Northwest Territories Corp. Duplexes and Fourplexes

Various communities from Fort Smith to Paulatuk, Northwest Territories

At just over $33M, this was the largest Design-Build contract ever awarded by the NWT Housing Corporation (now Housing NWT).

TAG and NIC worked together to prepare a design for modular units that would perform excellently across the different climatic environments in the NWT, be aesthetically pleasing and tailored to community residents, while still delivering value for the client. These units are currently being installed in a dozen NWT communities from Ft Smith to Paulatuk.

This project required a deeply collaborative effort on the part of TAG, NIC, the Client, the host communities, and the modular manufacturer. This approach allowed cost saving measures to be identified very early in the design process. One example of this was ensuring that the units could be installed at their designated sites without the use of a crane which is extremely expensive to coordinate in certain remote communities.

The design team presented modifications to the modular manufacturer to strengthen the bases of the units while adding minimal weight, thus enabling the units to effectively be rolled into place directly from a flatbed truck. Coordination with community representatives was also required to ensure that adequate clearance and turning space was available for trucks at each site and that the gravel pad foundations were sufficiently wide to allow workers and equipment to complete the unloading process. Prioritizing air tightness in the unit envelopes, TAG also specified a modification to the insulation systems to avoid the use of spray foam which becomes very brittle when set, and susceptible to cracking during transit.

This project speaks to TAG and NIC’s ability to work together to deliver a complex project with multiple stakeholders and project partners. Also, this project offers transferrable lessons for working with pre-engineered buildings. In particular TAG and NIC have focused on ensuring envelope air tightness and weatherproofing when connecting multiple pre-engineered structures together, or to adjoining structures.