APEC Architect Project

In January 2013, Canada officially took on the role of project secretariat for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Architect Project, a two-year term that will culminate in October 2014 with the Sixth APEC Architect Project Central Council Meeting in Vancouver .

The APEC Architect project is an initiative of the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group as a direct response to the group’s strategic priority of facilitating mobility of qualified persons by developing a means for the mutual recognition of skills and qualifications. The aim of the APEC Architect Project framework is to establish a mechanism to facilitate the mobility of architects throughout the APEC region by reducing current barriers to the export of professional services. The 14 participating economies, each represented by their architectural profession’s regulatory jurisdiction, are:

• Australia
• Canada
• Chinese Taipei
• Hong Kong, China
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• People’s Republic of China
• Republic of Korea
• Republic of The Philippines
• Singapore
• Thailand
• United States of America

 

An “APEC Architect” is a person who is registered, licensed or otherwise professionally recognized as an architect in a participating economy, possessing at least seven years of practice post-registration practice experience. He/she must also have been accepted by their home economy’s designated APEC Architect Monitoring Committee for addition to the APEC Architect Register.

For APEC Architects hoping to practise in a participating economy other than their own, their registration process is expedited by their APEC designation. While registration is not guaranteed, participating economies have agreed to generally accept the standing of a registration applicant who is an APEC Architect as having “advanced eligibility’. Within certain economies active in the project, an APEC Architect can have a higher level of recognition. As well, an APEC Architect is entitled to an APEC Card, which in some economies carries not only enhanced status but also direct perquisites, such as quicker access through travel security.

For more information about the APEC Architect Project, including the application process, visit www.apecarchitects.org or e-mail apec.architect@aibc.ca.

BCIT Sustainable Energy Management Program

The British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Sustainable Energy Management Advanced Certificate Program will now be available province-wide. This program, aimed at helping companies identify and implement sustainable energy management strategies, will be delivered entirely online beginning September 2013. In addition, BCIT has also developed a series of sustainable energy management courses to train future energy managers and energy specialists remotely. These part-time courses will focus on ways to reduce the demand for energy in commercial, industrial, and community facilities. It is hoped this enhanced access will help to combat a current shortage of energy management professionals across British Columbia. For more information, go to http://www.bcit.ca/study/programs/5070adcert.

Six-tower Plan For 1 Yonge a Game-changer For Toronto’s Waterfront

By Christopher Hume, Toronto Star
March 13, 2013 

Toronto, that awkward adolescent of a city, is going through a growth spurt unlike any other in North America. The question isn’t whether Toronto is growing, but what it’s growing into. That its future will be highrise is a foregone conclusion at this point. But how high will we go? More … http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/13/sixtower_plan_for_1_yonge_a_gamechanger_for_torontos_waterfront_hume.html.

Architect Bing Thom Realises Homecoming Dream With Cultural Contract

By Kylie Knott, South China Morning Post
March 11, 2013 

If I was offered the chance to do one project, this would be it,” architect and designer Bing Thom says of the project that has lured him back to the city of his birth. His Vancouver-based Bing Thom Architects, in association with Hong Kong architects Ronald Lu & Partners, recently beat four other finalists in being chosen to design the HK$2.7 billion Xiqu Centre for opera, the first of 17 cultural venues to be built in the West Kowloon Cultural District. “It was a great moment and a true homecoming,” he says. More … http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1186390/architect-bing-thom-realises-homecoming-dream-cultural.

Deadline Extension For New Fenestration Standard

The 2012 BC Building Code requires windows, doors and skylights to conform to  AAMA/WDMA/CSA 101/I.S.2/A440-08 NAFS – North American Fenestration Standard/Specification for Windows, Doors, and Skylights. This newly referenced standard (Subsection 9.7.4), which specifically addresses “commercial” windows and doors used in Part 3 mid and high-rise buildings, may require manufacturers to test a broader range of products. As a result, there may be a temporary shortage of NAFS conforming products available in British Columbia. In response, the provincial government has approve a regulation that now permits windows, doors and skylights to conform to either the 2006 BC Building Code or NAFS until July 1, 2013. This temporary delay will allow industry some time to have products tested and manufactured to the new NAFS standard.  Any window, door and skylight installed on or after July 2, 2013 must conform to the new NAFS Standard as well as A440S1-09 Canadian Supplement to AAMA/WDMA/CSA 101/I.S.2/A440, NAFS – North American Fenestration Standard/Specification for Windows, Doors, and Skylights.

Canada Lagging Behind on Designing Energy-efficient Buildings, Architect Tells Cambridge Students

By Terry Pender, The Record
March 8, 2013

Local governments and institutions in this area spent millions of extra dollars on recently constructed buildings to obtain prestigious-environmental ratings that would be laughed out of the room in European cities, one of Canada’s leading architects says. Bruce Kuwabara, who designed Kitchener City Hall about 20 years ago, told University of Waterloo architecture students Thursday that Canada placed second last, 12 out of 13, among the countries surveyed when it comes to reducing pollution that causes climate change, and energy-inefficient buildings are part of the problem. More … http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/899550–canada-lagging-behind-on-designing-energy-efficient-buildings-architect.