City partners with Sheridan College students to rethink housing for Mississauga neighbourhoods

Young people are on the frontlines of the housing crisis. With house prices out of reach, many have given up on living in the neighbourhoods they grew up in. But it doesn’t have to be that way – adding more housing choices in neighbourhoods can help. The City is partnering with Sheridan architecture students on an innovative project to help imagine the future of fourplex living in Mississauga.

Neighbourhoods have room to grow

The population of many neighbourhoods is shrinking at a time when we desperately need more housing. While Mississauga has seen double-digit population growth in the downtown, many low-rise neighbourhoods are shrinking. From 2016 to 2021, the population of 20 different Mississauga neighbourhoods declined, by almost 2 per cent on average. This includes communities such as Applewood, Lorne Park, Rathwood, Lisgar, Creditview and many more.

Bringing more density to neighbourhoods, gently

Fourplexes and other types of low-rise, multi-unit housing can help add density to neighbourhoods in a gentle, gradual way.

Detached homes currently make up about 70 per cent of all housing in Mississauga – but that’s changing. Since 2023, the City has taken a number of actions to make it easier to build different types of housing in neighbourhoods. This includes permitting semi-detached homes, three residential units on a lot (including basement apartments and garden suites) and fourplexes. In other words, the City is working hard to end exclusionary zoning, an outdated practice that used zoning rules to restrict certain types of housing in residential neighbourhoods.

Gentle density is a good way to help revive older neighbourhoods. It brings people to areas where schools, parks, community centres and libraries are already in place. It can also create more compact, walkable communities which help support local shops and restaurants.

Imagining a new kind of neighbourhood

A fourplex is a low-rise building containing four separate units. While fourplexes exist in some parts of the city, like Port Credit, they are relatively uncommon in the rest of Mississauga. In total there are fewer than a dozen fourplexes citywide. That’s where the City’s academic partnership with Sheridan College comes in.

With fourplexes now approved city-wide, the City is collaborating with students in Sheridan’s Architectural Technology Program on a real-world urban planning scenario. Using data, critical thinking, drawing tools and imagination, the students are working to bring fourplexes to life.

During their 14-week course, the students are visualizing how four separate units – and the people who inhabit them – can come together to create a home.

The City has provided about 30 locations across Mississauga for the students to work with. The students will imagine the people living within and around the fourplex – how they can share a connection while maintaining each homeowner’s privacy and boundaries. Ultimately, the aim is to design fourplexes that could integrate seamlessly into Mississauga’s existing neighbourhoods.

At the end of the course, the students will have created architectural floorplans, sections and renderings for a variety of fourplexes. The visuals produced by the students will help residents imagine what they could look like in their communities. The work will also help highlight the benefits of this type of housing for both new and existing residents.

Building a world-class Mississauga

Academic partnerships are important for both the City and the students who participate. These partnerships allow the City to tap into a broad network of academic research and creativity. Students across all disciplines benefit from helping to solve real world challenges and are instrumental in helping build a world-class Mississauga.

Learn more about Mississauga’s academic partnership program and building a fourplex.

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• Housing