Even in the innovative and rapidly changing world of green building, some of the old ways and traditional materials are often the best. For thousands of years, natural clay and lime plasters have been used to create beautiful and long-lasting interior and exterior finishes. While these materials continue to be used extensively throughout the world, they have been largely replaced in North America by cement and acrylic stuccos.

By Peter McGee

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Many homeowners are already reducing their water consumption having retrofitted their home with water-conserving plumbing fixtures. They have accepted the soft touch of new showerheads over the powerful needle spray, and they are familiar with automatic-eye hand washing, dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals.

By Hugh Perry

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This small live/work addition to a Montreal row house represents a highly personal response to some big questions. With environmental responsibility his highest priority, owner Mario Lafrenais, chose to build the project himself, in order to facilitate maximum use of reclaimed materials and alternative energy systems, something that would have been much more difficult within the constraints of conventional commercially-driven building delivery systems.

By Jim Taggart

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The trend toward smaller houses

Between 1950 and 2000, the average size of a North American house increased from about 800sf to about 2,500sf. This has been a reflection of the mass movement of people from inner cities to suburbs, from small single-family lots, to much larger ones. But for many reasons, the migratory trend is beginning to reverse, and many people are now seeking the quality of life that contemporary urban environments provide.

By Andrew Reeves

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LEED Platinum house uses existing foundation and salvaged materials

This low-cost, 1,190sf, LEED Platinum house is sited on an existing 20-year-old foundation on pedestrian-oriented Protection Island, a five minute passenger ferry ride from Downtown Nanaimo.

By Dr Nancy Mackin

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The growing pressure being placed on energy supply as a result of increasing global energy demand is one of the key challenges that we face and will continue to face. Efforts are under way to find new and improved methods to supply this energy, yet one of the key solutions is to use less energy in the first place. Designing buildings to respond to the climate within which they are located, is one of the most important ways of achieving this aim.

By Johan Bothma, Don Crockett and Jeanette Southwood

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Our client for this project was the British Columbia Hydro & Power Authority [BC Hydro]. In accordance with the Province’s Climate Action Plan and its associated carbon reduction mandate, BC Hydro is required to move towards carbon neutrality in all of its activities. As a result, building projects funded by the rate payers of the province are to demonstrate exemplary environmental performance. Our project is the first building to be completed under this initiative.

By Kevin Hanvey

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Among the central objectives of sustainable design is to move the construction industry from a linear process of production, service and disposal to a cyclical one in which materials and products are reclaimed, reprocessed and reused. Materials such as steel, aluminum and some plastics lend themselves to this approach reducing or even eliminating the draw down on the Earth’s ‘capital’ of material resources.

By Hugh Perry

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Located in Toronto’s Don Valley, Evergreen Brick Works is the revitalization of a 4.9-hectare, century-old brick factory that closed its doors 20 years ago. The site has been transformed into Canada’s first large-scale community environmental centre. The reclamation of such a site poses many challenges that require detailed evaluation to determine solutions that will maximize environmental and social benefits within reasonable economic parameters.

By Megan Torza, du Toit Architects Ltd. / du Toit Allsopp Hillier

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