It’s green. It’s affordable. And it’s going to be built fast.

The City of Vancouver wants to achieve these three objectives in a new East Side social housing project.

To do this, it will have  some help from friends in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

In 2018, then councillor Andrea Reimer of Vancouver and deputy mayor Maria Vassilakou of Vienna signed a memorandum of cooperation.

It’s around green buildings, energy retrofits, and how construction practices can mitigate climate change.

The cooperation includes sharing insights and practices on approaches such as the Austrian building standard called klimaaktiv, which promotes climate-friendly and energy-efficient methods.

Ryan Bigelow is Vancouver manager for strategic business advisory, and he prepared a report to council about the planned housing project on Stainsbury Avenue.

According to Bigelow, the development has been selected for what is called the “Vienna House/Vancouver House collaboration project”.

“Each city will ultimately feature a building named after its counterpart and it is hoped via the exchange of knowledge and cooperation, advanced learning outcomes will be achieved,” Bigelow wrote.

Bigelow noted that the project will involve, among others, “selected low-carbon affordable housing design and construction experts from Vienna”.

The undertaking’s objectives include the establishment of “new approaches to achieve fast, low-carbon affordable housing”.

It will be a wood-frame development.

As the two cities’ memorandum of cooperation notes, B.C. and Austria “both have a long tradition of wood construction”.

The development site will be on five lots owned by the City of Vancouver.

One of these is 2009 Stainsbury Avenue, the current location of the Cedar Cottage Community Garden.

Last year, one of the gardeners, Dalia Levy, told the Georgia Straight that they are asking the city to give them a new space at the nearby John Hendry Park.

According to the staff report to council, the project will be processed under what is known as SHORT or the Social Housing or Rental Tenure program.

The six-storey development, which will be subject to a rezoning application, is targeted for completion in 2022.

Bigelow wrote in his report that there is interest to “explore options for accelerated development via innovative construction delivery methods”.