By Hugh Perry
Sustainability in roofing means the end of using products made from virgin material. Instead, the industry is moving to transferring existing waste into useable products that will continually be reprocessed and diverted from landfill sites. There are now products that have a high percentage of recycled content, some with life-long warranties.
With the attention of the nation recently focused on the greenest ever Winter Olympics [no irony intended], everyone seemed to be rushing to the microphone.
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This issue of SABMag marks the start of our fourth year of publication, an appropriate time to acknowledge the invaluable support of our many advertisers, contributors and readers. (more…)
While Canada’s reputation for environmental advocacy and policy-making took another beating at the recent G8 Summit in Italy, at a grass roots level there is much good work being done. (more…)
According to research conducted by the Toronto-based design consultancy ‘Work Worth Doing’ , 16% of Canada’s total GHG emissions come from residential buildings, with the percentage in large urban areas being significantly higher.
There have been many programs over the years that have focused on improving energy conservation – R 2000, Power Smart, Energy Star – each of which has helped to keep the baseline of performance ahead of the minimum requirements of the building code. (more…)
by Jim Taggart
Completed in 2008, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre is a showcase for the cultures of the two First nations whose traditional territories overlap in the Callaghan Valley, where the resort municipality of Whistler now stands.
The cooperation between the Squamish and Lil’wat Nations – which dates to ancient times – has now been entrenched in a protocol agreement that enabled them to become joint clients for this building. (more…)
Andrew Waugh is a British architect whose first completed project, with the exception of a few modest residential renovations, just happens to be the tallest contemporary all-wood residential building in the world. At eight storeys, the Murray Grove building is already twice the height permitted by Canada’s National Building Code, yet is soon to be dwarfed by the 15 storey tower Waugh’s firm now has out to tender.
The secret is in the cross laminated panel construction – to all intents and purposes giant loadbearing plywood sheets available in thicknesses of 5 to 20 inches, and in sizes up to 10ft. by 40. For Murray Grove the panels were factory fabricated by KLH in Austria, transported by truck, and installed by Austrian crews.
Erection of the shell - including exterior and interior walls, floor panels and even the elevator shafts – took just three days per floor or 24 days for the entire building. The building was finished with exterior insulation and a composite rain screen cladding on the outside, drywall for the interior walls and ceilings, and radiant piping in a cement screed for the floors. Had the developer not insisted on a traditional appearance inside, architectural grade panels could have been used and simply clear finished.
Murray Grove also meets London’s stringent energy performance targets, without any renewable energy technology, simply on the basis of the carbon already sequestered in the building fabric. The panels are bonded with non-toxic glue, and KLH uses its off-cuts to power its fabrication plant, and provide carbon neutral heating for the surrounding village.
On his lecture tour of Canada, Waugh has planted the seeds of change in the minds of leading edge design practitioners, and perhaps more importantly in those of some forest industry executives. British Columbia’s new building code, that permits six storey residential construction in wood, will almost certainly be the catalyst that brings this technology to Canada. European commentators refer to solid wood construction as ‘the concrete of the 21st Century’ – and time may well prove them right.
Jim Taggart, MRAIC
Editor
It seems the effects of climate change are just not dramatic enough to hold the attention of politicians.
In contrast, the global economic crisis is like a burst pipe, needing the immediate attention of Joe the Plumber at exorbitant emergency call-out rates. So after years of dithering about the cost of implementing environmental policies, the governments of the developed world are suddenly finding trillions of dollars to fix our economic problems. (more…)
Issue 14 of SABmag attracted more correspondence from readers than any previous edition of the magazine. The article ‘Green Building with Plastics – an Industry perspective’ attracted the most attention – some of it strongly critical of our decision to publish the piece, and dismissing it as greenwashing. (more…)
This special issue features the six projects selected for recognition from a field of 50 submissions to the inaugural SAB Awards - an annual program offered through SABMag to recognize excellence in the design and construction of new and renovated Canadian buildings and interiors of all types based on criteria of sustainable design, architectural excellence and technical innovation. (more…)
