Canada ranks first on US Green Building Council List of Top 10 Countries for LEED

Canadian Architect
May 24, 2014

The US Green Building Council (USGBC) recently released its list of the top 10 countries for LEED® outside of the United States, on which Canada ranked No. 1. The list demonstrates the global reach of the movement that is transforming the built environment into healthy, high-performing structures that benefit the planet and all of its people.

“The global community is increasingly recognizing the imperative for action as we combat the extraordinary challenge of worldwide climate change,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “LEED¹s success in Canada represents not only a growing recognition of its demonstrated benefits for human health and operational cost savings, but also its unparalleled potential to be part of the solution to a warming planet and rising sea levels.”

The list of the top 10 countries for LEED reflects the global adaptability of the world¹s most widely used and recognized system guiding the design, construction, operations and maintenance of green buildings. To date, project teams in more than 140 countries and territories have implemented LEED in their building projects, taking advantage of its global, regional and local applicability to create structures that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions; create healthier indoor environments for workers, students and community members; and lower utility bills for building owners through reduced energy and water use. Read more…

Montreal architect Phyllis Lambert to receive lifetime achievement award

By John R. Kennedy
May 23, 2014, Global News

TORONTO — Montreal’s Phyllis Lambert, founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, will be honoured with a prestigious award next month in Venice.

Lambert, 87, will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale for Architecture on June 7.

CCA Founding Director Emeritus Phyllis Lambert named 2014 Venice Biennale Golden Lion recipient  bit.ly/1tgToLk—
CCA (@ccawire) May 20, 2014

“Phyllis Lambert has made a huge contribution to architecture,” said Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, curator of this year’s biennale, in a release.

“Without her participation, one of the few realizations in the 20th century of perfection on earth — the Seagram Building in New York — would not have happened.”

Lambert designed the Saidye Bronfman Centre in the 1960s (named for her mother) and brought famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to the Seagram Building project in New York and the iconic Toronto Dominion Centre in Toronto.

Lambert founded Heritage Montreal in 1975 and lead the fight against an early design for Place Montreal Trust that would have obscured the view of Mount Royal.

Last December, she stepped down as chair of the board of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, which she founded in 1979. Read more…

City of Vancouver invites entries for inaugural Urban Design Awards

The City of Vancouver invites entries for its inaugural Urban Design Awards which will celebrate design excellence in our city.

Submissions are now being accepted for designs that reflect the highest standards in architecture and urban design and contribute to Vancouver’s vibrancy and livability:

To be eligible, projects must have received an occupancy permit after January 1, 2012 and be located within the municipal boundaries of the city of Vancouver. Awards will be presented at a ceremony to celebrate all entries and to honour winners on September 15th.

Entry details are available online at vancouver.ca/design-awards. The deadline for applications is Monday, July 14, 2014 at 4 pm.

 

Architectural Technologist Examination

The next Architectural Technologist Examination has been scheduled for Thursday, June 19th, 2014 at 2pm and will take place at the AIBC offices. You will find the exam application form and the exam outline on the AIBC web site.  Eligibility requirements are outlined in full on the application form.  Please note that the AIBC’s Ethics, Act and Bylaws courses is a pre-requisite to sitting this exam.

If you are eligible and wish to apply to write the exam, please submit your application and fees by June 11, 2014.

Note to those individuals who were transferred to the Architectural Technologist class of associates from the Building Designer or Residential Designer classes: as communicated to you previously, you are required to sit the Architectural Technologist Exam by the end of 2014. There will be one more sitting before the end of 2014, on November 20th.

If you have any questions, please contact AIBC Admissions Coordinator, Belinda Chao at bchao@aibc.ca.

Women In Architecture – Summer Party

Join Women In Architecture at their annual Summer rejuvenation / visioning party.  Come along with your enthusiasm, your ideas, and your friends.

WIA will provide some refreshments.
Feel free to bring a plate of food or bottle of wine to share.

The event will take place:
Thursday, June 12th 6.30-9
DIALOG Office – 3rd Floor
611 Alexander St, Vancouver
Call 778 320 4979 for access

Please RSVP if you plan on attending.

AIBC Recognition Awards – Call for Nominations

The AIBC believes in recognizing our volunteers and other individuals who have made positive impacts in the profession of architecture. 

Do you know worthy candidates who should be recognized for their contributions to the profession, the community or the Institute?

Call for Nominations 
Nominations for the following AIBC Recognition Awards are now open and will be accepted until 
August 18, 2014:

AIBC Lifetime Achievement Award 

This prestigious award, established in 2013, is intended to recognize current or former B.C. architects who have made exceptional, sustained and significant contributions to the profession of architecture and its public appreciation in the province through an outstanding, career-long body of work.  Consideration will be given to those with notable work across an entire career generally greater than 25 years and may be bestowed posthumously.

AIBC Special Certificate of Recognition 

This award is intended to honor AIBC architects, other individual registrants or architectural firms who have made positive contributions to the practice or profession of architecture through volunteer activities.

The Barbara Dalrymple Memorial Award for Community Service 

Established in honor of the late Barbara Dalrymple, a prominent Vancouver architect with a strong commitment to her profession and the community, this award recognizes contributions made by AIBC architects, individual registrants or architectural firms, in the spirit of Barbara’s dedication to positive change and her legacy of professional and public service.

Nomination Forms

Visit the AIBC website to download a nomination form for each award category.

Nominations for all AIBC Recognition Awards are reviewed by the AIBC Recognition Committee.  Nominations that meet the awards’ criteria are recommended to and selected by AIBC Council.

This year’s awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on November 20, 2014, at VanDusen Botanical Garden.

For more information about the AIBC Recognition Awards Program, please contact Gayle Roberts at 604-683-8588, extension 310; or by email at groberts@aibc.ca.

Norman Foster Explains How 3D Printing Will Transform Architecture

By Adam Clark Estes
May 16, 2014, GIZMODO

Super-starchitect Lord Norman Foster and his friends at the European Space Agency stunned the world last year with a plan to build a lunar base by 3D-printing it with moon dust. But what happens when you try something like that on Earth? How is 3D printing changing the way we build cities?

I got the chance to ask Foster just that question at the Center for Architecture in New York City last night. Foster had spent an hour discussing how his work was influenced by Beaux-Art legend Rafael Guastavino, who’s famous for his patented technique of building fireproof tile arches and vaults. The talk concluded with Foster outlining his firm’s plan to 3D-print vaulted, igloo-shaped structures on the moon.

It’s a brilliantly bombastic plan in all the best ways and hearing the backstory was fascinating. And yet, it left me with so many questions that I was almost too shy to ask. Here’s an edited version of my conversation with Foster.

Gizmodo: 3D printing is such gee golly technology—especially when you do it on the moon—but we’re seeing it here on Earth, too. China was recently in headlines for 3D printing entire houses in not very much time at all.

Foster: Well, it’s certainly having a transformative effect in the way that we explore designs and the fact that we can design something and then, by the end of the day, put it into the machine. By the morning you’ve got a 3D printout. That’s tremendously exciting.

But I think you’re right. I think that, in a way, the project I shared for the moon is an extreme example in relative terms. To print a building now in the benign environment of our planet is not a big thing, as you said. We’re already seeing those signs. Read more…

Vancouver Draw Down

Now in its 5th year, Vancouver Draw Down is an annual celebration of drawing in everyday life that challenges preconceptions about drawing and works to reconnect everyone with the power and creative pleasure of making marks.

Vancouverites of all ages are invited to take part in hands-on drawing events, across the city in community centres, museums, art galleries, and on the street! Workshops, developed and led by professional artists, offer the opportunity to explore drawing in person and online. This day-long, city-wide celebration focuses on the process, pleasure and diversity of drawing, rather than on skill and technical ability.

Vancouver Draw Down 2014 takes place on Saturday, June 14, 2014 in venues across Vancouver, Canada.

Furniture Auction

Designer furniture and miscellaneous office items are for sale via online auction. The auction closes May 29, 2014. See the online auction catalogue here.

Rosa Sheng Wants To Know Why So Few Leaders In Architecture Are Women

By Wanda Lau
May 14, 2014, ARCHITECT

Rosa Sheng, the chairperson of The Missing 32% Project wants to know why so few leaders in architecture are women.

It’s no secret that men outnumber women in the design profession, and even more so in senior leadership roles. But where did the women architecture students go? This winter, The Missing 32% Project, an organization with roots in AIA San Francisco, asked why architecture firms are largely headed by men and what firms can do to promote equity. Nearly 2,300 people—60 percent women, 40 percent men—responded to the online survey. Results are due out this summer. Chairperson Rosa Sheng, AIA, a senior associate in Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s San Francisco office, spoke with ARCHITECT on the challenges women face in the profession.

Explain the name The Missing 32%.
Based on information from AIA National a few years ago, in the United States, women represent about 50 percent of students enrolled in architecture programs, but only 18 percent of licensed architects. Since that original statistic, the actual number is a moving target, so the number 32 itself is less of a significant factor, [but more a representation of] the large percentage of women who are not getting licensed, being supported, or advancing into leadership positions in traditional firm structures.

We chose the name The Missing 32% as a jarring [reminder] that the number should be closer to 50/50. It also serves as an activist-oriented call to action for both women and men who mutually believe that equitable practice is critical to advancing architecture as a profession.

What are the survey’s goals?
The survey is trying to figure out where choke points occur in the progression of one’s career path as an architect—mainly for women, but for men as well. One of them is licensure, which I think is kind of a non-factor … but when you couple that with the biological clock, and people begin having families, [it’s easy to get] distracted. Many firms require that you get licensed in order to advance, which makes sense for liability reasons. Read more…

New Vancouver Building Bylaw Course – SOLD OUT

The new Vancouver Building Bylaw’s implementation date is July 1, 2014. In anticipation, the AIBC, in collaboration with the City of Vancouver and APEGBC, will be presenting a day long session on the new bylaw, on Thursday, June 12, 2014.  The program will focus on the ‘unique to Vancouver’ provisions, and will provide participants with the information they need to work effectively with these new building regulations in the City of Vancouver. Presenters will be experienced city staff who have been on the team creating the new bylaw. Both Part 3 and Part 9 requirements will be covered. This session will be of interest to architects, professional engineers, technicians and designers working on projects in the City of Vancouver.

Date: June 12, 2014
Time: 9:00 am – 5:00pm
Location:  Vancouver City Hall (453 W 12th Avenue), Main Floor Town Hall meeting room
Cost: $220
LUs: 7 core learning units

There are plans to offer this course again in September 2014. More information coming soon.

From Architect’s Vision To Reality

By Nick Leech   
May 14, 2014, The National

Mahra AlShaya has a very special bond with her work, and she needs it. The 27-year-old architect commutes from Sharjah to Abu Dhabi every day.

“I feel like I’ve become part of Louvre Abu Dhabi. You can’t imagine how close the relationship is,” says Ms AlShaya, the senior development officer in the museum team from TDIC, the capital’s Tourism Development and Investments Company .

She is responsible for coordinating many of the key stages in the design process that is helping to take the Louvre Abu Dhabi from a vision to reality.

“I’m responsible for monitoring the design very closely and for seeing how the design is being delivered. It’s like watching a small baby growing, you become so attached to it.”

Put simply, Ms AlShaya is responsible for ensuring that the drawings that leave her office contain agreed and finalised designs that can actually be built.

“As the development team, we are responsible for coordinating the design. The delivery team are responsible for overseeing the construction,” she says.

“All of the coordination within the design process falls to us. We coordinate the design workshops, we obtain approvals from the authorities and we present the design to the project’s stakeholders.

“After we get full design approval, the responsibility for the project passes to our delivery team.”

Ms AlShaya visits the museum site once a week and attends monthly workshops where all of the project’s design consultants – including the architects and structural and mechanical engineers – meet representatives from the TDIC, Tourism and Culture Authority and Agence France-Museums. Read more…

In Passing – Stuart Ian Ashley Piets Retired Architect AIBC

Stuart Ian Ashley Piets Retired Architect AIBC passed away on May 7, 2014.  Stuart passed away peacefully at Victoria Hospice after a courageous, nine year battle with cancer.  Stuart will be greatly missed by all his family and many friends.  Born in England, Stuart came to Canada in 1970 and lived in Toronto with his wife for 11 years.  They later moved to Nanaimo before settling in Victoria in 1985.  An award-winning architect, his passion for design was undeniable as was his zest for life.  He pursued many varied interests with a remarkable intensity.  From cycling, x-country skiing and kayaking to art, photography and music, he was never idle.  Perhaps most of all, he loved sailing.  If he was not out on the water, he was often found at the marina working on his boat and visiting with friends.  Stuart served as the Registrar for the AIBC and also served as a member of the AIBC’s Illegal Practice Committee for several years.  He was the Chair of the Board of Directors at Glenlyon Norfolk School and sat on the Saanich Design Panel.  The family has requested that in lieu of flowers that donations be made to the BC Cancer Society or Victoria Hospice.

Terminal City Re-wired Exhibition

Alfie Italia would like to invite you to “Viva Friday!”  It all kicks off on Friday, May 23rd, at 6pm at 302 West Cordova street.  This inaugural night they will feature a collection of paintings by Peter Ridgway Architect AIBC.  Peter will be exhibiting 17 pieces from his recent collection of 35 at their opening exhibition entitled “Terminal City Re-Wired”.  The pieces are in part a response to the universal question of what our collective futures hold for us as a society of 7.2 billion on planet earth.

Part story telling, part visioning, a perspective of transformation evolves out of the work that ties into recent events; scientific discoveries of the intricate workings of the brain, our ability to communicate our thoughts electronically and what these might mean in our evolving world.  For more information please visit their website.

Midori Uchi’s Opening Ceremony

Naikoon Contracting Ltd. invites you to attend an open house for one of Canada’s greenest homes, Midori Uchi.  Environmental consciousness and design have been combined to create an ultra green, sustainable and energy efficient contemporary smart-home. Showcasing some of the most advanced green building materials and technologies on the market.

The open house will take place, Friday, May 30, 2014 at 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
 at 362 West 15th Street in North Vancouver
.  Please RSVP to ykuroki@naikoon.ca by May 22nd to confirm your attendance and secure your space. Click here for more information.