Gananoque Lake Road House
An architect's answer to what would you design for your parents?
The walls, roof and windows must work together to provide a high-performance envelope. The materials and products used in the home should be durable, locally sourced, healthy and non-toxic. The systems in the home must be as energy efficient as possible. Finally, the design must be affordable and easy to construct. We cannot rely on cutting-edge, state of the art technology to ensure sustainability. It must come from a common-sense approach to design. This belief informed many of the decisions we took when designing the Gananoque Lake Road House.
For the full sroty...click here!
 |
Foyer and hall |
 |
Great room |
 |
Master bathroom |
 |
Pool and landscape |
 |
Perspective north |
 |
Perspective south |
 |
Winter sur building section -heating pattern
|
Kitsilano Passive House
Character home rebuilt with passive house construction delivers big energy performance
Among the strictest is the European Passive House standard that requires a house to use no more than 1.4 kilowatt hours [KWH] per square foot of energy per year for space heating and cooling – about 1/8 that of a new Canadian house in a similar climate zone.
To achieve this level of performance, the building form must be simple and compact, the windows sized and oriented for maximum solar gain, and the entire building be super-insulated and tightly sealed against heat loss. This level of performance requires an attention to design and construction details that goes beyond current best practice standards in Canada.
For the full sroty...click here!
 |
Stairs |
 |
Living room |
 |
Exterior detail |
 |
Construction detail |
|
Floor plans and house sections
|
 |
|
Wall construction - detail |
Windows in a nutshell
A primer to help choose what to buy
Double glazing has been a familiar feature of North American homes for more than 50 years, but recent rapid advances in glazing technology now offer builders and homeowners a wide choice of windows that vary greatly in quality, price and performance. The most common reason for choosing double, triple or even quadruple pane windows is for enhanced thermal performance, which saves energy and ultimately money. In Canada, the most widespread system for measuring the thermal performance of windows is the Energy Rating [ER] value used by the federal government’s Energy Star program.
For the full sroty...click here!
 |
Low-Emissivity coatings
|
 |
|
Photo courtesy of Eco Insulated Glass Inc. |
 |
|
Climate zones in Canada - Courtesy of Department of Natural Ressources Canada |
LEED Canada for Homes
The Builder’s Perspective … and what the homeowner should know about
the new green home rating system
WHAT IS LEED CANADA FOR HOMES? It is part of the LEED Rating System for green buildings. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
It is worth restating that LEED Canada for Homes differs from other LEED programs currently in place in that it is administered by regionally-based Providers with demonstrated experience and expertise in local markets. LEED Canada for Homes Providers register projects, offer consultation at the design stage, guide the project team through the process and provide third-party certification on successful completion. All projects that wish to participate in the LEED for Homes program must do so through a LEED for Homes Provider.
For the full sroty...click here!
 |
 |
|
Blower Door Test: The blower door is a variable speed fan mounted on an adjustable panel that can fit into any door opening in the home. The fan reduces the internal air pressure encouraging outside air to infiltrate the building through any unsealed cracks. The rate of infiltration provides one way of evaluating energy performance. Blower door photos: G. Cooke |