Accelerating social housing through prefabrication in Parc-Extension

In February 2026, the Montreal borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension authorized the construction of a 26-unit social housing building at 7965 boulevard de l’Acadie. Set to begin in March–April 2026, the project from the Lemay and ACDF team, in collaboration with Magil Tisseur and Bonneville, forms part of a large-scale pilot initiative led with the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ) that was developed for the Coopérative d’habitation Monde-Uni.  

The goal? Accelerate the delivery of more than 500 affordable housing units by the end of 2026 through a collaborative, optimized development strategy. At the centre of the initiative is a prefabricated real estate solution designed to respond to one of today’s most urgent social challenges: how to rapidly increase housing supply without sacrificing quality or integration in an urban landscape. 

Developed upstream with the SHQ, adaptable building prototypes were thought for deployment across varied sites. Using modular prefabrication and an optimized design-build planning model (CCPO), the approach significantly reduces construction timelines while ensuring durability and architectural coherence. 

Located at the junction of Parc-Extension and Ville Mont-Royal, the site sits between plexes, multi-unit housing, and single-family homes. It’s a three-storey building that will primarily include studio, one-bedroom and adaptable units on ground floor. More than half of the site will be landscaped, including six new trees. The building’s articulated façades and residential rhythm allow it to integrate seamlessly into its mixed context, a demonstration of how modular construction can be both efficient and context-sensitive. 

As housing pressures intensify, this project offers a tangible example of how coordinated innovation can translate urgency into built impact.