Interview: Peter Busby
by Jim Taggart
As both advocate and architect Peter Busby, CM, AIA, FRAIC, MAIBC, MAAA, MOAA, BCID, LEED A.P. has been recognized nationally and internationally for his work in furthering the practice of sustainable design. As Managing Director of Busby Perkins + Will he runs offices in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary and Seattle as well as consulting to the firm’s 21 offices worldwide.
In addition to his many architectural awards over 20 years in practice, in 2005 Peter was invested as a member of the Governor General’s Order of Canada, recognizing a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.
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JT: Your firm has been responsible for numerous precedent setting green buildings over the last 20 years. Is there a common methodology that supports the innovation in your work?
PB: Our firm has developed a series of imperatives that underpin our design process, including vigilant material selection with an eye to environmental and ecological impacts. We promote thermal, biomass and wind power harvesting, and insist upon windows that provide natural ventilation in all spaces. We use photovoltaics, Energy Star appliances, and efficient distribution systems such as in-slab radiant heating and ground source heat pumps. We utilize strategies such as displacement ventilation, underfloor air systems, atrium spaces, buffer zones, and double envelopes, to achieve the highest levels of total performance. We believe in thoughtful building orientation so elevations can respond to solar and local climate criteria, and so daylighting can be provided deep into the building. The sun is the only true environmentally benign source of energy and, as such, we incorporate passive solar design to capture free heating in the winter. Most of all, we believe in the free passage of natural light and in establishing a visual connection to the outside. These strategies, among others, learned one at a time over the last 15 years, form the foundation of the firm’s sustainable practice.
JT: New strategies and technologies are emerging all the time. Does one in particular stand out as being of critical importance?
PB: More far reaching than any technological development is the change in the mindset of clients, developers, businesses, and authorities alike. Even as recently as 2000, LEED was virtually unknown, but today 90% of our clients want a level of LEED performance in their projects. This transformation is evidence of the sweeping changes happening in architecture and the building community. For their part, cities and regional districts are setting objectives and deadlines for environmental performance that we could have only dreamed of a few years ago. Businesses and developers are realizing that sustainable design creates healthy buildings and that, in turn, improves the health of occupants, productivity in workplaces, learning levels at schools, and better retail sales in stores.
JT: Most projects are constrained to some degree by budget and site limitations. Is anything you are working on right now really pushing the envelope?
PB: We are currently working on the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability [CIRS] for Dr John Robinson of UBC. When completed it will be the most innovative and high performance green building in North America, demonstrating leading edge green building design products, technologies, and systems. It will be a state-of-the-art “living-lab” in which researchers from leading academic institutions can perform interactive research on and assessment of current and future building systems and technologies. CIRS will combine numerous sustainable strategies and will be a net power producer on an annual basis. Furthermore, it will be greenhouse gas neutral in its operations, self-sufficient in waste treatment and water management, and will have 100% daylighting. Most importantly, CIRS will have significant educational impact on the public, manufacturers, and building professions through accessibility programs.
JT: How do you see these innovations working their way into mainstream practice?
PB: Our firm has witnessed the immense change in resources, technology, and priorities over the past 20 years. When we look forward to the next decade, we see the unlimited development of solar powered buildings. Solar skins, roofs, and glazing that generate efficient, affordable energy will replace power plants, distribution systems, and combustion engines. We see buildings that open and close to the sun like flowers, buildings that are bonded together using the natural compounds employed by barnacles, and solar collectors that turn to the sun using tricks learned from the sunflower. Our future buildings will respond to natural stimulus like the altitude and azimuth of the sun and the humidity and airflow over the site. We have a responsibility to research, plan, develop, and transform the way we think, design, and build to reach these goals
JT: At the federal level, we seem to be reneging on our commitment to Kyoto. What can the architectural profession do in the absence of government support?
PB: The sustainable design movement is heading in the right direction by reducing emissions and addressing dozens of other environmental concerns such as water consumption, natural resource management, occupant health, and climate change. For every imaginable reason - environmental, economic, ethical, and social - we should be moving swiftly to implement every strategy we can to improve this situation.
Today, there are no technological barriers to sustainable development. We have the knowledge, experience, and examples of energy-efficient buildings in every part of our country. As members of a wealthy nation, with the resources and knowledge to make a difference, Canada has an obligation to show leadership that goes beyond our Kyoto commitment. We have the opportunity, responsibility, and insight to become global leaders with solutions.
Watch our book section for
Busby: Learning Sustainable Design,
a retrospective on the work of Peter Busby