Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1385297
Hamlet Waterfront Residential Masterplan, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. J U N E 2 0 2 1 | 37 Sustainable Design Strategies R EN D ER I N G CO U RT E SY B+H A RC H I T EC T S The pandemic has had an unexpected impact on the sustainable design industry by NATALIE BRUCKNER C OVID has had more of an impact on sustainable design than we could have perhaps ever imagined. It has made us hyper-sensitive to our human health and the health of the planet's entire ecosystem and made people acutely aware of the need for biophilic and regenerative design. "Humans innately connect with natural mate- rials and ecosystems, and for the resources and systems that are not naturally renewable, we want them to be recoverable and reusable to feed back into our economies," says Lisa Bate, global sustain- ability lead at B+H Architects. The team at B+H has been involved in some very exciting projects of late including Humber College's Building NX – a Passive House certified, Net Zero Carbon Design-certified building and winner of the Retrofit of the Year Award from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). "Our Holly Jordan led the design team to retrofit the building to completion and reopening in October, 2019. While the building is operating well below a Net Zero Carbon perfor- mance, Humber College is wisely waiting to seek the certification when it is back to occupancy," says Bate. B+H's Planning and Landscape (P&LA) team has been incredibly busy globally. "In Southeast Asia, the world's 'bread basket' equivalent for rice pro- duction, we have been promoting our fundamental planning principles to embed biomimicry princi- ples into design to rediscover ecosystem models that are shaped to last by harnessing free energy, redun- dancies, and cyclical processes," explains Bate. Projects such as the Hamlet Waterfront Residential Masterplan (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) and Tam Da Smart City Masterplan (Vietnam) are examples of how the principles of biomimicry can be applied to master planning new urban subcen- tres to achieve a low-impact approach. Parkin, a leading architectural firm when it comes to sustainable design, has seen numerous changes over the past year as society begins to rethink how to operate in our daily lives. "With 2020 behind us, 2021 has brought about many shifts globally. One is the exploration of architecture that facilitates connecting through both design and technology, while maintain- ing people's safety," says Shannon Wright from Parkin. The pandemic has undoubtedly created more awareness of the impacts that interior spaces have on physical and mental health, and one topic of increasing interesting is Sick Building Syndrome. "Designers have an opportunity to ensure that our indoor environments foster and support the health of its occupants. Performance based standards such as the WELL Building Standard extends the defini- tion of sustainability to far more than the building materials we specify," explains Wright. Parkin's internal Sustainability Think-Tank aims to drive change both within its own operations and through the buildings they design. "This initiative is founded on our Vision – creating environments that positively impact lives. One of our goals is to continuously increase and diversify our sustain- ability certifications and knowledge base amongst our staff, one of our initiatives based on our mission statements – we empower our team to design mean- ingful and enriching environments." Prairie Architects is also seeing incredible oppor- tunity for sustainable architecture due to this growing interest in architecture that promotes and supports occupant health and well being. Over the past 12 months, Prairie had two more projects receive LEED certification: the Old Grace Housing Co-op – an inter-generational, mixed- income co-operative housing project in the heart of Winnipeg's Wolseley Community; and the Brandon Municipal Airport Expansion and Renovation in Brandon, Manitoba. "We are also in the early design stages of the North End Women's Centre redevelopment, which has LEED and Net Zero targets. The project includes the expansion of the existing drop-in centre; a social enterprise thrift store; programming space for workshops to build women's capacity and increase skills for creating new and sustainable healing options; and the continuation and enhancement of the transitional housing program that serves a crucial role in the community," says Lindsay Oster, principal architect at Prairie. Being a highly progressive firm, Prairie's team remains committed to being leaders in the sustainable design realm, and as such has made a commitment to prioritize passive strategies and are looking to Passive House as a pathway to achieve Net Zero. "I recently became a Certified Passive House Designer and we hope to be able to advocate for more passive approaches to high-performance buildings in Manitoba. It is critical that we adopt strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change, adapt the way that we've been doing things, and prioritize a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient building stock," says Oster. The team at RJC Engineers agrees that the past 12 months has brought with it further advancement of knowledge when it comes to sustainable design throughout the industry. "There is a high degree of awareness of thermal performance of the assemblies, air and moisture control, the importance of air tightness, controlled ventilation, and heat recovery. These are concepts that are broadly understood and accepted now across the construction and design community," says Terry Bergen at RJC. He adds that the lifetime footprint of a building is today much more of a design metric that is often considered and is a requirement for many BC Housing- funded projects. "It's focussing design and construction teams on long-term holistically-performing buildings." Bergen and his team have been working on a number of BC Housing projects that are BC Energy Step 3 and 4 and have carbon intensity targets. He is also seeing increasing focus (and an under- standing) when it comes to high-performance enclosures: "Regulations such as the BC Step Code and NECB 2017 have an envelope driven approach toward building performance and as a result it has become more common; for example, the potential for 12-inch and 14-inch thick wall assemblies don't freak anyone out like they used to." Our Eyes Are Open