New Requirements and Opportunities

Stephen Carpenter, president of Enermodal Engineering, is the chair of the Canada Green Building Council’s Technical Advisory Group. Enermodal was contracted to deliver the LEED 2009 Reference Guide.

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The next frontier in landfill diversion

It is estimated that the construction industry consumes approximately 40% of the global material flow, and generates about 33% of the North American solid waste stream. Of the Construction & Demolition [C&D] waste, 15% is comprised of gypsum drywall product. If we want to change these numbers we need to start viewing materials found in the waste stream as resources or commodities rather than as waste.

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An experiment in warm pockets

SELECTIVE INSULATION is an artist’s studio located in Hexham, UK. The project, which is a small insulated enclosure within a larger working space, is a response to the chilly working conditions in the Old School House, which is now an artist’s facility.

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What price the old paradigms?

by Robert Malczyk

Retrofitting urban areas to be greener is one of the most important aspects of sustainable development - but our cities have been designed to an earlier paradigm and dismantling the legislation that created and perpetuates them will be quite a trick.

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Viewpoint

by Steve Dearlove

As an avid reader of books and other  texts on all things environmental, I have been offered the opportunity by SABMag to write a series of reviews highlighting the works that I consider essential to an understanding of the crises we face.  For me, the literary journey has been a transformational one, focussing on our collective physical existence on this planet and the relationships, interconnectivities and consequences that emanate from it. (more…)

Viewpoint by Jyhling Lee and Paul Koopman

41° to 66°: Architecture in Canada – Region, Culture, Tectonics was on exhibit at the Venice Biennale for Architecture from September 14 to November 23, 2008.

The exhibition 41° to 66°: Architecture in Canada – Region, Culture, Tectonics” co-curated by architects John McMinn and Marco Polo, represented Canada at the 2008 Venice Biennale in Architecture, arguably the premier international showcase for architectural ideas. (more…)

Joggins Fossil centre

High-performance glazing improves the thermal performance of the large windows and diffuse natural light deep within the building. Hemlock siding is locally sourced

by Ron Burdock Carbon is suddenly the word on everybody’s lips: carbon dioxide, carbon footprint, carbon offsets, carbon sequestration, carbon tax. The accumulated effects of two centuries of burning fossil fuels on a huge scale have made human activities, including those associated with the built environment, a significant contributor to the rate at which the planet’s climate is changing. But climate change itself isn’t new.  This is a project that reaches back to the Coal Age to shed some light on an issue very much in the headlines today. (more…)

Editor’s Note : This Viewpoint piece was written in response to the article ‘Green Building with Plastics’ by Marion Axmith, Director General of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, that appeared in the Nov/Dec 08, Issue 14 of SABMag.

PVC use is increasing in spite of the toxic by-products of the manufacturing process

by Tracey Loston

The case made by the plastics industry on behalf of PVC is full of misleading facts and figures that misrepresent or underplay the case against one of the most toxic building materials in use today. In addition, the plastics industry implies a connection between the use of their products and the acquisition of LEED points. No one product can give a project a point, and to imply that putting PVC in your building can “make a significant contribution” to your LEED scorecard is ludicrous. (more…)

Since the environment is now invoked by politicians world-wide to justify almost anything, Canadians should watch Vancouver, where the catchy political slogan of Eco-Density has now replaced sound planning process and policy at City Hall. (more…)

Why it doesn’t help us to be Green

Mac-Mansions

Happy buildings get along with their surroundings, don’t force themselves onto them. Instead of being blasted to bits to make room for a “Dream Home”, the rock slab here has a friendly chat with the buildings. [Maurer House, Naramata]

by Florian Maurer

A man who calls the relationship with his wife “sustainable” must be a very unhappy man. As long as we are obsessed with green rating systems, our architecture will be just as unhappy. The point of departure is so negative: we are sinners, should use fewer bad things, make them last a little longer, should be content with less than what we think we “deserve”, must repent. These are pious musings of a culture that sees nature’s role as serving man, man’s role as controlling nature: here man, there nature, always in conflict. The best we can achieve with this attitude is delay the end a few years, because it is a conflict Nature will always win in the end. (more…)