Ecobuilding

By Trevor Greenway

The municipality of La Pêche has won a design excellence award for its Passivhaus town hall, which is officially the first institutional building in Quebec to have the German eco-building status. 

The award was given out earlier this month by the Centre of Expertise on Commercial Wood Construction (Cecobois), whose mission is to facilitate the increased use of wood buildings in multi-family and non-residential construction across the province. La Pêche won first place in the Sustainable Development category. 

According to the jury panel, La Pêche’s new town hall, which spans an impressive 1,426 square metres just off Hwy 366 in Masham, “Comprehensively considers its environmental footprint.” The town hall officially opened in November 2024. 

“Minimizing the construction’s intrinsic carbon footprint and reducing consumption through a Passivhaus design demonstrates demanding and advanced work,” the panel wrote.  “A pioneering building, it paves the way for low-carbon institutional buildings in Quebec.”

Passivhaus is a German building concept in which a building or home must adhere to a specific design standard and use 90 per cent less energy than conventional buildings. Passivhaus buildings have no active heating system and boast ultra-low energy costs. 

The new town hall cost La Pêche $11.5 million, however half of that was covered in provincial grants. 

La Pêche Mayor Guillaume Lamoureux was in Quebec City in early April to accept the award.