Design Quarterly | Spring 2019

Showcasing BC & Alberta’s architects and interior designers

spring 2019 Vol. 19 No.3

PM 40063056

d e s i g n q ua rt e r ly

Calgary Central Library Architect Allison Holden-Pope | Best Practices | Lighting | 2019 WoodWorks! BC Awards

EFFICIENT, SLEEK AND CONTEMPORARY

EUROPEAN APPLIANCES Smart appliances by AEG, Liebherr and Porter & Charles feature sleek European design, green manufacturing and über energy efficiency.

They marry small footprints with large capacities to maximize any kitchen, laundry room, or wine cellar down to the last square foot.

Visit euro-line-appliances.com or a premium appliance retailer to see for yourself!

EURO-LINE APPLIANCES INC. 871 Cranberry Court, Oakville, ON L6L 6J7 | 905.829.3980

euro-line-appliances.com

B679

2912 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6K 1R2 | 604.235.3980

in this issue

06 Features 06 Designer Profile

Allison Holden-Pope loves designing homes for her clients. And she wants to make sure they are durable, comfortable and beautiful while minimizing environmental impact.

12 PROJECT Profile

12

The New Central Library in Calgary is a stunning civic landmark that will serve as a community anchor, transit hub and integral social gathering place.

16 Best Practices

▶ BIM: Managing Information Better ▶ Passive House in a Cold Climate ▶ Industrial Buildings in Wood

18 Lighting

▶ The Lighting Evolution ▶ Enhance Designs with Smart Lighting ▶ Office Lighting Trends

Departments ON THE COVER: Calgary’s New Central Library. Photo: Michael Grimm

04 From the Editor 04 IDC Advocacy Mission 04 DE SIGN HEADLINES Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

3

from the editor

Raising Building Standards

spring 2019 Vol. 19 No.3

www.designquarterly.ca PUBLISHER Dan Gnocato dang@mediaedge.ca Managing Editor Cheryl Mah Graphic Design Tang Creative Inc.

Building codes are changing across Canada to require greater energy efficiency. The push for high-performance buildings is the goal behind B.C.’s Energy Step Code and the City of Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Buildings Plan, while Build Smart is the national strategy.

The energy required for the heating, cooling, and electrical needs of buildings is a significant source of greenhouse gases emissions (GHGs). It is critical that buildings standards are raised to combat GHGs, and many in the industry are doing just that by building to the rigourous but voluntary Passive House standard.

Passive House is recognized internationally as the proven best way to build for comfort, affordability and energy efficiency of residential, institutional and commercial buildings. Vancouver architect Allison Holden-Pope is applying passive principles to her residential projects and believes it’s the right way to build.

Read more in our designer profile (pg 6).

Gracing our cover is Calgary’s new Central Library, a stunning civic landmark that draws inspiration from the community, landscape and climate. The site was the biggest challenge on this project. The library is the first one in Calgary’s history that builds around and over an active LRT line.

Also inside this issue are our features on lighting and best practices. Architect Oscar Flechas shares insights on the Valleyview Town Hall, the first commercial building to achieve Passive House certification in Alberta.

Another unique project is the UBC Campus Energy Centre, which showcases how industrial buildings can benefit from mass timber construction.

As always, if you have any topic suggestions or project ideas, please send me an email.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Melonie Beskowiney Oscar Flechas Sally Mills Sebastian Panouille Svea Poulsen Jim Taggart Alison White B.C./ALBERTA SALES Dan Gnocato 604.549.4521 ext. 223

PUBLISHED BY

PRESIDENT Kevin Brown vancouver office

2221 Hartley Ave. Coquitlam, BC V3K 6W9 Tel: 604.549.4521 Fax: 604.549.4522

Toronto office

1000-5255 Yonge St. Toronto, ON M2N 6P4 Tel: 416.512.8186 Fax: 416.512.8344

Copyright 2019 Canada Post Canadian publications mail sales publication agreement no. 40063056 – ISSN 0834-3357 Return all undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Suite 1000 – 5255 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, M2N 6P4

PRINTED IN CANADA Design Quarterly is published four times a year by MediaEDGE Communications Inc. Yearly Subscription CANADA 1YR $30* 2YR $50* USA 1YR $55 2YR $100 INT 1 YR $80 2YR $140 *Plus applicable taxes REPRINTS: No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form — print or electronic — without written permission from the publisher. Requests for permission to reprint any portion of this magazine should be sent to the publisher.

For all subscription inquiries or changes of address, please contact circulation@mediaedge.ca

PROUD SPONSOR OF

February 12 & 13, 2020

Cheryl Mah Managing Editor cherylm@mediaedge.ca 4

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

November 6 & 7, 2019

The purpose of Design Quarterly is to reflect and represent practitioners and professionals in the architectural, interior design and design resource communities throughout British Columbia and Alberta.

DESIGNER PROFILE

Geometric House

A Passion For Passive Design

A

By Cheryl Mah

As a Passive House expert in residential architecture, Vancouver architect

Allison Holden-Pope has a passionate interest in green building. She was an early adopter of LEED and believes in taking a holistic approach to sustainable design. From a smaller carbon footprint to healthier indoor air, she loves to talk about the ways houses can be more durable, comfortable and resilient.

“Climate change and global warming should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds as we are on a rapid path towards causing irreversible damage to the planet. Humans are primarily driving climate change through emissions of greenhouse gases,” says Holden-Pope, principal and founder of One SEED Architecture + Interiors Inc. The energy required for the heating, cooling, and electrical needs of buildings is a significant source of greenhouse gases emissions worldwide. “This is where Passive House comes in and targets that energy required to heat and cool a building, drastically reducing this energy consumption by up to 90 per cent less than is required in a conventional building,” says Holden-Pope, who is a regular speaker and presenter on Passive House at industry conferences.

6

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

DESIGNER PROFILE

Interest in the Passive House standard has increased steadily in the last two to three years throughout North America and especially in Western Canada. It is setting a new benchmark for energy efficient building design and construction and offers a roadmap to achieving carbon reductions. Proven performance is driving Passive House to the forefront of sustainability conversations.

“Now that Passive House is starting to gain recognition, we do have more people approaching us about it,” notes Holden-Pope. “I would love it if our firm was 100 per cent Passive House. It’s the smartest way to build, but I understand not all my clients can do it.”

Passive House design has become a specialty for the firm over the past five years. After attending a Passive House course in 2012, Holden-Pope was even more committed to delivering energy-efficient and high performance home designs.

“With Passive House, inherently you’re building a house that’s going to be around for 100 years that has more advanced building science and better materials,” she says. “I’ve always been very interested in sustainability — back when I was in school when it wasn’t as common as it is now.”

Discovering a love of architecture in high school, the Calgary native moved to Montreal and attended the University of McGill where she graduated with a Masters of Architecture degree in 2004. During her practical work experience in Vancouver, she had the opportunity to meet architect Peter Busby (early LEED proponent and founding member of CaGBC) and his advice was to get LEED accredited.

And she did, achieving her LEED Accredited Professional designation in 2003. After graduation, she moved to Vancouver and worked for a commercial firm before founding One SEED Architecture in 2008.

“It wasn’t planned,” she recalls with a laugh, explaining it all began with

her parents asking her to design their new home on Salt Spring Island which required a leave of absence from her job at the time. Then her employer asked her to design a home for him and after that, a third project fell into her lap. She seized the opportunities to strike out on her own and pursue her passion for smaller scale design.

“I always knew I wanted to work in residential. I really love housing — the scale of housing... and the emotional component of it because it’s people’s homes,” says Holden-Pope.

Specializing in green and contemporary spaces, Holden-Pope chose the name SEED to reflect the four fundamental pillars of the firm: sustainable, evocative, efficient and distinct.

“I’m a bit of a technical nerd and put lots of detail into our projects.

We focus on efficient planning, the ability for the spaces to transform — evolve over their life, and being pragmatic in how materials are used,” she says. “Each project is unique and the process is influenced by our clients through a collaborative process.”

The boutique firm has undertaken projects all over B.C., from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland to the Sunshine Coast. Residential projects range from custom homes and laneway houses to duplexes and secondary suites.

“I’m definitely inspired by the Pacific Northwest and often the aesthetic is influenced by West Coast modernism,” she says. “Many of our projects have that juxtaposition with nature — coolness of stone and warmth of wood.”

Three showcase projects for the firm — Geometric, Re-generation and Multigenerational — are good examples of the firm’s design sensibility and attention to detail. They are also good examples of why HoldenPope enjoys doing homes — the client’s stories.

“This is why I love residential. I just get so involved with the clients and their stories,” she enthuses when talking about the projects. She

explains that for Re-generation and Multigenerational, it was about renovating childhood homes to accommodate new living arrangements. “We’ve been really lucky in the clients we’ve had and the projects we’ve had.”

While the majority of the projects have been residential, the firm has also completed commercial work, primarily tenant improvements. The most recent was Luppolo Brewing in collaboration with architect Ron Hart.

“We’re open to doing hospitality type spaces — restaurants, bars, cafes — but we’ve been kept so busy with residential,” notes Holden-Pope, who currently has one employee with plans to hire up to two more in 2019.

She credits success to balancing good design with technical rigour and detail. “We labour over our designs to find the most optimal functionality and composition. We go into

Proven performance is driving Passive House to the forefront of sustainability conversations.

Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

7

DESIGNER PROFILE

Multigeneration Vancouver Special

Geometric House, interior

8

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

construction with a builder with a fully detailed and specified house [not common in residential] so there are no surprises for clients.”

When it comes to Passive House design, she says the focus is on assemblies, envelope of the home, performance and durability.

“We approach the sustainability of the house holistically and target low-energy homes built from natural materials with low embodied carbon,” she continues. “It is vital to create highperformance, low-energy buildings, using clean renewable energy instead of emission-intensive fuel sources.”

For example, topping the list of building materials with high-embodied carbon are fossil fuel based insulating materials like polyurethane foam insulation and polystyrene foam insulation.

“Foam is hard to avoid for construction below grade, but above grade we try not to use any foam

at all, favouring natural materials like cellulose, wood fibre board, and wood which not only have low embodied carbon, but can be considered carbon sinks to capture and store carbon,” says Holden-Pope.

“We also stay away from vinyl (PVC) which has a high-embodied carbon and is on the Living Building Challenge’s red list of materials to avoid in construction.”

The first certified Passive House in Vancouver was completed in early 2016. Holden-Pope designed a Passive House prototype (second Passive home in the city) during the same time and worked with the city to develop the Passive House bylaws that are in place today.

“We were encountering all types of roadblocks to be able to implement Passive House,” she says. “On our first Passive House home, the inspector required a dryer exhaust vent before approval but passive homes use condensing dryers.”

With Vancouver aiming to become the world’s greenest city, it has taken steps to facilitate Passive House builds with regulatory changes such as conditional heights of building and depths of backyards. But there are still challenges, according to Holden-Pope.

“There are still a few barriers with the actual implementation — review and approval process. The biggest issue is we need to increase incentives — incentives like floor area go a long way with clients,” she says. “Passive House is the right way to build. A code building is the worse building that you’re legally allowed to build.

Why would we be targeting that?”

With the firm reaching the 10-year milestone, Holden-Pope is looking forward to creating more responsive designs for different housing typologies.

“I think we need to look at what else can be done on the lots that people have, especially in Vancouver. We don’t necessarily have to have four to five feet setbacks on both sides of a house — pushing people underground. How can we make more livable spaces — it’s the next step,” she says. DQ

Project Profile

A New

Civic Landmark Photos by Michael Grimm

C Calgary’s

New

Central

Library (NCL) is more than just a building with books. With its dramatic geometric exterior cladding and vast open interior spaces, the library is a stunning new civic landmark that serves as a community anchor, transit hub and integral social gathering place.

Located just east of City Hall in East Village, the new building provides spaces for all types of people and activities — for social interaction and exchange, for studying and learning, for quiet and introspection — championing the unique civic function of today’s libraries.

10

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

Designed by architectural firms Snohetta and Dialog, NCL is a highly functional and engaging library that draws inspiration from the community, landscape and climate.

“The New Central Library gives Calgary a significant architectural statement. It’s a place to share experiences, make friendships and exchange knowledge,” says Dialog principal Rob Adamson.

The New Central Library features nearly 240,000 square feet of space, 66 per cent more than the existing central library that has served the city since the early 1960s. The project was developed by the Calgary Municipal Land

Corporation (CMLC) and is part of a large master-planned neighbourhood.

Designed to a LEED Gold standard, the facility offers a collection of 450,000 books, 30 meeting spaces for community use, a 2,000 square foot cafe, a huge children’s and teen area, a 350-seat performance hall, and 75,000 square feet of outdoor gathering and seating space and many other features. Substantial completion was achieved in July 2018 with the library officially opening to the public on November 1, 2018.

“This incredible new facility makes use of a site that sat vacant for decades because of the LRT

Project Profile

Vertical wood slats line the space to provide both privacy and visibility...

line bisecting it, a challenge that ultimately inspired the building’s dramatic design and gives Calgarians a state-of-the-art library, and also creates a vital connection from the west boundary of downtown and City Hall into East Village and the rest of east Calgary,” says Michael Brown, CMLC’s president and CEO. The biggest challenge on this project was the site itself. The library is sited within a complex urban condition, where a fully operational Light Rail Transit Line (LRT) crosses the site from above to below ground on a curved half-moon path, dividing downtown and East Village.

The design team responded by lifting the main entry over the encapsulated train line, creating an open entry at the heart of the site, allowing for a visual and pedestrian connection between the east and west neighbourhoods. Inspired by the nearby foothills, the site is transformed into a terraced topography that rises up and over the existing LRT. Outdoor amphitheaters nestled into the terraces provide places for people to sit and for library programs to spill outside.

“The exterior and street life surrounding the library is just as 12

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

much a part of the building as the interior. The outdoor plaza welcomes visitors from East Village and beyond and invites them into the building to explore, relax, reflect and connect,” says Adamson.

The first stage of construction began in 2014 with the encapsulation of the LRT. The vertical construction program started in September 2015 and was delivered in four phases. The library is the first project in Calgary’s history that builds around and over an active LRT line.

The library rises five storeys above the LRT tracks boasting a dynamic, triple-glazed facade composed of a modular, hexagonal pattern that gives the structure its iconic appeal.

Variations on the hexagon shape are used across the building’s curved surface in alternating panels of fritted glass and occasional iridescent aluminum. The resulting pattern is meant to evoke familiar forms such as an open book, snowflakes and interlocking houses.

The entry to the library is an expansive wood archway. Framing the entrance of the building, the form references the Chinook cloud

Project Profile

arches common to the region.

Created entirely of planks of western red cedar from British Columbia, the double-curved shell is among one of the largest freeform timber shell in the world. Its organic form and texture bring the large building down to a tactile, intimate scale.

To create the complex geometry, the freeform soffit is built with prefabricated panels, with the western red cedar battens attached to a ribbed structure of CNC’d backing elements.

More than 20,000 unique pieces of CNC-profiled wood form the 300 panels in this structure. Fabricated by B.C. based Structurecraft, each panel spans up to 25 feet, connecting to each other and curving down toward the ground, creating an entrance intended to attract the public into the building.

“A feature such as this wooden soffit necessitates very careful attention to detail,” says StructureCraft project manager Jean-Baptiste Bachmann.

“When you consider the extreme weather conditions the wood will have to endure, the fine knife-edge interface with the glass facade and the fact that the soffit is prefabricated in panels that need to fit perfectly together on site, you have a considerable challenge. A dimensionally complex project like this has depended on close coordination between the design and fabrication teams.”

As the archway continues into the lobby and four-storey grand atrium, the wood spirals upwards over 85 feet to a view of the sky through the oculus, which brings natural light into the building. Wood slats line the perimeter of the open atrium, shaped in plan like a pointed ellipse, serving as a wayfinding strategy from the main entrance and on each floor.

The library program is organized along a spectrum, starting with more engaging public programs and activities on the lower floors, and gradually transitioning to quieter study areas on the upper levels.

Vertical wood slats line the space to provide both privacy and visibility,

defining an interior space without using solid walls.

At the street level, a series of multipurpose rooms line the perimeter of the building, enhancing the connectivity between inside and outside. On the ground floor, a Children’s Library offers playhouses that provide space for crafts and drawing-based activities, early literacy programs and a full-body indoor play experience.

At the uppermost level of the library is the Great Reading Room, conceived as a “jewel box” tucked within the library, which provides a space for focused study and inspiration. Readers enter through a transitional space with softened light and acoustics.

Arriving at the northernmost point of the library, one finds oneself at the Living Room, overlooking the train line and the meeting point of the two neighborhoods. Filled with light and activity, this prow of the building will not only serve as a beacon to those outside, inviting them to enter, but also as a prospect for looking back out — a fitting vantage point to observe the impact of a building that hopes to re-energize the spirit of culture, learning, and community in Calgary. DQ Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

13

best practices

BIM: Managing Information Better

By Melonie Beskowiney

Perhaps it is time that we consider replacing the word “modeling” in Building Information Modeling (BIM) with the word “management”. By now, we can all agree that BIM is not only modeling, but a management of that modeled information, and what we do with it. With the reality that projects are still being constructed and maintained off 2D documentation, Revit models (or any other 3D modeled program) are largely best considered 14

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

as a 3D database of information. For those adventurous enough, that 3D database can be further enhanced and utilized as a maintainable asset database which can support building operations and maintenance upon completion of the project.

Reality or not, that 3D model is still only the basis of that information management.

Harvesting the power of this 3D database is a no-brainer, yet many companies still struggle with this, if

they are working with 2D computer aided drafting programs or believing that Revit equals BIM. If they are using a program such as Revit, there is often a lack of understanding in how to populate and extrapolate useful information, what to do with it, and how to properly manage it between consultants, clients and contractors. A lot of information results in being left behind, usually because there are not enough resources to have someone

best practices

appointed to manage it and coordinate that information with the project team.

Simply having a model (or several, if you have other consultants working in 3D with you on the project), and even a BIM execution plan, does not make a project “BIM”. It is how a team uses those models, and how well they stick to the BIM execution plans throughout the life of a project, which contribute to it being BIM. Many projects start off with solid intentions of utilizing BIM, even capturing the process in a BIM execution plan, yet the design team slips back into the familiar foxholes of their disciplines, working exclusively, not collaboratively. Teams tacitly expect that working in Revit means they are coordinating and collaborating, because the software is doing the work for them. No one is there to keep the team on track with the BIM execution plan, or to modify it as the project changes, and so the BIM process is left behind.

Ultimately, what makes these projects fail at BIM is a lack of dedicated management of the BIM

process. Many times, projects expect the modellers to be the BIM managers, relying on them to produce 2D contracts and drawings while managing the BIM. One of those two roles will eventually suffer, and the typical result is for the model and information management to be reduced.

When the project reaches 90 per cent and experiences a major design change (such as levels dropping by 500mm), the Revit models break and consultants are left furiously trying to fix what they can to make the deadline. Additional hours are now lost because of poor model management, which likely could have been mitigated through the foresight and planning of a dedicated BIM manager.

Often, the value of a BIM manager is not fully understood, because their efforts can easily be hidden by a successfully running project. What BIM managers are doing in the background are multitudes of tasks, be they small or large that translate into a well-oiled machine of a project. Just as one might frequent the gym to become more fit and strong, they will attend regularly, perhaps

30 minutes to an hour a day. After two days of this, they see no result, but after several months, the benefits begin to show. Likewise, by a certain period within a project, a team has developed their daily best practices through the guidance of their BIM manager, and the long-term benefits are proven through the team’s ability to utilize the information within their models with little effort. The ability to coordinate that information with the rest of the consultants is a more effective process because the framework has been laid out through the project’s BIM execution plan, which has been properly followed by the design team.

At the rate in which technology within the AEC industry is moving, BIM will either be left behind (if it is not already) or grow into something more complex than what most firms are ready for in the industry. This is a concept that has been looming over our companies for over a decade now, and yet many still believe that Revit equals BIM. Schools not only need to educate students on how to design and construct buildings, they need to educate students on how to understand the power of the metadata within their projects. Soon, the days of 2D deliverables will be gone and projects will solely be delivering 3D databases that can connect to other mediums that will collect and sort the information for a more sophisticated method of constructing and maintaining projects. While modeling remains an important aspect of BIM, it is the power of the information within those models and how it is utilized that will set a project apart from the others. DQ

Soon, the days of 2D deliverables will be gone and projects will solely be delivering 3D databases...

Melonie Beskowiney is BIM coordinator at Dialog Design in Edmonton, Alberta. @meloniebeskowin Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

15

2019 Wood WORKS! BC Wood Design Award winners Awards evening held on Monday, March 4, 2019 • Vancouver Convention Centre

Environmental Performance

Residential Wood Design

Multi-Unit Residential Wood Design

Shift House, Vancouver Measured Architecture, Vancouver

Virtuoso, Vancouver Adera Development Corporation, Vancouver

UNBC Wood Innovation Research Laboratory Prince George Stantec Architecture Ltd., Vancouver

Prefabricated Structural Wood

Western Red Cedar

Wood Innovation

Curved Trusses for Tyron Road, Victoria Evan Williams, Victoria Truss 2007 Ltd. Cobble Hill

Kwakiutl Wagalus School, Port Hardy Lubor Trubka Architects, Vancouver

Temple of Light, Kootenay Bay Patkau Architects, Vancouver

Event Sponsors

Reception Sponsor

And BC member associations

Proud to be a part of

Jury Sponsor

Sponsors

Commercial

Swallowfield Barn, Langley

International

Chongqing Yuanlu Community Center, Chongqing, China

15 years of Wood Design Awards in BC

were celebrated by more than 450 distinguished design and building professionals, including architects, engineers, project teams, local governments, industry sponsors and guests. The annual awards evening recognizes leadership and innovation in wood use and publicly salutes continued excellence in wood building and design. There were 103 nominations in 14 categories from all over BC as well as international submissions.

Wood WORKS! is a national industry-led program of the Canadian Wood Council, with a goal to support innovation and provide leadership on the use of wood products and systems. Wood WORKS! BC provides education, training and technical expertise to building and design professionals throughout BC.

Special Recognition Award

Jury’s Choice

Technologist Award

Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis

University of British Columbia, Vancouver Wander Wood, Vancouver

Thomas Abbuhl

Wood Design

Interior Beauty Design

Asher deGroot MOTIV Architects Inc., Vancouver

Ts’kw’aylaxw Cultural and Community Health Centre, Lillooet Unison Architecture Ltd., Vancouver

Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, Vancouver Formline Architecture, West Vancouver

UBC Campus Energy Centre, Vancouver DIALOG, Vancouver

Wood Design

Engineer

Architect

Wood Champion

Jie Lee, Challenge Design Pte. Ltd. Shanghai, China

Darryl Bowers, Weiler Smith Bowers Structural Engineering, Burnaby

Shelley Craig, Urban Arts Architecture, James TuerBC Vancouver, JWTEngineering ArchitectureStudent and Planning, IslandBC UBC Centre,Bowen Vancouver,

Shelley Craig Urban Arts Architecture, Vancouver

Institutional Wood Design: Small Institutional Wood Design: Large

wood-works.ca/bc

@WoodWORKSBC_CWC

best practices

Passive House in a Cold Climate

By Oscar Flechas

Aiming to become the first commercial building to achieve Passive House certification in Alberta, the Valleyview Town Hall results from the extensive collaboration between the municipality, the contractor, as well as the designers and consultants that worked together to target the Passive House standard in a northern climate.

Located 350 km northwest of Edmonton, the climate in Valleyview was a challenge and a motivation to build Passive House. Designing an energy-efficient building to effectively perform in temperatures ranging between 22ยบC in the summer and -20ยบC in the winter is not an easy task for any green building standard, even less so for Passive House, as different considerations need to be taken into account for different climate conditions as well as a combination of orientation, fenestration, building envelope systems, and air-tightness to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures year-round effectively.

In such climate, site placement and design optimization are of crucial importance to meet the Passive House standard. For this reason, the design team made careful design considerations regarding sun exposure and fenestration needs. With the main entrance located on the west side of the lot, the rectangular massing of the building extends eastward and exposes the long side of 18

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

best practices

the building to the south, where all high-traffic areas are located, maximizing the benefits of natural light in the workplace.

Furthermore, the building’s orientation and simple layout have been designed to achieve the optimum levels of sun exposure required to heat the building in the winter. The sunlight the building is exposed to is ideal to help keep a comfortable indoor temperature while it’s -40ºC outside. The favourable characteristics of the site for winter also posed a challenge in the summer. Heat gains had to be reduced to ensure steady and comfortable indoor temperatures throughout the year.

As a result, the size and spacing of the windows played a key role in the configuration of the space and included solar protection elements above all south-facing windows to control sunlight and heat gains in the summer months.

Despite the advantages provided by the site’s orientation, the extreme winter climate conditions remained a significant challenge to the achievement of the Passive House standard.

In cold climates, insulation of the whole building envelope, high levels of air-tightness and efficient frost protection strategies are essential to keep the building warm in the winter without an active heating element like a boiler or furnace. To meet these requirements, the building envelope was designed to complement the superinsulated, thermal-bridge free timber structure with a rain-screen system to help prevent condensation and future issues related to moisture and frost.

The structure is composed of full perimeter insulation on a 38 x 235 mm insulated exterior wall, and a 38 x 140 mm insulated service cavity wall with a nominal total R-value of 55, and elements like roof and floor have R-values of 100 and 50 respectively. Close attention was paid by the design-build team to meet the rationale behind the building code’s rules, as Passive House certified components and

assemblies are comparable to the codes’ requirements, but some materials and techniques are still new to the Canadian market. Consequently, design and material trade-offs were made to concur with the requirements of the Passive House standard to ensure the high performance of the commercial building was not compromised.

In addition to the superior envelope, the Passive House standard aims to “reduce peak heating loads to facilitate the provision of high comfort levels with simple and reliable mechanical systems” (Passive House Institute, 2014). To maintain steady temperatures across the three levels of the building, ventilation specifications included a mix of outdoor VRF for cooling and heating (Mitsubishi VRF), and a highefficiency energy recovery ventilator with heat recovery (Tempeff ERV).

To ensure both energy efficiency and controlled natural light, the team specified Euroline’s Therm 4700 series windows — a Passive House certified component, that combined with carefully placed sunshade elements and high performance glass on the south elevation controls the amount of sunlight and potential heat gains.

Choosing to build a Passive House building provided access to provincial green building grants. Funding from Alberta’s Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) allowed for the installation of solar panels (25kW) on the new building’s rooftop. With $18,000 of extra-funding, the building is equipped to generate 26,945 kWh/year, maximizing operational savings and GHG emission reductions of 17 tonnes/year.

This extra funding helped the project to qualify for Passive House Plus certification.

Meeting the core principles of Passive House, this state-of-the-art building ensures long-term financial and environmental sustainability for the Town of Valleyview and sets a precedent on the feasibility of Passive House buildings in a northern climate as a means to reduce emissions and fight climate change. DQ

...the climate in Valleyview was a challenge and a motivation to build Passive House.

Oscar Flechas is principal of Flechas Architecture, a progressive, small, and young studio that uses simple and creative design solutions to produce innovative, environmentally and socially responsible results.

He is one of the few architects certified as Passive House designer in Alberta.

Contact him at oscar@flechas.ca.

Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

19

Best practices

Industrial Buildings in Wood

By Jim Taggart | Photos Emma Peter

The structure of the UBC Campus Energy Centre is pragmatic, employing different structural materials, such as wood and steel, as dictated by function. Gluedlaminated timber (glulam) post-and-beam frame with infill walls of seven-ply, 225-mm (9 ½ in.) thick cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels is used in the boiler process area. The exterior is clad with zinc and glass panels.

20

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

Over the past two decades, new engineered mass timber products, systems, and construction techniques have changed the way design professionals think about wood as a building material. Historic perceptions about strength, durability, and fire performance have been overturned by scientific evidence and full-scale testing of prototype structures.

As a result, mass timber has begun to make its mark in the residential and commercial sectors, particularly on Canada’s West Coast. However, the industrial buildings market continues to be dominated by concrete tilt-up and steel frame construction, both of which have a significant environmental footprint.

Tilt-up concrete in particular has inherent disadvantages as concrete cannot be poured in the freezing Canadian winters and requires a considerable amount of additional work to provide effective levels of insulation.

The UBC Campus Energy Centre is a recently completed industrial building in southern British Columbia that uses engineered mass timber products and systems in distinct ways.

Best practices

It is one of three projects, based on a case study by the Canadian Wood Council, that offer insights into how industrial construction might evolve to offer greater environmental performance as well as speed and flexibility of construction at little additional cost over traditional methods. As familiarity with mass timber systems increases, these buildings will become cost competitive with other methods of construction — as is the case in other market sectors.

UBC Campus Energy Centre The University of British Columbia (UBC) Campus Energy Centre (CEC) supplies the new hot water district energy system serving more than 130 buildings on the school’s Vancouver campus. Completed in 2015, CEC replaces a steam-based district heating system dating back to the 1920s.

Since it operates more efficiently, CEC has reduced the overall energy consumption on the campus by 22 per cent.

A low-carbon solution With its large owner-operated real estate portfolio, UBC is concerned not only with the initial cost of its buildings, but also their overall life-cycle performance. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) considers both the embodied and operating energies of buildings, together with a range of other potential environmental impacts.

With several innovative mass timber structures already completed — the latest being Brock Commons Tallwood House — UBC’s team is well aware of the advantages of building in wood, including carbon storage, low embodied energy, durability, and recyclability. All of these factors contribute to superior life-cycle performance.

Design approach The 1860 square metre (20,000 square foot) facility includes an 18-m (60-ft) high boiler room with a mezzanine as well as a twostorey office and administration area with standard ceiling heights.

The exposed wood interior at CEC creates a warm and welcoming environment for employees.

Juxtaposing these program elements creates a stepped cross-section. When combined with the multiple penetrations of the building envelope for intake ducts and exhaust flues, this cross-section could have resulted in a disparate appearance, at odds with the surrounding buildings.

To unify the design, the architects at Dialog devised an exterior screen of zinc panels, supported 0.9 m (3 ft) off the building on a light-gauge steel frame. The screen was manipulated to provide transparency and weather protection as well as announce entry points. The solid panels are perforated at certain areas for air intake louvres and other service penetrations. On the west elevation, the screen rises above a large area of glazing to reveal the inner workings of the boiler room.

A hybrid structure Also revealed through these windows is the primary structure of the boiler process area: a Douglas fir gluedlaminated timber (glulam) postand-beam frame with infill walls of seven-ply, 225-mm (9 ½ in.) thick CLT panels. The sloping roof is also constructed using CLT panels spanning the full width of the space.

The 18-m (60-ft) high SPF, CLT walls create a continuous enclosure around the mechanical equipment, giving the vast space a sense of warmth unusual in an industrial building.

All materials were sourced in British Columbia and fabricated in Penticton.

The apparent simplicity of the structure is the result of innovative details devised by structural engineers Fast + Epp. While the CLT walls of the boiler room appear continuous, the height of the space exceeded the 12-m (40-ft) maximum length of panels currently available. This necessitated the stacking of two panels, one on top of the other, above and below a horizontal glulam beam. To maintain visual continuity of the exposed surface, the panels are machined with a half-lap profile, thereby concealing the beam and creating a neatly mated joint.

Where loads are greatest, the glulam beams and columns are replaced with steel members.

The CLT wall panels are notched to accept the glulam beams and designed to resist both the dead load of the roof and the lateral loads imposed by wind and seismic forces. On the west side of the building, where the CLT wall panels are omitted to permit views into the boiler room, roof panels are supported on a glulam beam. The connections between the panels are made using pairs of long stainlesssteel screws, set at opposing 45-degree angles. This enables both walls and roof to act as diaphragms. The sloping roof of the boiler room is divided into three sections. The steep midsection is supported by an inclined hybrid wood/steel truss, concealed from below by the CLT ceiling. CLT was also used for the walls of the administration offices, although the

electrical room below — requiring a two-hour fire-resistance rating — is constructed in concrete masonry.

Embodied energy The structure of CEC is pragmatic, employing different structural materials as dictated by function. In comparison to an all-steel equivalent (the construction type most commonly employed for this kind of building), the hybrid wood system reduces the overall construction carbon use by 88.3 tonnes (97.3 tons).

With its exterior cloak of zinc and glass, the building fits comfortably into its campus context, while the exposed wood interiors create a warm and inviting environment for employees.

Conclusion In a sector of the construction industry where economy and utility have long been the sole drivers of design, these projects add other criteria.

They are all healthy and attractive workplaces supporting employee well-being and demonstrating good design has a valuable role to play in every aspect of life. DQ Jim Taggart, FRAIC, teaches wood design at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Vancouver. This article has been condensed from the original case study which can found at: www.woodworks.ca/bc/case-studies-videos.

Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

21

lighting

The Lighting Evolution

By Sebastian Panouille

Lighting in hospitality projects are a key design element.

22

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

Lighting is one of the seven elements of interior design along with space, form, line, texture, colour and pattern. Most of us will always assume that a space will have lighting. It is normal to visit a new office or house without furniture, but not so much without lighting.

From the Edison incandescent bulb and the fluorescent tube that were commonly used in residential and commercial applications in the late 80s to the LED that has flooded the market over the last 10 years, light source technologies has gone

through one of the fastest and biggest evolutions. With the arrival of LED, it has replaced many of the traditional sources (Halogen MR-16, AR111 Metal Halide, PAR20 and PAR30 or CFL) of lighting.

The market offerings have completely shifted towards promotion of LED solutions as the main solution for lighting, which triggered the fast decline of other technologies as manufacturers stopped producing them and focused on LED products.

The commercial sector has widely adopted LED technology in new

construction and retrofit applications; however, there is still some reticence when it comes to residential and hospitality projects where lighting is not only a technical element, such as the HVAC or heating system, but a key element of interior design and ambience creator in a space, often viewed at the same level as furniture.

Hospitality projects and homeowners share the need of creating a warm and cozy ambience which is typically accomplished by using thematic finishes, comfortable

lighting

furniture, and warm lighting. It is not surprising to see that those projects progressed from Halogen to LED and skipped the CFL technology due to its limitation in colour rendering, warmth, and dimming capabilities. People are used to the dimming curve and warmth of the traditional bulb and the most recent LED technology now offer similar effects with colour changing, white tuning or warm dimming to create moods and ambiences.

The secret of a successful project in lighting design is not only on the decorative lighting fixture selection but the complementarity of the three layers of light: ambient lighting, accent or task lighting and decorative lighting. Moreover, with luminaires leaning more towards LED products, which are low voltage electronic components, the compatibility between the light source, the low voltage converter (drivers or transformers), and the control system become more complex and can have a big impact on the overhaul project functionality and durability.

Lighting control is also challenged with new energy code issues, requiring the use of less lighting power (watt/sq.ft.) and more control systems which both hinder the key elements of lighting on a project: the human experience and well-being.

Limitation in lighting power installation is always decreasing and is forcing lighting specifiers and designers to use luminaires with the best efficacy (light output by watt consumed) in order to comply with local energy code while meeting recommended lighting levels.

The trade-off on design aspects and integration are the only buffer when a project is crunched between energy code and budget cuts.

Complying with energy codes and budget constraints on a project often result in limited flexibility in systems and visual discomfort for users.

Other parts of the world, like Europe which faces more expensive energy cost and a bigger energy crisis, took a different approach on the energy consumption reduction in both residential and commercial buildings. The RT2012, the European energy code currently in effect, approaches each project from a consumption perspective than a connected power load.

This European energy code works alongside strict design constraints and precise energy model calculations, including building natural

energy gain or strict energy consumption monitoring, allowing designers and owners more flexibility. It is based on the utilization of different spaces, applying building reference hours of operation, consumption and lighting usage habits, heating needs, shading, and more.

It all comes down to the responsibility of the lighting design community to educate users and to create awareness about the benefits of good lighting on our health and the economic aspects of a project and uncover the truth about it. DQ

Lighting control is challenged with new energy code issues...

Sebastien Panouille, LC, is a lighting consultant and educator at ThinkL Studio in Vancouver.

Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

23

lighting

Enhance designs with smart lighting

By Svea Poulsen

Light bulbs have grown exponentially smarter in recent years. Standard incandescent bulbs can now be replaced with a variety of connected solutions that can be controlled with just a few taps on a smartphone or tablet. But with so many options flooding the smart home market, which one is the right one? Here are some points to consider when selecting smart light bulbs.

Colour and Luminance Some of the bulbs are just white, while others have the ability to take on any colour of the rainbow. Colour is a fun way to add atmosphere to a home, but often results in a pricier bulb.

Most of the smart bulbs are marketed as equivalent to 60-watt incandescent models, which sounds self-explanatory, but some bulbs are brighter than others.

To see just how bright a light is, you need to look at the lumens it puts out — the more lumens, the brighter the light. But even then, the light can disperse in a narrow beam or distribute brightness in a wide swath, so make sure to read the reviews to find out how each bulb works.

24

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

lighting

Another factor to keep in mind is colour temperature. Higher temperatures, like 8,500K, look like harsh office lighting, which is fine for staying awake or working. Lower temperatures, like 2,500K, translate to a cozy, warm glow that’s perfect for relaxing.

How to Control Smart Light Bulbs?

A smart bulb is an internet-capable LED light bulb that allows lighting to be customized, scheduled and controlled remotely. Since the bulbs can be controlled by a phone or tablet, make sure that it’s easy to do. If there are multiple bulbs, for instance, you’ll want a companion app that allows them to be easily arranged in groups so the brightness and/or colour of an entire group can be adjusted at one time. Does the homeowner have an Amazon Echo or Google Home? Look for a bulb that works with Alexa or Google Assistant so the bulbs can be controlled by voice. Of course, any bulb plugged into a socket can always be turned on or off by just flipping the switch.

Smart Bulb Features Smart bulbs offer a degree of control and interactivity that is not available with traditional bulbs, like scheduled timers and remote control options.

They’re also more convenient; it’s easier to tap on a smartphone screen than to get up and trudge over to a wall switch.

Aside from keeping you out of the dark, most of the smart bulbs can be scheduled or controlled remotely, which is great for saving on energy costs or if the homeowner has forgotten to turn off the lights before leaving the house. Some bulbs use geofencing, which means they work with the GPS in a smartphone to pinpoint exact location, and can automatically turn the lights on or off when the owner reaches a certain point.

Colour-changing bulbs are great for mood lighting, and some can even sync up with certain movies and TV shows.

As touched on, some bulbs hook up with Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s HomeKit, or Google Assistant, so lighting can be controlled by voice.

Some bulbs can also be integrated with security cameras, thermostats, and other smart home devices. This Then That (IFTTT) compatibility allows homeowners to create recipes that automatically cause lights to react to certain triggers, like phone notifications or changes in weather.

...integrating a smart lighting system...is a great way to create unique spaces...

Do Smart Bulbs Need a Hub? There’s one more important factor to keep in mind. Some smart bulbs need to connect to a smartphone through a home automation hub like the Philips Hue Bridge. Other bulbs cut out the middleman and connect to a phone or tablet directly via Wi-Fi, like the LIFX models. Others connect with Bluetooth, but in that case, control is limited to within Bluetooth range, which means lights can’t be changed if someone is not present in the home. Adding a hub also means spending a bit more money and adding another step to the installation process.

Enhance Interior Design Lighting is one of the most important considerations when it comes to interior design. So whether it’s for family gatherings or parties, smart lighting makes setting the mood in different rooms even easier. A cool option is smart bulbs that come with speakers built in. This allows homeowners to listen to favourite songs in every room where they are installed. Or the songs can be used to complete the look and feel of each room.

With the many options available today, integrating a smart lighting system in a project is a great way to create unique spaces while offering versatility, energy efficiency and security. DQ Svea Poulsen, ID, LS, is outside sales with Norburn Lighting and Bath. www.norburnlightingandbath.com Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

25

lighting

Office Lighting Trends

By Alison White | Photos Ryan HK — HK Photography

Interior office spaces are evolving into a more UofC — Taylor Institute

26

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

relaxed and unstructured environment. Therefore, so has lighting.

This transition is not happening overnight; however it is becoming more acceptable. We are finally able to move away from the standard recessed fluorescent 2x4 luminaires in typical offices and introduce more holistic form factors in luminaires and flexible controls.

Office lighting guidelines of 45fc foot-candles (fc) or 350-450 Lux with a luminance ratio of 3-1 (which means the task illumination is three times the ambient illumination) no longer seem to apply for the transition of office requirements. Now we design with a human element added to reduce glare and eye strain, ultimately reducing absenteeism.

With gathering spaces and break out areas becoming more prevalent, lighting design has been able to be more creative as well. Working collaboratively with interior designers, a lighting designer can translate not only the vision of the space but the feel of the space. This is achieved with early concepts and integration of the lighting and luminaires into the structure of the space. Add to that the intensities and colours of white light, a flexible and unique environment can be created. Flexibility in illumination levels allows for the creation of an intense high energy work space that can also transition

lighting

to a calm relaxing space to end a long hard day.

In addition, more daylight options are being introduced which can reduce the requirement for electric light and save energy. The advancements of LED technology has allowed for not only energy savings, but has made colour tuning for circadian rhythm more affordable.

However, the research and development in this field has mixed options, so when reading articles on these topics, be aware of who is writing them. Good information is available if you know where to look for it.

Some considerations include: • Lighting is especially difficult to budget for because LED technology and controls are evolving quicker than publication can be printed. This makes it challenging for the design team and the client: “should we buy the technology today or wait for the next generation.” Likely with performance specification now, we can determine what end results are wanted and then have a caveat to review prior to final order to ensure the most recent technology is installed.

This is extremely important in long term projects.

• LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and Net Zero are certifications that are more geared around total building performance as a whole. Good lighting practice will typically include energy efficient lighting and proper control based on use of space and owner requirements. Exterior light trespass also falls under good lighting design practice.

• CPTED is becoming an additional option that building owners are interested in, especially in lighting. Shadows, while dramatic, can be problematic from a security aspect. Lighting design should be included to ensure the exterior

ICM Corp

environment meets the owner’s expectations in aesthetics as well as safety. This is a new certification however it is not a new practice.

Publications of “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design”

by J Ray Jeffery came out in 1972 as well as “Crime Prevention Through Urban Design” by Oscar Newman.

• WELL build certification has brought the human factor into the equation, as LEED did for buildings, so now there are some guidelines in place to actually identify lighting for the human environment. This is not a new idea, a publication from The WELL Build lighting guidelines follows the published IES (Illuminating Engineering Society) guidelines, which are still just guidelines. These guidelines are geared toward traditional lighting of spaces, therefore, do not really allow for the trends in unstructured work spaces. We look forward to revisions on these standards in the future.

From the introduction of T8 fluorescent lamps and compact fluorescents to today, lighting designers now have more to work with to deliver effective solutions. Lighting is a unique process which can be viewed differently depending on the eye of the beholder, environmental factors and energy of the space.

This is an exciting time for the lighting design profession. Luminaires are no longer just for ceilings — it’s not smoke and mirrors or is it? We can now create a space that transcends time of day from office to recreation with colour and controls. We can also create that space without seeing any actual luminaires or where the light is coming from. Be creative, don’t limit yourself. If you can think it, you can do it! DQ

The advancements of LED technology has allowed for not only energy savings, but has made colour tuning for circadian rhythm more affordable.

Alison White, LC, MIES, Assoc IALD, is senior architectural lighting design with SMP Lighting/ SMP Engineering, Calgary. She has specialized in architectural lighting design for more than 25 years.

Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

27

idC

Advocacy Mission

By Sally Mills

As

president

of

the

Interior Designers of Canada (IDC), common questions asked are: what is the difference between being an advocacy body and a regulatory body, what is going on at IDC and why should I be a member?

My history with IDC started eight years ago when I was asked to sit on a task force to provide support and assistance to create the next steps for a restructured IDC. I was currently sitting on the board of my provincial association and was looking to understand what a national association for interior design was.

28

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

I became aware that the goal was to have a national advocacy association, it would have representation from all parts of Canada, we could listen and act upon the concerns of what was going on in our industry from coast to coast and ultimately learn from one another.

It didn’t matter what part of Canada the designers came from, many of the concerns shared on the task force were the same. We all wanted to grow our membership in our provincial associations, find enough volunteers to create engaging and quality venues for our members,

strive for professional legislation, offer continuing education units (CEUs) and track them. We also needed to manage, grow and balance a budget every year, support our local educational programs and put on awards ceremonies so our members were recognized for their great work.

With all these tasks required it becomes very important for all of us to understand what the difference between our associations was.

Coming into the presidential role last September, I thought the best way to describe what each association represented could be expressed in this way:

idc

Your national advocacy body makes you look good; your provincial regulatory body makes you be good.

Advocacy vs Regulatory So, this is where the definition of advocacy and regulatory come into play. Rather than provincial associations struggling to provide all the tasks that were associated with them, how could a national organization relieve some of the burden of the provincial associations? There were now other duties required by provincial associations as all of us began to make strides with our provincial governments to start acting like regulatory bodies. We have now discovered that there is more effort at the regulatory level to ensure we were policing our profession, maintaining ethical standards in our practices, ensuring our members maintain appropriate insurance, meet their CEU quotas and communicate with our local CIDA accredited educational programs so our emerging professionals know what our expectations are to be a professional member.

Advocacy is IDC’s mission IDC has a mandate and mission to provide a unified voice to advance and promote the Canadian interior design industry nationally and internationally.

For Canadian designers, trade missions are exciting opportunities to explore business ventures and forge new partnerships with interior designers and manufacturers across the globe. For IDC, these missions are a great way to broaden the exposure of the professionalism of the Canadian interior design profession and expose Canadian designers and design to global markets and business opportunities. The 2019

opportunities available for members include travels to Milan, Kuala Lumpur, Denmark, and Verona IDC’s second Design Symposium is happening in Vancouver, B.C. Sept.

12-14. Last year’s symposium centred on the topic of the value of design thinking: from innovative building initiatives, to conversations that place empathy, iteration and invention at the forefront of design. This year we’ll build on the topic of design thinking and explore its relation to human connections. This symposium brings together designers and industry representatives from coast-to-coast, to engage in meaningful conversation about the changing landscape of interior design – one that focuses on sustainability, inclusion and diversity within our industry.

We’ve heard from members that we are missing statistics and research about our industry, so in response IDC is working on a Canada-wide industry survey, which will go out to members for input this spring, with results and reports published shortly after (early summer). The report will include an update to the salary survey among other relevant industry information and statistics.

We will continue to engage with members through bi-monthly live president’s webinars, which help keep our membership informed about news, events, and opportunities in our industry and provide a channel to ask questions and learn more about IDC as an advocacy association.

IDC wants to shine a light on the numerous achievements and awardwinning projects of Canadian interior designers and to spread the message that design impacts lives. IDC is heavily focused on advocacy initiatives that showcase the value of interior designers to the public, as well as celebrate our members’ success by

IDC is heavily focused on advocacy initiatives that showcase the value of interior designers to the public...

highlighting member projects on our social media channels and in as many publications as possible.

What does this mean to us as a profession?

A national advocacy association cannot survive without a provincial regulatory association and vice versa.

We all have a role to play on how our industry is perceived and organized.

One cannot be without the other. A national organization plays an important role in how we as a Canadian industry are perceived by the rest of the world, a voice that represents all of us. There is no better time than in our current political climate that we show our solidarity and national pride.

Our vision for IDC is to build a stronger, financially secure organization that delivers value to its professional membership, recognizes the regulated provincial associations and has a distinct national brand. DQ Sally Mills, AID, RID, is principal at Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning and current president of the Interior Designers of Canada.

Spring 2019 | DESIGN QUARTERLY

29

DESIGN HEADLINES

VEC forecasts a $3.3 billion market The Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC)’s Green Building Market Forecast identifies a $3.3 billion market opportunity resulting from materials and manufacturing for newly constructed buildings to meet the energy requirements of the BC Energy Step Code (ESC) between 2019–2032.

“Climate change is the most pressing issue facing the world today, and ambitious policies create huge new market opportunities,” says VEC CEO Catherine Warren. “With our engineering and construction know-how, the Vancouver region is ideally positioned to develop its local manufacturing sector to serve the green building industry.”

The global market for green building products is estimated to rise as high as $350 billion a year by 2020.

The economic impact of the ESC includes the potential to create 925 wellpaying, sustainable manufacturing jobs throughout B.C., and at least 770 ongoing installation jobs in Metro Vancouver. The report also states that B.C. and Vancouver businesses should act now to take advantage of markets with similar climates and advanced green building codes, including those in the Cascadia mega-region, and throughout North America.

The ESC provides a predictable pathway for market transformation towards net-zero energy ready buildings. The steps were developed over two years through a consensus-building process, supported by energy modelling and analysis. The VEC built on this analysis to forecast the market demand for building products and technologies. The resulting report was developed in consultation with a wide range of real estate and construction industry experts, with modelling provided by Delphi Group and funding from Discovery Foundation and BC Housing.

The report is critical reading for the construction, development or manufacturing industries looking to understand and take advantage of upcoming trends in B.C.’s building sector. There are concrete data and analysis to help manufacturers and suppliers transition knowledge, equipment and investments and take advantage of growing demand for building products.

Improving B.C.’s capabilities in this way will also improve access to — and affordability of — high performance products by creating more resilient and efficient local supply chains and reducing transportation costs.

VEC projects that demand for low-performance products — especially windows — evaporates after 2022. Manufacturers and suppliers must be aware of these significant market changes as soon as possible to grow business locally and capitalize on global trade. Conversely, demand for high performance systems will increase, including mechanical equipment such as heat pumps and heat recovery ventilators.

B.C. allows 12-storey mass timber builds B.C. will be first in Canada to allow 12-storey mass timber buildings. The current building code allows only six-storey mass timber buildings, but the national building code is expected to be revised to increase height limits to 12-storeys in 2020.

B.C. has obtained permission from the National Research Council to use the encapsulated mass-timber construction provisions from the 2020 National Building Code through a jurisdiction-specific regulation. The provincial government’s new policy effectively invites local and municipal governments regulated under the B.C. Building Code to voluntarily adopt the new policies, if they want.

The development of innovative and cost-effective low-carbon building solutions — like construction using mass timber technology — supports government’s CleanBC goal of making every building more efficient, while creating more jobs and economic opportunities for people, businesses and communities.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing staff will contact local governments with a request for expressions of interest and detailing the next steps for any local governments interested in this voluntary program.

30

DESIGN QUARTERLY | Spring 2019

CASCADIA LAUNCHES FIBERGLASS FRAMED WINDOW WALL Cascadia Windows & Doors has launched the world’s first fiberglass-framed window wall system. The Universal Series Window Wall marks an innovative step forward in energy efficient building technology, allowing architects and specifiers to substantially improve the overall thermal performance of commercial and high-rise buildings, without sacrificing windows size or glass area.

The Universal Series Window Wall can improve a building’s thermal performance by 50 to 150 per cent, compared to traditional aluminum, largely due to the inherent thermal efficiency of the window wall’s fiberglass frame.

Available with both double and tripled paned glass, the window wall delivers R4 & R7 thermal performance, respectively, and leverages similar technology as the company’s Passive House Certified (U.S. and International) series of windows and doors.

Art Museum planned for SFU campus Simon Fraser University (SFU) has received a significant donation from the Marianne and Edward Gibson Trust and family to establish the SFU Art Museum, a 12,000-square-foot dynamic new arts and cultural facility at its Burnaby campus.

Scheduled to complete in 2022, the SFU Art Museum will be a teaching museum, creating interdisciplinary learning and research opportunities for SFU students as well as offering important exhibitions, community outreach and partnership with other institutions and organizations.

“This new facility will be an exciting addition to the Burnaby campus and will enrich the cultural landscape of Metro Vancouver,” says SFU president Andrew Petter.

The SFU Art Museum will be built in UniverCity and allow the SFU Art Collection to expand. The SFU Art Collection includes more than 5,500 works of art. Approximately 1,000 pieces are displayed year-round on SFU campuses.

The late Edward Gibson joined the university as a charter faculty member in 1965 and later became director of the SFU Gallery from 1986 until his retirement in 1997. Gibson and his wife, Marianne, have been true patrons of both the arts and education. Under Gibson’s direction, collectors from across Canada donated large canvases that were installed throughout the university.

Gibson authored a report that advocated developing an art museum, which planted the seed for his legacy today.

WESTERN CANADA’S LARGEST SELECTION OF HAND-KNOTTED AREA RUGS Breathe beauty into any residential or commercial design project with a rug from Colin Campbell.

From hand knotted wool rugs in bold patterns, distressed designs and vibrant colours, our area rug collection will add a little Spring to any space. Visit our showrooms to view our designer rug collections and extensive range of broadloom carpets.

VANCOUVER 55 — 8385 FRASER ST. 604.734.2758

CALGARy 5832 BURBANK ROAD SE 403.245.9222

www.colin-campbell.ca | riverdesignquarter.com | #riverdesignquarter

Louis is a new pattern designed by Lanark, done in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind. Initially inspired by the tactility of Braille letterforms, Louis features 30 embossed words within the wallcovering that represent the qualities of the human spirit we all possess and strive to implement in our lives. We hope this new design brings awareness to the history of Braille, the beautiful simplicity of the code itself and how it can open up worlds for the blind and people with low vision.

Odyssey Wallcoverings will donate a percentage of each purchase to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) foundation

odysseywallcoverings.com