While architecture can truly wow us, it also often fades into the background as we go about our lives. We stroll in and out of buildings all the time and we may not think much about how building design can influence our mood, and, if we spend a lot of time in one for work, our learning or even our health and well-being.
Karen Hawthorne
Blade Air
Breathe Deep – Young Entrepreneurs Deliver Cleaner Indoor Air
Look around your workplace and consider what most affects your comfort and productivity—lighting, temperature, noise, and maybe a great spot nearby to grab lunch. But, when you think about a building’s overall environment, indoor air quality is incredibly important and awareness of this is growing fast.
Greener Methods and Materials
What’s New in Sustainable Structures
At the University of British Columbia in Canada, a 60-member student team came together to build a new teaching and learning space that was designed to be near-zero embodied carbon. Called Third Space Commons, the project is a 2,400-square-foot wood frame building that marks the first of its kind designed by a student team.
Dinoflex
Rubber Reimagined – Turning Old Tires Into Fine Flooring
Driving—it’s something that most of us do, and let’s face it, where would we be without it? But we also know that it comes with downsides for our environment. The emissions are the obvious part, but there is another significant part of our vehicles that can also contribute to pollution: the tires that our cars run on.
Facing Up to What’s Facing Construction
The Workforce Crunch
When you think of the world’s largest industry, perhaps agriculture or energy come to mind—but it turns out they’re not the biggest.
Innovations for Greening Construction
A Concrete Foundation
There is no question that concrete is a strong and enduring cornerstone of the construction industry. Just consider the Pantheon and Colosseum in Rome, testaments to the durability of one of man’s most widely used materials.
Greener Interior Design
Elegant and Eco-Friendly
Gleaming countertops and ample storage space aren’t the only things on people’s minds when they’re looking at buying or renovating a home. While the aesthetics of nesting are important, the new trends in interior design are focused on sustainability. How do the chosen materials and techniques impact the environment? Are there better choices for eco-conscious consumers that are still affordable?
Forever Homes
A Family Business that Cares for Other Families
It’s one story that never gets old.
Planning for Greener, Walkable Communities
New Visions for Cities
For many urban dwellers and planners, the ideal state is to design, build and organize for people. In a dream world, that could mean having swaths of a city dedicated to pedestrians, with expanded café patios spilling out onto sidewalks, the streets transforming into walkways where community events take place and the parking lots becoming green spaces with trees, flowers and benches…
The Future of Health Care Is Flexible
Convertible Spaces
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it caught our society flatfooted. Not one sector was left untouched or unscarred by the pandemic. And if you had to rank the impact among industries, you would be hard-pressed to find one more profoundly affected than health care.
Rescue and Rebuilding
In the Aftermath
In the devastation of a natural disaster, the people of the construction sector are critical to recovery. The stakes are high, and human lives are on the line. Recently this has been made evident by the massive destruction in Turkey and Syria, where devastating earthquakes have left thousands dead and more than a million without shelter. In the aftermath, it’s the construction companies alongside the emergency rescue teams that literally pick up the pieces and begin to rebuild.
Blade Air
Making Clean Air a Priority
Coming through three years of a pandemic has made us all more sensitive to things we would otherwise take for granted. One of the biggest of these is the air that we breathe—especially in our buildings. When you consider that we spend up to 90 percent of our time indoors and make water quality a necessity, why not air quality as well?
Women in Architecture
The Female Gaze
Women have been a part of architecture from the time the first stones were stacked on top of each other to create shelter. The concept of architecture has come a very long way since those early villages were designed, but what about the advancement of women in the field?
Building and Celebrating a Diverse Workforce
Industry Gamechanger
Rick Perin, co-founder of DPI Construction Management in Toronto, Canada has a lot of good things to say about his senior leadership team and the women who make it stand out, like Jessica Child, Director of Corporate Services. “Jessica is a force within commercial construction in the GTA. Jess approaches any scale mandate with zeal and a commitment to success that is second to none,” he told the Financial Post about her new appointment as director.
Welcome to the New Age of Construction
Bionic Suits, Drones, and Laser Beams
There’s a lot going on at any given construction site. Even before a shovel hits the ground, there’s a great deal of lead-up and planning to design the building, and then the procurement organizing the equipment and workers. And when construction begins, there’s another world of variables and factors to plan for as a project takes shape in the real world.
Stock Ownership
Giving Employees the Ultimate Buy-In
The pandemic has changed many things, but perhaps one of the most unexpected outcomes of COVID has been “The Great Resignation” wherein people took a hard look at their working lives and made changes.
Designing for Happier, Healthier Workspaces
Lighten Up
It was 1893 in Chicago and the city was buzzing. The World’s Fair had brought massive numbers to the city to be part of this event on the cusp of a new century and take in the latest technology. But, as it got dark, a completely new experience for the rapt crowds was about to change the way of the whole world.
Building for Better Density
Close Quarters
The pandemic has redefined how we think about many things. One of the biggest is our living spaces and local neighbourhoods. Over the past two years, the rooms in our homes have doubled as offices, gyms, and even classrooms. And between lockdowns and social distancing, it felt like our world shrunk to the blocks that we can walk around in our own neighbourhoods.
Women in Trades – and Corner Offices
Level the Jobsite
Often, when the conversation starts about how to attract more women to the workforce, it trends toward eliminating glass ceilings, how to increase the numbers of C-suite executives or adding female board members.
Thomas Jefferson’s Famed Rotunda
Architectural Resurrection
The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, including his Academical Village, a series of Greco-Roman-inspired interconnected buildings. And at the center of it all is the university’s original library, the Rotunda.
The Beauty and Value of Heritage Buildings
Saving Grace
Practically every county in the U.S. has a heritage building. In fact, we probably drive by one or more regularly without giving it much thought. But, in many ways, these historic buildings and sites help knit together local history and culture.
Dév Méta
Bringing Shining Jewels to the Built Environment
Dév Méta Inc., a Montréal-based residential development company, is embarking on some unique undertakings.
New Spaces, New Roles for Public Libraries
By The Books
For many of us growing up, our first experience of being part of a larger community beyond our friends and family started with the local public library. The library is one of the first places you become a member of, complete with your personal card to give you the access (and the responsibility) to borrow books.
Building the San Francisco Public Library
Community Hub
A library can say a lot about a city. It can be bold and modern, historic and rooted in classic architecture principles from the past – or even a combination of all these, reflecting both where a city came from and where it is going.
Jordan & Skala Engineers
A Climate of Change Heats Up Building Design and Construction
Green building, net zero emissions and stewardship of resources require a whole new mindset in the construction industry. And it’s one that will be important for generations to come.
Lagging Productivity Cements Construction’s Move to Digital
New Foundations
If you did any summer commuting you likely encountered the delays, detours and reduced travel lanes of road construction. It’s no surprise that The Economist says 90 percent of global infrastructure projects are either late or over budget.
Turning Homes into Sanctuaries
The Nesting Economy
For many people, the COVID pandemic turned how they lived and thought about their homes inside-out. Up to that point homes for many were a place to come back to after work to eat, sleep and repeat. Those who suddenly found themselves working from home felt their worlds shrinking to the house they live in plus their walks around the block for exercise.
Paradise Exteriors
Turning Florida Homes into Paradise
When a call to customer service begins with, “Hello, Welcome to Paradise” – you know it’s a sign that the company delivers a great experience and feel-good vibes.
Entuitive
The Growth of Green Building
There’s a strong case that can be made for building green. Sale prices of commercial and residential green buildings that are certified to environmental rating systems can be up to 30 percent higher than conventional buildings. Tenants also find green-certified buildings appealing and this can help raise rental rates by up to 25 percent; likewise, occupancy rates of green-certified buildings are up to 23 percent higher.
Burnaby Blacktop
From a Pickup Truck to Million-Dollar Paving Machines
You’re driving on a worn city street, trying to avoid the potholes, and then see the line where the smooth new pavement starts. You relax your grip on the wheel and cruise along the fresh blacktop, experiencing one of the little pleasures of driving…
Designscapes Colorado
Taking Backyards from Blah to Blissful
Wouldn’t you like to step outside to cool off in your pool and lounge by the relaxing greenery? Maybe cook up something fabulous in the outdoor kitchen and have friends over for a meal and a Manhattan cocktail by the fire pit?
Crafting Earth-Friendly Materials and Techniques
The Natural Revolution
We’re not expecting the internet to suddenly go dark or electricity to fail – but there’s certainly a growing interest in living more self-sufficiently. People are planting vegetable gardens, using bamboo flooring and buying solar roof shingles to generate power.
Asphalt Specialists Inc.
What it Takes to Make Smooth Roads and Perfect Parking
What happens when you spend your high school summers getting up at 4:30 a.m. to go to work for a civil engineering contractor and learn the ropes of putting in underground utilities like water mains and storm sewers?
What Would a City Designed by Women Look Like?
New Directions
True story: two female real estate developers turned the site of a former strip club in Toronto into a nine-story, 197-unit condo building named Reina, which is the Spanish word for queen. In a first for the city, they assembled an all-woman team of architects, engineers, planners, construction managers and lawyers to get the job done.
Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA)
Greener Homes to Help the Planet – and Your Bank Account
What’s the one bill you dread seeing the most every month? For many, it’s their heating bill.