesTO.com web site to provide information to homeowners about energy efficient renovations including net zero – what it means, the benefits and features.  They have also created a series of webinars on how to renovate your home to be more comfortable, healthy and climate-friendly.  The 10 webinar series covers the following topics:

Planning your renovation

Rebates and Financing

Energy Considerations

Your Building Envelope: Air Sealing, Insulation, Windows and Doors

High Efficiency Heating and Cooling

Heat Pumps

Solar PV and Batter Storage

Preparing your Home for an Electric Vehicle

Introduction to Passive House

Net Zero Homes: Toronto’s Future

There is a lot of great information in there, providing homeowners an understanding of the vocabulary and issues around net zero homes.  Be warned – it could get overwhelming!  Renovations of any kind are complicated and a lot for a homeowner to take on – even more so one that targets net zero.

Architects are a valuable resource when planning your project.  Service offerings vary from firm to firm, but many (like MOSS SUND) will work with you from the initial idea to the end of the construction warranty period.  They can assemble and co-ordinate the team necessary to achieve your objectives – energy advisors, structural, mechanical, solar, contractor, interior designer, landscape design etc. Familiar with the various types of housing built in the city over the years, we are experts at guiding homeowners through renovations, additions, and new home construction to create healthier, more comfortable and energy efficient homes that also look great and feel good to live in!

Together, we can prepare for the future and take steps to ensure we are tackling climate change one house at a time.

Renovation Webinar Series

As Toronto becomes more expensive, both for home ownership and renting, getting more out of the existing housing stock has become vital. Traditionally, a secondary suite has been a self-contained living space – a basement apartment, for example – within an existing house.  Local zoning by-laws and building codes dictate requirements for size of unit, windows, access, fire and noise separation, smoke alarms etc.

As architects, we are routinely tasked by our clients to design secondary suites as stand-alone projects or part of a larger renovation.  Projects have ranged from a small bachelor pad for student accommodation, to a large one bedroom for a young professional couple, to an owner’s local ‘pied a terre’ so they could rent out the main house to fund word travels!

Following the lead of municipalities across North America, the City of Toronto changed the municipal zoning bylaws in 2018, expanding secondary suites to include detached laneway houses.  A laneway house is a separate, self-contained residential unit on the same lot as a detached house, semi-detached house or townhouse, and generally located in the rear yard next to a laneway.  They typically must be smaller than the main house and meet setback and height as well as building code requirements.

MOSS SUND now has several laneway house projects on the go, including designing the first laneway house in Toronto to obtain a variance to allow for 2 units.  As with basement units, the reasons for creating a laneway suite vary, from providing housing for grown children, to creating an additional rental unit on an income property, to a modern dream home for an empty nester.

Laneway suites are a great first step in increasing the quality and quantity of secondary unit stock in Toronto’s neighbourhoods, however most properties in Toronto are not on a lane. Enter: Garden Suites.

Akin to Laneway suites, Garden suites are a vital and necessary next step to increasing access to higher quality secondary units for homeowners and renters. Garden suites are rife with potential and will help us design the type of dwellings that people want to live in.  As with Laneway suites, Garden suites are not new.  Ottawa has allowed Garden suites since 2017.  Guelph approved them in December 2020.

As architects, we have vast experience with the incredible diversity of houses in Toronto and we talk to homeowners every day about their needs and requirements. Garden suites provide the opportunity for even more diversity in quality housing types, and we believe that by increasing the number of homeowners who can stay in the communities they love, and by providing higher quality spaces for people looking to rent in these communities, we make neighbourhoods and the city a better place to live.

MOSS SUND’s Paul Gorrie recently spoke in support of Garden suites at a City of Toronto Planning and Housing Committee meeting.  We were happy to see that the motion for staff to proceed with consultations and draft policies passed easily. The committee members who spoke to the motion were very enthusiastic about the initiative, and the committee chair was downright effusive in her remarks and indicated that she hoped we would be seeing Garden suites being constructed by summer 2021.

As the professionals tasked with designing this new typology and guiding homeowners through the application, permit, and construction process, we look forward to playing a vital role in the successful implementation of the Garden suites initiative.

And, as always, if this is something that you are considering please do not hesitate to reach out to us – we are happy to help.