RDH Building Engineering Ltd.

Energy Modeller’s Workshop

Over the coming year, the City of Vancouver will be hosting a series of workshops, facilitated by RDH Building Engineering Ltd., bringing together the energy modelling community to discuss current issues within the industry. Those with a background in energy modelling are invited to attend the first of four planned workshops, which will focus on high-level questions including determining whether the modelling community can help the city develop standard guidelines that will produce consistent, predicted energy use intensity (EUI) between different modellers. Coordinated with the Canada Green Building Council National Conference, this event takes place Thursday, June 6, 2013, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Convention Centre East, 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver. After the session, participants will be invited to stay for a complimentary light meal and networking. Advance registration is required. Please r.s.v.p. by Monday, June 3, 2013 to learn@rdhbe.com.

2 Core LUs

University of British Columbia Centre for Sustainability

Energy Modelling Processes And Methodology For The Built Environment

Professional energy modeling for buildings requires an understanding of how to model in uncertain environments (such as buildings under design) as well as knowledge of software tools and techniques to create energy models. In this hands-on, computer-based 18-hour workshop, participants will learn the methodology of using energy modelling as a design tool while gaining practical experience using various modeling technologies for the built environment. Develop your understanding of energy inputs, including how to ask the right kinds of questions, perform parametric analysis, interpret results, and effectively communicate your findings. This course is designed for professionals working in the built environment – architects, engineers, cost accountants, consultants and project managers – as well as those seeking a career in energy modeling. It will enable participants to effectively use energy as a construct for building design and development. This four-session course takes place over two Thursdays (6:30 – 9:30 p.m.) and two Saturdays (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) from June 6 to June 15, 2013 at UBC Robson Square, 800 Granville Street, Vancouver. For more information and to register, click here.

18 Core LUs

Construction Specifications Canada – Vancouver Island Chapter

Fall Protection: What to Know and What Not to Miss

In this presentation, Dan Weber P.Eng LEED-AP (BD+C) of Read Jones Christoffersen Consulting Engineers will discuss the basic requirements of fall protection design and ongoing certification in British Columbia. Learn when is the most opportune time to incorporate anchor layouts and design into new buildings, and how to most efficiently provide anchor systems to existing buildings that have none. Included will be a discussion on best practices, testing requirements and some examples of what to do … and what might best be avoided. It takes place Thursday, June 13, 2013, 11:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. at the Harbour Towers Hotel & Suites, 345 Quebec Street, Victoria. Lunch will be provided. For more information and to register, click here.

1 Core LU

British Columbia Building Envelope Council

Hazardous Materials in Construction

WorkSafeBC regulations require that before any demolition or maintenance work is conducted, a qualified person must inspect the site and identify any Hazardous Building Materials (HBM), then safely contain or remove all HBMs potentially impacted by the work. Regulations governing the transportation of dangerous goods regulations, as well as provincial environmental regulations, further govern the transport and disposal of such hazardous materials. In this presentation, Jim Bagley MCIOB, of Levelton Consultants Ltd., will provide an overview of hazardous materials in buildings including: asbestos, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, mercury, ozone depleting substances, mould and microbial growth, and crystalline silica. Learn about how these materials are used and can be found in buildings, their health effects, and the regulatory framework for each of them. It takes place Thursday, June 30, 2013, 12:00 noon – 2:00 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Society, 3075 Slocan Street, Vancouver. Lunch will be provided. Register online here.

1 Core LU

Green Roof & Wall Awards of Excellence

The 2013 Green Roof and Wall Awards of Excellence is now open to submissions. Each year, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities recognizes integrated design and installation excellence through this award program. It also honours outstanding contributions to the industry in research and policy. This year’s awards will be presented on October 25, 2013 as part of the CitiesAlive: 11th Annual Green Roof and Wall Conference in San Francisco.  Entries are due by June 20, 2013. Click here for more information.

Architecture at MOA

The University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology invites you to “Elements of a Transcendent Quest in Architecture: Nature, Culture and Spirituality in Architecture”, a lecture by award-winning architect Iranian Nader Ardalan. This event is part of The Hassan and Nezhat Khosrowshahi Lecture Series, a component of the MOA’s Safar Voyage program which examines contemporary works by Arab, Iranian and Turkish artists. It takes place Sunday, June 2, 2013, 1:00 p.m. at the MOA, Admission is free with museum admission. For additional information on the MOA and the Safar Voyage public programs and events, visit www.moa.ubc.ca.

AIBC Council Meeting Summary: May 22 Special Meeting

A brief Special Meeting of AIBC Council was held on Thursday, May 22 to address the following items of business:

• Consideration of a proposed increase in size of the Canadian Architectural Certification Board’s Board of Directors. Council endorsed a request from the CACB’s Standing Committee, calling for an to increase in its directorship from six to nine members, in keeping with the board’s established limits and composition.

•  Discussion of a proposed five-year strategic plan for the institute, as brought forward by council’s Strategic Plan Working Group. Council agreed to support the recommended draft 2013-2018 Strategic Plan as a basis for presentation to the membership at the June 1, 2013 annual meeting followed by implementation planning, budgeting for 2014 and beyond, and actual implementation.

The next meeting of AIBC Council is scheduled for Saturday, June 1, at the AIBC offices (#100 – 440 Cambie Street, Vancouver) following the adjournment of the annual meeting. Primary agenda items include the election of council’s president, vice-president and treasurer for the coming year as well as the appointment of the registrar and council’s representative to the AIBC’s Registration Board. Members, associates and the public are welcome to attend; please confirm your attendance in advance by contacting Executive Assistant Katherine Rau by e-mail (krau@aibc.ca) or phone (604-683-8588, #335). Click here for the meeting agenda.

Blue Sky Living Book Launch

The West Vancouver Museum invites you the that launch of Blue Sky Living: The Architecture of Helliwell + Smith. The publication is edited by Trevor Boddy and features the award-winning designs of co-authors Bo Helliwell Architect AIBC FRAIC and Kim Smith Architect AIBC RAIC LEED AP. It takes place Saturday, June 8, 2013, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. at the Blue Sky Architecture studio, 4090 Bayridge Avenue in West Vancouver. A second launch will take place on Thursday June 13, 2013, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Inform Interiors, 50 Water Street in Vancouver (please r.s.v.p. to michael@informinteriors.com). Both events are free and open to all.

IDIBC Vancouver Island Design Exchange and Table Top Show

The Interior Design Institute of British Columbia – Vancouver Island Chapter invites you to attend its Design Exchange CEU Day and Table Top Show, taking place Monday, June 24, 2013 at the Hotel Grand Pacific, 463 Belleview Street, Victoria. Featured presentations include:

• Keynote presenter Cristi Cook on how to “Unleash Your Genius”;
• Artist Panel with moderator Joan Huzar, President of the Art Gallery of Greater Vancouver; and
• The Signage Contribution to Your Integrated Design Team.

This day-long event is also an opportunity to connect with more than 50 manufacturers, suppliers, interior designers, architects and other design professionals and built industry representatives. The full-day fee is $100 ($75 for professional members). The deadline for registration is Friday, June 14, 2013. For detailed information and to register, click here.

RAIC Award for D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism

Victoria-based D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism has been chosen in the Green Building category of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s 2013 Awards of Excellence. The firm was selected for its work on The Atrium, a seven-storey LEED Gold, mixed use building in downtown Victoria, distinguished for its attention to energy efficiency and environmentally conscious operations. For a complete list of this year’s RAIC Awards of Excellence recipients, click here.

Washrooms on The Edge

By Ian Ross McDonald, Design Quarterly
May 2013

Situated below the cliffs that edge the UBC Endowment Lands and forming part of Pacific Spirit Park, Wreck Beach feels like it is on the edge of the world. Access to the beach is only possible by braving a steep 473 step log staircase that quickly removes any visitor from the sounds of campus life and traffic. It is an experience that belies entirely its proximity to downtown Vancouver. Indeed, once you feel the sand between your toes, you realize that it is just you, forest, ocean… and hundreds of naturalists. This is no ordinary beach – this is Canada’s most famous nude beach. More …

Wreckers of Heritage Building Under Fire at Last: Hume

By Christopher Hume, Toronto Star
May 27, 2013

While all eyes were focused on the Ford Farce last Friday, the city quietly lobbed a bombshell that could change the face of Toronto. The owner of a heritage building at 267 Queen St. E. and the contractor who demolished it earlier this year have been served with a summons that could see them fined $1 million and spend a year behind bars. That’s a long way from happening, of course, but the mere fact the city building division has taken such a step is hugely significant; it means that this sort of casual vandalism will no longer be tolerated. Historically, such acts have gone largely unpunished. More …

New BCBC Energy Requirements

In April 2013, British Columbia took the next step towards greater energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction with the adoption of the following new BC Building Code requirements:

• Large Residential, Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Buildings (Part 3) – December 20, 2013 

The introduction of two new standards allows a choice of energy efficiency standards for Part 3 buildings (excludes houses and small buildings) that apply for permits on or after December 20, 2013.

• 2011 National Energy Code for Buildings (NECB) – the province supported the development of this new Canadian standard, which, in some respects, better addresses the climatic and construction practice conditions in B.C. Adopting the NECB harmonizes B.C. with the national code development system.
• ASHRAE 90.1(2010) – this well-respected North American standard has an established infrastructure of education, training and support. The older 2004 edition has been in force within BC since 2008.

These two standards share much of the same information base. Both have traditional prescriptive compliance paths as well as performance compliance paths (whole building modeling/simulation).
However, there are differences in approach that can be summarized as follows:

• NECB is energy-based whereas ASHRAE is energy-cost based.
• ASHRAE has trade-off paths in the building envelope part only whereas NECB has trade-off paths in the building envelope part as well as in the lighting, HVAC and service hot water heating systems parts.

Some building types can be constructed more economically and/or achieve greater energy efficiency with ASHRAE; others, with the NECB which references more existing Canadian standards than ASHRAE. Code users have welcomed the flexibility offered by having two options for energy efficiency standards. However, the availability of two referenced standards comes with some special considerations.

• Housing and Small Buildings (Part 9) – December 19, 2014 

The National Building Code published a new section containing energy efficiency requirements for housing and small buildings in December 2012. Effective December 19, 2014, B.C. has adopted the package which introduces building code performance standards for windows and heating equipment for the first time in the province. B.C. has chosen to harmonize the numbering with the NBC and move the current secondary suite provisions from 9.36 to 9.37. The 2014 effective date provides ample time to prepare in recognition that builders are currently adjusting to significant new lateral load requirements in the 2012 BC Building Code.

All those involved in the design and construction of new buildings in B.C. are encouraged to seek out the information and training necessary to support a smooth transition to greater energy efficiency within the built environment. In that regard, the Homeowner Protection Office is planning a BuildingSmart seminar tour of the province in the fall of 2013 to help the low rise residential construction sector prepare for the coming energy package. The Building Officials Association of BC and other stakeholder groups are also considering education and training options. Here are some other available resources:

• Building & Safety Standards Branch Information Bulletin.
• ASHRAE subscribers can access online and live workshop training resources for the 90.1 (2010) standard on the ASHRAE website.
• Information on the NECB.
• BC Energy Code Comparison – Stantec Consulting Ltd., October 2012
• ASHRAE 90.1 2010 and NECB 2011 Cross Canada Comparison – Caneta Research Inc., January 2012
• Summary Review Assessment of Energy Performance Codes – ASHRAE 90.1-2004, 90.1-2010 and NECB for British Columbia – EnerSys Analytics Inc., December 2011

Click here for additional information on the NBC 9.36 package, upon which the B.C. requirements are primarily based.

Crashing the Boys’ Club

By Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Architectural Record
May 24, 2013

Think back to the late 1960s, when 94 percent of the students enrolled in American architecture programs were men. Or to the early 1990s— decades after the Civil Rights Act’s Title VII outlawed discrimination by gender—when more than 80 percent of architects were still men. Times have changed: more than 40 percent of graduates from architecture school are women. Attitudes about working women have also changed; nobody questions their presence in design charrettes or client meetings, and of the few architects to win a MacArthur “genius” grant, two, Elizabeth Diller and Jeanne Gang, are women; since 2004, two women, Zaha Hadid and Kazuyo Sejima (the latter with her design partner, Ryue Nishizawa), have won the Pritzker Prize. Thanks to the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation and the International Archive of Women in Architecture, women’s historical contributions to the field are better known. Women-owned practices are common, as are female-male— often wife-husband—partnerships. And today, architecture’s future rests largely in the hands of men and women nurtured on the precepts of gender equality. More …

Women in Architecture

Vancouver’s UN Habitat 1976: A Presentation by Lindsay Brown

You are invited to join Women In Architecture for an evening at designer, activist, and writer, Lindsay Brown’s Strathcona home while she presents her research from her upcoming book about Vancouver’s UN Habitat 1976. The United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, also known as Habitat I, was the first major United Nations conference where the global community met to discuss the growing challenges of urbanization, the accelerating human migration from rural to urban areas, urban problems including clean water, sanitation, poverty and homelessness, as well as the nascent field of sustainable urban design – issues just as pressing today as they were over three decades ago. Habitat Forum, was an adjunct event that took place at Jericho Beach in five refurbished military hangars. On one of the hangers was a First Nations mural, designed by artist Bill Reid, which made the hangar strongly reminiscent of a longhouse. Attended by Mother Teresa, Margaret Mead, Buckminster Fuller, Maggie and Pierre Trudeau and other major figures in public policy, architecture and the arts, Habitat 1976 was one of Vancouver’s defining historical events that has been eclipsed in public memory. Connect with other women in the industry as we learn about an important piece of Vancouver’s history. It takes place Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at 636 Keefer Street, Vancouver. Bring a friend, drinks (no red wine, please) and finger foods. To attend, R.S.V.P. to wia.vancouver@gmail.com.

1.75 Non-core LUs