What are Canada’s next green leaps?

In October, Canada will host the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) Greenbuild show for the first time when the event comes to Toronto. Given the country’s burgeoning community of sustainability advocates, it seems fitting there will be a dedicated stream of educational sessions highlighting Canadian projects and strategies. Greenbuild 2011’s theme is “next”—as in, what are the next big leaps for sustainable design? To help ascertain the answer, the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) appointed this author to chair a team to work through a three-stage selection process established by USGBC to evaluate the abstracts.

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Adaptive reuse for commercial buildings

Inspired by innovation, tradition, and evolution, adaptive reuse is a sustainable solution for intensification that provides creative and commercial building opportunities. Canada’s building stock has undiscovered potential. By reusing buildings that might otherwise be sent to the landfill, the urban fabric is enhanced, history is preserved, and neighbourhoods are infused with new life.

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Improving indoor air through VOC sequestration

Designing for high indoor air quality (IAQ) in both new construction and remodelling projects has become a primary objective of design professionals. This concern is due to the substantial impact indoor air has on the health and comfort of building occupants; recent studies compound the issue, revealing how much time the average person actually spends inside of homes and buildings.

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Designing for timber-framed buildings

For more than a decade, urban renewal has seen the renovation of former manufacturing facilities into trendy loft-style offices, condominiums, and apartments. Most of these buildings belong to the ‘brick and timber beam’ vernacular constructed in the first half of the 20th century. Many constraints govern the design of any building, but a renovation involves the most significant—the building already exists. These brick-and-beam buildings vary widely in terms of construction quality, materials, past performance, and ongoing durability.

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University Automotive Centre gets climatic wind tunnel

An aerodynamic and climatic wind tunnel has been built in the new Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa. The tunnel allows for the testing of prototype vehicles and for assessing the durability of existing auto motives. Designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects, the facility combines industrial research and educational programming.

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Core Sunlighting Technology: Offering a new approach to green building

Recent technological advances have made it practical to deliver concentrated sunlight deep inside buildings. This new approach to energy-efficient lighting means almost all areas of a building can be illuminated whenever the sun shines without requiring any increase in floor-to-floor height or large expanses of glazing. As a result, core sunlighting has the potential to significantly influence how the building industry optimizes green building designs.

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Walls, ceilings, and indoor air quality

By its very nature, indoor air quality (IAQ) is fragile and fickle—easily disturbed by the most minute of changes to the built environment, whether during construction or occupancy. In fact, even the seemingly innocuous introduction of new products and materials, such as wall and ceiling assemblies, can damage indoor air quality and, as a result, create an unhealthy space for both contractors and occupants.

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