Heritage home morphs to open modern

The renewal of this 125-year old small Victorian home presented a typical challenge in Toronto – altering and updating the existing residential urban fabric while preserving the historic character of heritage neighbourhoods.

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Low-tech design makes a sustainable home.

This project began with a suburban infill site in an established downtown west end neighbourhood of Moncton characterized by generic production houses. The intention was to create a custom-designed family home that responded to the opportunities of the site and neighbourhood context, while using “low-tech’ methods to maximize the benefits of passive solar design, natural lighting and natural ventilation.

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Niagara Regional Headquarters

The new building creates an urban street presence at a suburban intersection.

The tight budget and schedule requirements of a Design Build contract, combined with the sustainable agenda of a LEED® municipal client set this project apart from others of similar scope and scale. The four-storey office building is an extension to the existing Thorold City Hall, and consolidates operational services for the Niagara Region. (more…)

The basics start with environmental loads

Building envelopes must be designed to perform under all weather conditions. The BC Cancer Agency Research Centre in Vancouver by IBI Group ans Henriquez Architects.

Modern building systems consist of structural, service and envelope components that can be respectively compared to the bones, organs and skin of the human body. The skin protects the body from harmful exterior environments and maintains comfortable body conditions. In the same manner, the building envelope aims to regulate indoor environmental conditions for human use or occupancy. (more…)

Simplicity of design and execution make a winner

The north elevation. All windows are operable for natural ventilation

In cross-section, this two storey, 1,115 sq.m office building is a simple flat roofed rectangle, the upper level being a partial mezzanine leaving double height spaces to promote stratification of warm air. In plan the building is elongated in the east-west direction, maximizing the benefits of north and south exposure for day-lighting and passive solar heating. (more…)

An installed sound masking system is almost indiscernible to occupants.

Just as with light, temperature and humidity, there is a comfort zone for the volume of sound in an occupied space. It is determined by the noise floor, or the level of continuous background sound. If the noise floor is too high, the environment is irritating and tiring. If it is too low, other occupants’ conversations are easily overheard and noises cause distractions.
Acoustically, green buildings present additional challenges because the strategies that help with daylighting, natural ventilation and temperature regulation also tend to lower their acoustic performance. (more…)

Rendering of the Richmond Olympic Oal. The proprietary pre-fab “woodwave” panel system was designed, fabricated and installed by Structurecraft Builders Inc., and spans between the glulam arches.

The increasing concern for energy efficiency and other green building strategies, as codified in the LEED Rating System [as well as other rating systems], considers many aspects of indoor environmental quality but does not explicitly provide credits for good acoustical design. (more…)

Sustainable shelter

considering the need for both human and animal interaction with the building introduced an extra level of design complexity

Design strives for LEED Gold in harsh climate

Built to handle more than 10,000 animals annually, this 4,000 sq.m sustainable shelter facility is located on a wooded lot that extends deep into the neighbouring community. The goal was to develop a building form and architectural character that would allow it to sit unobtrusively in its forest setting.
The design challenges were heightened by Winnipeg’s extreme climate, which includes hot summers and the third coldest winters of any major city in the world. (more…)

Trail breaker a LEED Silver first

The school is remarkable for its quality of light, with large areas of south facing glazing bringing high levels of daylight into classroom areas

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Empowered by the client’s mandate to build a “green” school, the design team pushed the envelope well beyond energy-efficient design, and set out to create a healthy, user-friendly learning environment that effectively facilitates the learning process in the true spirit of sustainability - all within the standard budget for school construction. (more…)

State-of-the-art training centre balances active and passive technologies

The East elevation where vehicle bays and bermed earth act as thermal buffers and reduce perimeter wall exposure

When the Greater Toronto Airport Authority [GTAA] chose to pursue LEED™ Silver certification for the first time on its new Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute [FESTI], it signified a new sense of commitment to sustainable building technology and a willingness to be held accountable to the rigorous design guidelines and third-party certification of the LEED™ process. (more…)