Our Annual Supplement – A record of the LEED buildings certified in 2021
see the digital version here.
2021 LEED Canada Buildings-in-Review
Viewpoint: Dowel laminated timber: a step towards circularity in construction
By Sigi Liebmann
Wood is widely promoted as a renewable and environmentally responsible material, based on the third-party certification of sustainable forest management (SFM) practices. While this can be successfully argued at the scale of the forest, until now, the argument has not applied equally at the scale of the building.
All durable wood products will store the carbon they have sequestered while part of a living tree, until destroyed by decay or fire at the end of their service life. However, this remains a cradle to grave evaluation that fails to consider the potential for reclamation and repurposing of the product, the GHG emissions associated with manufacture, and the potential environmental and health impacts of any adhesives used.
As mass timber fabricators, we believe that solid wood is the best material to build with from an ethical standpoint, and that using natural timber, as uncontaminated as possible, is the most sustainable approach to take for the planet and for future generations. This is why we chose to manufacture 100% wood, no-glue dowel laminated timber (DLT), a product that is 100% recyclable, reusable and does not produce contaminated waste.
DLT is a relatively new arrival in Canada, although it has been available in Europe for more than 20 years. To produce DLT, layers of dimension lumber are assembled face to face. A hole is drilled through the entire assembly and a wooden dowel is inserted to hold it all together. No glue, no nails, just the wooden dowel. The wood boards have a moisture content of 10-15%, while the dowels are bone dry. As soon as the dowels are installed and in contact with the surrounding wood, they will absorb the moisture from the boards and expand. This forms a mechanical connection that is incredibly strong.
This type of assembly results in ‘stacked’ DLT panels, so called because ‘stacked’ is a direct translation of the German term ‘Brettstapel’. The surface appearance can be flat or fluted – the latter when 2×4 and 2×6 material is alternated.
In addition to stacked DLT panels there can be crossed DLT panels, a more environmentally responsible product than glue-bonded, cross laminated timber (CLT). In ‘crossed’ DLT, the large sized panels are manufactured by assembling multiple layers of lumber on top of one another, each layer being at different angles to the one below, and pegging them together with hardwood dowels. DLT need not be glued. Windows and doors are left open as the panel is laid up, rather than being cut out from a finished solid panel. This process minimizes the amount of ‘waste’ material produced.
Sigi Liebmann is a Swiss trained master timber framer and owner of International Timberframes Inc. in Golden BC.
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Interview with Jeff Gold of Nexus Circular LLC
Jeff Gold is the COO/founder of Nexus, the leading circular waste-plastics solution company based in Atlanta that converts landfill-bound plastics to reusable plastics. nexuscircular.com
1. What does Nexus do exactly?
Nexus converts waste plastics that are typically bound for a landfill or incineration into chemical feedstocks that are used to create new, virgin plastics. We take the polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene that cannot be economically recycled through mechanical systems and transform them into valuable liquids and waxes that our partners use to create a huge range of new plastic products. Our process is very energy efficient and by directing our output into new plastics versus fuel products that are burned, we sequester the carbon in those plastics and prevent their entry into the environment as harmful greenhouse gases.
2. How does the waste plastics conversion work?
Nexus uses a process known as pyrolysis, or “thermal depolymerization” to transform waste plastic back into its basic molecular forms. This process works by applying heat to the plastic but excluding all oxygen so that instead of burning, the plastic simply liquefies and decomposes into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules. Most plastics are made of long hydrocarbon chains and pyrolysis provides a way to “cut” those chains into smaller pieces that become liquids or waxes once they are cooled. It is these liquids and waxes that can then be used in the industrial systems that make new plastic resins.
3. Is the conversion process truly a ‘closed loop’?
We consider our process to be “closed loop” because all the plastic that goes into the system is converted into a new product that is captured at various points in the system. For example, most of the incoming plastic is converted to liquids and a wax product that is collected and shipped off directly to our off-take partners. The process also produces a flammable gas that we likewise capture and then use to heat the pyrolysis reactors. A fourth product that results from the process is a carbon-black char material that forms in the reactors from small amounts of paper and cardboard that are mixed in with the plastic feedstock and from normal decomposition of plastic when it contacts very hot surfaces. This char is collected and can be used as an asphalt additive. In this way, all the products formed from the plastic feedstock are converted, captured, and used in some way making the process truly closed loop.
4. What have been the challenges you have encountered?
Converting waste plastic at a commercial scale into useful products and doing so economically is very hard.
The principle technical challenges we have encountered revolve primarily around feedstock in terms of collection, contamination, and composition. The challenge has been to create a highly adaptable system that can accept a wide variation of inputs and produce a uniform, consistent, high-quality output. Maintaining reactor performance in the face of a variable feedstock stream has also posed technical challenges around managing heat distribution to yield our desired products while minimizing energy consumption which is why we have taken all the learnings from our first plant and are now applying them to a third- generation design.
Another challenge involves proving that chemical recycling is a viable technology in the fight against plastic pollution. There have been numerous press releases and announcements by groups in the chemical recycling space touting a solution that fails to materialize and when this happens often enough, a perception is created that this is something that does not really work. While there is a lot of progress yet to be made, Nexus has shown that the technology can be effective and that it merits serious consideration.
5. What is the future? How far to do you see an operation like yours going?
We feel very optimistic about the future! We have a team in place that has built an innovative and economic process that addresses the pressing environmental issue of plastic pollution and we have proven that Nexus is one of the few companies that can deliver our product at commercial scale and consistent quality.
Demand for our products is extremely high as many companies work towards satisfying consumer demands to increase the amount of certified recycled content in their products and take positive steps to improve the planet’s environmental quality. Our challenge now is to scale the business at a rate that can keep pace with our customer’s needs, and to that end, we are working very hard to establish new locations both at home and overseas. Given that the use of plastics is expected to continue its upward trend over the next several,Nexus is poised to expand on its industry leadership position and play a major role in combatting plastic pollution for years to come.
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Smart Buildings
Sustainability in the New Frontier of Technological Expansion
By Jeff Godfrey
Architecture in the Age of Smart Buildings and Sustainable Development
Architects are at the new frontier of technological expansion, embedding information systems into buildings and cities. That puts them in a position to ensure that future developments and innovation in their buildings are sustainable and set the trajectory for social inclusivity.
The age we live in leads to new challenges as professionals, and our guiding principles must evolve to meet the needs of society and our planet. Architecture may be one of the most vital components of that paradigm shift. Architects have immeasurable impacts on our societies and their evolution. By creating welcoming, safe, functional, and universally accessible spaces, architects largely determine how people use buildings and what impacts buildings have on the environment and society. Many frameworks such as life cycle assessments (LCA) have been developed to measure our success in achieving sustainable built environments, products, and services. In a world that mixes physical structures and virtual information, the concept of life cycle assessments becomes incredibly complex. This article provides a look at this complexity and how to navigate it with regards to architecture and smart buildings and cities.
Understanding Technological Sustainability
As a software developer with over 20 years experience and a master’s degree in Sustainable Development, my research has focused on sustainability in technology. It has led to an intriguing question: is technology inherently unsustainable due to its embedded carbon, energy usage, and disposal stages? An LCA on technological solutions and virtual products like data are similar to physical products like architectural materials except virtual components are challenging to measure due to the decentralization and variability of resource usage. It is straight forward to calculate the impacts of a wooden beam or metal cladding material but with technology it’s different and equally important for the impacts are significant.
Information communication technology (ICT), smart technologies and the internet have serious environmental consequences and are growing rapidly. “Research estimates that by 2025, the IT industry could use 20% of all electricity produced and emit up to 5.5% of the world’s carbon emissions. That’s more than most countries’ total emissions bar China, India and the US.”[1]
Sustainable technology had not yet been defined when I wrote my thesis; so I defined it as “technology that minimizes the environmental footprint of technological usage and promotes products and services that offer environmental and social benefits over traditional alternatives”. This implies that the purpose of the technology is instrumental in determining its sustainability and not just the technology itself.
Building Life Cycle Assessments and Smart Technologies
It is important to understand the concept of LCA when trying to determine the sustainability of a construction project. The American Institute of Architects describes LCA as, “one of the best mechanisms for allowing architects and other building professionals to understand the energy use and other environmental impact associated with all the phases of a building’s life cycle: procurement, construction, operation, and decommissioning.”[2] In an LCA study, each material is assessed based on the various stages which generally include extraction, production, distribution, usage, and disposal. The impacts of all the materials are then combined to get an overall impact for the project. There are multiple frameworks for converting the results into different human impact categories such as green house gas emissions, air quality, toxicity, etc., which provide the information an architect needs to make sustainable decisions.
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Virtual Design and Construction
An Owner’s Perspective
By Robert Malczyk
In the 1990s, 3D modelling was introduced as a design tool that enabled architects to better visualize their projects and perhaps more importantly, to convey their ideas to clients and the public. The software has become so sophisticated that it is sometimes difficult to decide whether an image is a photograph of a completed building, or simply a rendering of one that is proposed. It is not difficult to understand why this photo-realistic capability of modelling software has been so seductive for architects, but it is time to explore the real value it can provide.
It is only recently that 3D modelling has advanced to the point where we can explore the process of construction. The software not only enables design teams to identify and resolve potential conflicts or ‘clashes’ between elements of the building designed by different disciplines but, by adding the fourth dimension of time, enables us to visualize the sequence of construction. This ability to analyze and optimize alternative approaches, has the potential to further improve the efficiency and economy of construction.
While engaging key members of the project team (including the general contractor and major subtrades) early in the design stage comes at added cost, the conventional wisdom is that these costs are more than offset by reduced construction time and fewer changes on site. As a theory, this seems reasonable but, despite the claims of software manufacturers and specialist 3D modellers, it does not typically result in ‘real world’ savings for the client. My recent experience as a developer has given me insight into why this is so.
Lessons from the ON5 Project
ON5 is an 840m², 4-storey commercial/industrial infill project located on a 7.6m wide infill lot in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. The zero-lot line condition and prescriptive zoning requirements already made this a challenging site to develop; to which was added our objective to achieve Passive House performance.
The team we assembled, including Hemsworth Architecture, Naikoon Contracting and myself as structural engineer, had been working together on 1 Lonsdale Avenue, a small commercial infill building in North Vancouver (see SABMag 72, Fall 2021) so we were able to benefit from the lessons learned on that project.
3D Software and the Design Process
Over my career as a structural engineer, I have used numerous 3D software packages, including ArchiCAD, cadwork, Revit and Rhino. Most timber engineers have settled on cadwork, which is now powerful enough to produce 3D models to shop drawing quality. Yet the question among designers remains, ‘At what stage should we start creating models at this level of detail, and who should take responsibility for their accuracy?’ Standard industry practice is to have the contractor prepare the shop drawings and take on that responsibility.
With ON5, we began to create these models even before we initiated an integrated design process. Working with the architect, we figured out some of the more complicated details, such as the scissor stairs that were required to make the program work. Then, for pricing purposes, Naikoon Contracting created the first Revit model to determine material quantities. In what has become common practice, we continued to use cadwork until we completed the IFC (issued for construction) drawing set, after which everything was discarded.
Robert Malczyk is a Structural Engineer and Principal at Timber Engineering Inc. in Vancouver BC
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Zibi Complexe O
One Planet Living project one step in reclaiming former industrial site
By Figurr Architects Collective
Located in both Ottawa and Gatineau, the Zibi development aims to be transformative physically, environmentally and socially. The only One Planet Living endorsed community in Canada, Zibi occupies formerly contaminated industrial lands, and is transforming them into one of Canada’s most sustainable communities. Incorporating public spaces and parks, as well as commercial, retail, and residential uses, Zibi will be an integrated, carbon neutral mixed-use community, one that’ll help reinvigorate the downtown cores of both Ottawa and Gatineau.
Complexe O, located on the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River, is Zibi’s first mixed-use building. It arose from the desire to create a socially responsible project that would set a precedent for future development. The project takes its name from the word ‘eau’ (water) as it offers residents a panoramic view of the Ottawa River and the Chaudière Falls. The six-storey Complexe O building includes a range of housing from studios to two-storey mezzanine units, as well as commercial space on the first floor.
The location is significant; as under the ownership of Domtar (whose paper mill closed in 2007) the land had been inaccessible to the public for nearly 200 years. Now cleaned up and revitalized, the riverbank is once again available to the residents, not only of Complexe O, but all of Gatineau.
The architectural program is based on the ten principles of One Planet Living, one of the broadest frameworks for sustainable development, which sets a range of measurable goals. The fundamental principles guiding the construction of Complexe O are the use of carbon-neutral heating and cooling and sustainable water management. The project has achieved LEED Silver certification.
Carbon neutral energy is supplied from the Zibi Community Utility, a district energy system relying on energy recovery from effluents of the nearby Kruger Products Gatineau Plant for heating, and the Ottawa River for cooling. All the apartments in Complexe O are fitted with Energy Star certified appliances; LED lighting has been used throughout the entire building, including first floor commercial units and amenity spaces; and generous glazing reduces the need for artificial light.
The commercial space on the first floor is leased primarily to local and socially-responsible businesses, enabling residents to shop for essentials without having to rely on transportation. n addition, the central location in the heart of Gatineau is served by numerous bus lines from both Gatineau and Ottawa offering hundreds of trips per day.
This connectivity contributes to the Zibi development goal of a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide associated with transportation as measured by the car-to-household ratio. While the rest of the province has a 1.45 car to household ratio, the residents of Complex O have reduced this to 1:1. In addition all parking spaces are designed to accommodate electric charging units.
The project is located right on the Zibi Plaza, in fact forming one wall of the plaza, which offers residents a quiet and relaxing outdoor space that is closed to vehicular traffic but crossed by a bicycle path. Art exhibits are held in the vicinity to support local artists and artisans. Complexe O also provides residents with 15 garden boxes; gardening being an effective way to foster community.
PROJECT CREDITS
- Architect Figurr Architects Collective
- Owner/ Developer DREAM / Theia Partners
- General Contractor Eddy Lands Construction Corp.
- Landscape Architect Projet Paysage / CSW Landscape Architects
- Civil engineer Quadrivium
- Electrical Engineer Drycore 2002 Inc. / WSP Canada Inc.
- Mechanical Engineer Alliance Engineering / Goodkey Weedmark & Associate Ltd.
- Structural Engineer Douglas Consultants Inc.
- Other consultants BuildGreen Solutions, Morrison Hershfield
- Photos David Boyer
ONE PLANET LIVING
One Planet Living is based on a simple framework which enables everyone – from the general public to professionals – to collaborate on a sustainability strategy drawing on everyone’s insights, skills and experience. It is based on ten guiding principles of sustainability which are used to create holistic solutions.
• Encouraging active, social, meaningful lives to promote good health and wellbeing.
• Creating safe, equitable places to live and work which support local prosperity and international fair trade.
• Nurturing local identity and heritage, empowering communities and promoting a culture of sustainable living.
• Protecting and restoring land for the benefit of people and wildlife.
• Using water efficiently, protecting local water resources and reducing flooding and drought.
• Promoting sustainable humane farming and healthy diets high in local, seasonal organic food and vegetable protein.
• Reducing the need to travel, encouraging walking, cycling and low carbon transport.
• Using materials from sustainable sources and promoting products which help people reduce consumption; promoting reuse and recycling.
• Making buildings and manufacturing energy efficient and supplying all energy with renewable.
FIGURR ARCHITECTS COLLECTIVE HAS OFFICES IN OTTAWA & MONTREAL.
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Viewpoint: Natural Resilience
Using Nature-based Solutions to Enhance Coastal Protection
By Joanna Eyquem
Coastal flooding and erosion are a direct threat to the health and safety of people living in coastal communities, and cause damage to local infrastructure and property. The majority of Canada’s coastal population is located along the East (Atlantic) and West (Pacific) coastlines, where sea levels are rising due to irreversible climate change.
Action is required NOW to manage the growing risks to coastal communities. A recent report from the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre describes how Canada can scale-up the use of nature-based solutions, in tandem with ‘grey’ infrastructure, to protect communities along the East and West coastlines. Importantly, action must consider natural processes along the coast to a greater extent than has occurred to date. Reduction of flooding and erosion at one site, if not carefully designed, can cause instability further along the coast and degradation of coastal ecosystems on which communities depend.
Canada does not yet have a strategic planning framework or standard classification of approaches for coastal risk management. Coastal risk management responses identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) include Protection, Accommodation, Retreat and Avoidance, as well as non-intervention.
A suite of options should be appraised to select appropriate approaches along Canada’s east and west coasts. Coastal protection measures can be divided into two key categories:
• Grey Infrastructure: hard, engineered coastal protection measures, and; Nature-Based Solutions: measures that depend on, or mimic, natural systems to manage flood and erosion risk, Nature-based solutions are further subdivided into those that are:
- Predominantly sediment-based, such as adding sediment or sand to beaches (a process known as beach nourishment)
- Predominantly vegetation-based, such as saltmarsh or coastal wetland restoration.
- Nature-based solutions, in particular, have a vital role to play in managing coastal flood and erosion risk in Canada. International experience and guidance demonstrate that these measures not only provide protection against coastal flooding and erosion, they also deliver multiple benefits, including improved biodiversity, carbon sequestration and storage, enhanced wellbeing and opportunities for recreational activities.
Three courses of action are recommended to scale-up the use of nature-based solutions for coastal protection in Canada:
• Develop national standards to support consistent evaluation of the benefits of nature-based solutions when comparing infrastructure options, including for coastal protection. This should include minimum requirements, regional-specific standards, engagement with Indigenous people and recommended methodologies for reflecting the financial value of benefits provided by nature-based solutions.
• Develop national monitoring standards for coastal protection measures, focused on nature-based solutions. This should include combining Natural and Grey Infrastructure to Protect Canada’s coastal communities; consideration of minimum monitoring requirements, as well as how monitoring should be tailored to document performance against project-specific objectives (funding for long-term monitoring and engagement with Indigenous people could be considered as minimum monitoring requirements).
• Build capacity to finance and deliver nature-based solutions by engaging the private sector. Public private partnerships can potentially assist in financing, delivering, monitoring, and maintaining nature-based solutions. The insurance industry can also assist in managing construction risks and offering innovative insurance products that provide funds to restore natural features protecting the coastline, should they be damaged during extreme events.
The outcomes of these actions will help governments and other organizations make robust management decisions regarding coastal flooding and erosion along Canada’s coastlines.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in Canada, and globally, in preparing for climate change and sea-level rise along the coast, is a limited sense of urgency to act. For around the past 6,000 years, global sea-level has remained relatively steady.
This makes the recent, comparably rapid rise in sea-level caused by human-induced climate change less easy to grasp. Decision makers in Canada must realize, sooner rather than later, that the sea level of the past will not be the sea level of the future, and prepare coastal communities accordingly.
Joanna Eyquem P.Geo. ENV SP. CWEM. CEnv., is Managing Director, Climate-Resilient Infrastructure at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterlo. joanna.eyquem@uwaterloo.ca
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Interview with Andrew Peel of Peel Passive House Consulting
Founder & Managing Principal of Peel Passive House Consulting, a Passive House Certifier, and a Certified Passive House Consultant & Trainer, Andrew Peel is one of the foremost experts on Passive House design and construction in Canada.
1. How has Passive House grown in Canada in the past five years
The growth has been exponential, especially in large affordable housing projects. The scale of projects (e.g. 40+ storey towers) was unimaginable five years ago and has eclipsed the scale of projects in Europe. Commercial Developers, including Private Equity firms, are committing to Passive House in response to changing market needs and drivers. It is thanks to the pioneers willing to take risks when others were not and the advocacy organizations that the Passive House Standard has experienced this growth.
2. What are the main obstacles to further growth?
In my experience, these challenges are:
- Eliminating the perceived risk (i.e. high additional cost) of building and certifying to the Passive House Standard.
- Developing more locally made Passive House Heat/Energy Recovery Ventilation systems and cold climate-rated fenestration products.
- Convincing appraisers to recognize the additional asset value that Passive House certification provides.
3. What are the essential first steps to getting a Passive House project off the ground?
The first step is to build the right team. This includes the Passive House Certifier, whose input at the early stages can help set the project on the right (i.e. cost effective) path. The client must commit to Passive House Certification and all key project team members must be committed to this goal. Passive House experience is not crucial. We’ve taken novice teams from start to finish to deliver Passive House buildings within budget. With the right attitude and proper training, anyone can succeed.
The second step is to optimize the high-level design consistent with Passive House principles. This seems like an obvious thing, yet it is overlooked on many projects. This often stems from not involving the Passive House Consultant from the beginning.
4. Is it realistic to apply Passive House construction to renovations?
Not only is it realistic, it is happening today. Two leading edge projects, the Raymond Desmarais Manor in Windsor, ON and the Ken Sobel Tower in Hamilton, ON are demonstrating that it can be done cost effectively on large towers. Both projects are committed to EnerPHit certification, the retrofit version of the Passive House Building standard.
5. Once a project has achieved Passive House certification is there anything the building owner must do to maintain the certification?
There is nothing required to maintain certification. However, to ensure the predicted performance is achieved perpetually, the occupants should be educated on how best to interact with the building and systems and regular maintenance per manufacturers’ instructions should be completed. Projects that fail to provide adequate occupant education have seen poorer building performance.
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Materials selection elevates buildings
By CaGBC
A healthy building is made of healthy building blocks. Using sustainable materials that comply with building codes today – and those decades in the future – really help a project stand out.
Over the last decade the building sector has been redefined by innovations in building materials and an increased interest for materials transparency. Occupants are concerned about their exposure to the chemical components of the building materials; owners want to understand what materials are present in their building; and designers and architects are no longer content to simply specify a product without understanding the holistic attributes of that product. Where design and budget constraints traditionally determined materials selection, now a growing awareness and interest in sustainability is driving new behaviours.
Increasingly, manufacturers are offering more sustainable, durable, and resilient materials. By pursuing the highest sustainability standards, manufacturers are diversifying their products with greener alternatives to classic building materials. As a result, more project teams are able to earn credits towards certification for rating systems and standards such Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) or CaGBC’s Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) Standard®.
Today, architects and project teams can access detailed information about building materials and products. This allows them to weigh their options against the building’s sustainability goals and keep LEED Building Product Disclosure and Optimization (BPDO) credits in sight. Information like that included in Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) or Heath Product Declarations (HPDs) provides full disclosure of any potential areas of concern in a product, helping projects limit potential negative impacts on the environment and building occupant health.
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PH-1 Lonsdale Avenue
Restaurant/office realized with design collaboration and prefabrication
By John Hemsworth
PH-1 is a small restaurant and office infill project in the Lower Lonsdale district of North Vancouver that employed virtual design and construction (VDC) and off-site prefabrication to meet challenges of access and constructability. VDC also made possible the installation of a prefabricated Passive House-compliant building envelope, including a zero-lot line wall adjacent to an existing building.
Originally an area of waterfront warehouses and marine service facilities, the neighbourhood has been transformed over time to a high density, mixed-use community centred on the Lonsdale Quay Market and Seabus Terminal. The consolidation of land required by the introduction of higher density zoning had left lots like this exceptionally difficult to develop.
As a family that had owned the property for three generations, the client was waiting for the right opportunity to do something special on the site. The idea of combining Passive House performance with modern mass timber construction was enthusiastically received, despite the many challenges and uncertainties it presented.
A waiver of the on-site parking requirement made it possible to design a three-storey building (with a ground floor restaurant and two storeys of offices above) that would achieve the full 2.53 FSR permitted by the zoning. The building made use of exemptions (applicable to the extra thick walls used in Passive House construction) to achieve a three-storey building, however, the 92% site coverage eliminated the possibility of an on-site staging area for materials and equipment, typically required for site construction.
Architecturally, the concept was to use the traditional warehouse vocabulary of an exposed heavy timber structure with brick cladding, but to interpret it in a contemporary way. This strategy has translated into an exposed glulam post and beam structure with cross laminated timber (CLT) floors, stair and elevator shafts.
The non-loadbearing brick cladding at the southeast corner of the building is ‘eroded’ away and replaced with large areas of glazing, providing restaurant patrons and office workers with an oblique view to the harbour. The remainder of the south façade includes extensive glazing at ground level, with a staggered pattern of vertical windows, coordinated with glulam bracing elements, on the upper floors.
While the Code permitted the three exterior walls facing the streets and lane to be of combustible construction, it required the north wall abutting the adjacent property to be non-combustible. Such walls are typically built block by block in concrete masonry, a method incompatible with Passive House performance. A more sophisticated solution was clearly required, one in which the continuous exterior insulation and vapour barrier essential for Passive House performance could be installed without accessing the outer face of the wall in the field.
Using a VDC process involving the architect, structural engineer, building envelope consultant, contractor, and the mass wood fabricator and installer, a prefabricated and pre-insulated wall system was devised, then alternative detailing, assembly and installation strategies explored and optimized.
PROJECT CREDITS
- Owner Babco Equities Ltd.
- Architect Hemsworth Architecture
- Structural Engineer Equilibrium Consulting Inc.
- Electrical/ Mechanical Engineer MCW Consultants Ltd.
- Civil Engineer Vector Engineering Services Ltd.
- Geotechnical GVH Consulting Ltd.
- Building Code Consultant LMDG
- Passive House consultant Peel Passive House Consulting Ltd.
- Landscape Architect Prospect & Refuge
- General Contractor Naikoon Contracting Ltd.
- Photos Ema Peter
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