Andree Iffrig's Blog

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Buildex offers one of the most cost effective and valuable trade shows on the circuit. For a price that is sweet by any standard, Buildex informs and connects professionals from a wide variety of fields: property management, interior design, architecture, renovation, construction and real estate.

As part of an increasing focus on sustainable design and building, Buildex is offering more than a dozen green seminars during its upcoming two day trade show in Calgary, November 3-4, 2009. From a session on waste diversion for renovations, to seminars on building HVAC systems that perform to green standards, this year's trade show in Calgary is bursting with talent and food for thought.

Buildex Calgary's keynote speaker is author Jeremy Gutsche, who will deliver a presentation based on his book, Exploiting Chaos: How to Spark Innovation During Times of Change. Gutsche will engage the audience in understanding how to leverage viral trends and methodical innovation to generate breakthrough ideas.

This writer will be attending seminars on cradle to cradle design and water conservation and efficiency. Choosing between seminars, when there are so many enticing ones running simultaneously, will be the most difficult thing I do over the two days.

As a bonus for attending, professionals can accumulate credits for their professional accreditation with the Alberta Association of Architects, Interior Designers of Alberta and BOMA Calgary.

No trade show is complete without time to schmooze and Buildex is no exception. Form the opening Meet & Greet reception to interactions on the trade show floor, there will be ample opportunities for networking with other professionals.

Registration is still open. Visit the Buildex Calgary website for further information. Upcoming trade shows are planned for Vancouver and Edmonton in April and March 2010 respectively.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

It's a four storey mixed-use building, an infill development in a community that desperately needs to be revitalized. Viewed from the street, the 54 unit condominium development looks attractive: nice articulation of the façade so that it does not appear too massive, retail at grade level, underground parking.

The development gets it right in other ways too: in-floor, hot water radiant heating, balconies that are actually insulated for a Canadian winter—goodbye thermal fins—and a parking garage that accommodates bicycle storage.

From an urban design perspective, the condo building is a good fit: close to public transportation routes, near recreational areas, and a nice scale for the surrounding low-rise residential area: dense, but not too dense. If a transect were drawn through this neighborhood, this building would be the desired result.

The floor plans are another story. There are 16 different floor plans, many saddled with design features that not even future renovations will be able to rectify: long, dark corridors that are internal to units, dining rooms that are little more than left over space, and dark kitchens, entryways and dining areas.

Another development recently reviewed is a prefabricated, modular, ready-to-move (RTM) housing complex of six condo units. The prefab units were carefully detailed and constructed in an enclosed facility where almost no materials go to waste. Regional materials, triple-pane windows and geothermal heating are just some of the sustainable features of the 1400 square foot units.

Where the project comes to a bracing halt is in the design of the units: labyrinthine, warren-like spaces on the bedroom level and dark interiors for the kitchen and dining spaces. At more than half a million dollars each, these units come up short on basic necessities like ample natural light and good air flow.

We applaud the developers' green efforts but look forward to better examples of condominium design. In the meantime, sustainable design afficiandos can continue to appreciate some of the recent condo architecture in Calgary's Bridgeland community: the Acqua and Vento, by Busby Perkins + Will, and Sturgess Architecture's 21 unit Olive building.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Like many others who have elected to study for LEED professional accreditation, Suite101's feature writer on architecture, Andrée Iffrig is no stranger to sustainable design. Her first foray was as an architecture student, working as a volunteer artist with Co-Design on community development projects.

That was many years ago. The decision to study at this time has brought the Calgary-based writer back to her design roots. Since graduating from a faculty of environmental design in the 1980’s, Andrée has worked in the field of community development locally and internationally. More recently, she developed a professional practice as a writer and facilitator.

Andrée returned to the design world some two years ago. Elemente Design Magazine asked her to interview Pulitzer-prize winning author and architectural critic Paul Goldberger. That was the beginning of a renewed passion for architecture and all things sustainable.

Having passed the LEED exam for new construction (LEED-NC), Andrée has joined an elite group who have acquired the knowledge to be accredited as sustainable practitioners. Every sustainably-designed building requires a combination of design, communication and facilitation skills. As a communicator and LEED AP, she is ideally positioned to support LEED building design.

Look for more articles on sustainable design and development in the near future, and send Andrée your ideas for green building stories.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Famous for its iconic architecture, Dubai’s ultimate architectural legacy may be the folly of pursuing form for form’s sake. Dubai is a city of oddly-shaped towers, each vying with the other for attention. The city has failed miserably at creating the intricate web of buildings and human-scaled public space that support relationships between people and the urban environment.

The real story in Dubai is social and environmental in nature. The region’s economy has been built on the backs of indentured labor. When architects turn a blind eye to the social impact of erecting buildings, their actions call into question the raison d’être of the profession.

Writing about Dubai in the August 2009 issue of Architectural Record, Michael Sorkin observes the fallout of the international economic crisis has exposed Dubai's worst excesses. In the wreckage of incomplete buildings are to be found the casualties of form for form’s sake: half-built towers “blowing billions of BTUs to keep the square miles of carpet cool to off-gas undisturbed.”

Sorkin, who directs the urban design program at City College of New York, states “This is an environment designed by the world’s best and brightest.” Yet the environment and social justice have been short changed in the architects’ fetish for form. What were these smart designers imbibing with their beer at architecture school? Certainly not an understanding of the complex interplay of finance, culture, sustainability, history and place.

As an educator, Sorkin recommends giving every student a foundation in the different design professions: architecture, urban design, landscape and environmental design. Great cities are not created by individual architects but by collaborations between professions and the communities they are supposed to serve.

Being a graduate of an interdisciplinary program of studies, I know first-hand how hard it is to collaborate and genuinely practice integrated design. If designers are going to be knowledgeable about sustainable design and what makes for humane cities, schools of design will have to adapt. Integrated or interdisciplinary design processes need to become the norm not just for LEED buildings but the wider profession.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Finalists for Architecture for Humanity’s latest Open Architecture Challenge have been selected. Eight teams were recognized for their designs of the classroom of the future.

The 2009 Open Architecture Challenge was underwritten by a consortium of corporate, academic and non-profit partners from around the world. The competition’s mandate was simple: designers were to collaborate with real students in real schools to develop real solutions, in an effort to improve school learning environments.

More than 1000 teams from 65 countries registered for the competition. After four rounds of reviews, a list of eight finalists was chosen. Each submission was rated on feasibility, sustainability and innovation in learning and overall design quality.

The jury consisted of more than 50 leaders in education, sustainability and architecture, and included students and teachers.

Architecture for Humanity (AFH) established the challenge in response to a dearth of new ideas and action on improving learning environments and literacy rates. The World Bank estimates that ten million new classrooms are required if every school c hild in the world is to enjoy a primary education.

The competition served as a catalyst for designing safe, sustainable and innovate educational facilities. An immediate result of the challenge is an online portfolio of design solutions licensed under Creative Commons and viewable at www.openarchitecturenetwork.org.

The principal corporate partner on the challenge was Orient Global, a private investment group based in Singapore.

This latest foray into social development cements AFH’s reputation for innovation in shelter and community design. AFH has provided shelter for more than 700,000 people in 31 countries.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Buildings are a major source of demand for energy and materials that produce greenhouse gases (GHG). Responsible for using a lion’s share of energy generation in the US and Canada, the cost of erecting and operating buildings far outweighs any other sector of the economy.

According to Architecture2030, buildings account for some 40 percent of energy use and GHG emissions in the US. Slowing the growth rate of emissions and then reversing it over the next ten years will require fast action and global cooperation.

Larger businesses, anxious to appear to be responsible corporate citizens, are adopting sustainable measures for lowering their energy inputs and nasty greenhouse gas emissions. Smaller businesses have been slower to adopt sustainability measures, viewing such measures as both expensive and not core to the business.

In an effort to raise awareness among small business owners of the benefits of going green, management consultant Eric Cohen recently launched Padosa.com, a free site dedicated to helping members go green, profitably. The website is a community of members, many from small to medium enterprises, who share information in online forums.

Among his clients Cohen has observed that some building owners have started to investigate ways to reduce electricity usage. Those who are most successful in realizing cost savings from investments in energy reduction have adopted a three year timeframe for planning purposes. These owners take advantage of federal and state incentives for going green and often meet payback targets in just two years.

Padosa.com shows business owners how to select among energy efficiency options and increase profitability. The rewards go beyond reducing building operation costs. Being a responsible corporate citizen on the environmental front is a way to brand a business and attract new customers.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Remember a time when office floors resembled warrens of cubicles, with private office spaces along the window walls? Wealthy law offices and energy firms may be able to perpetuate this design template, but for most workplaces it is a memory at best, and not always a fond one.

Cubicles have served a purpose, providing a measure of privacy for employees in open office areas and delivering work space for less money. But the high-walled and dark warren is giving way to a unit with lower or non-existent walls and a smaller footprint. Economics, demographics and LEED-inspired design factors are driving this transition.

At the forefront of this drive to eliminate office warrens and better accommodate sustainably-designed workplaces is Teknion, a Canadian firm with offices worldwide.

New realities in the workplace include a need for agile programming: office layouts that respond to shared desks for employees who work only occasionally at the office. Workspace furniture designed by Teknion for flexible workplace schedules is rarely contained in high-walled workstations; openness and transparency are becoming the norm.

Generation Y employees are attracted to flexible, open workspaces. They expect to work in a wireless environment, are less distracted by noise and choose to meet in informal spaces rather than formal meeting rooms.

The rise in real estate costs for commercial buildings is resulting in the design of ever-smaller and more functional spaces. Built-in seating, clever use of under-desk space and specially designed accessories allow occupants to customize their space and make the best possible use of it.

Sustainable design of office spaces is most easily achieved in open offices with access to natural light and views out for everyone. Workspaces in this type of configuration have low or transparent walls to ensure this accessibility. Individual workstations are increasingly being designed with personal controls for adjusting ventilation, lighting and temperature.

The lowly cubicle is not completely dead but it has morphed. New workspace design is abetting the creation of healthy, attractive workplaces.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

The chorus of voices calling for more density in cities is growing. Even a city as married to the automobile as Calgary, Alberta is poised to increase housing density with a new municipal planning document and transportation plan, Plan It Calgary.

Not everyone accepts that density is necessary, especially in their neighborhood. Developers are fighting it tooth and nail. Some planners are suggesting the difficulty is not the concept of densification, but rather the way it is being implemented.

One of the chief concerns is that planning documents like Plan It Calgary and smaller-scale area redevelopment plans don't have the right level of detail. The introductions to these plans begin at a high level, like a bird in the sky, and then plummet into people's backyards.

Developers complain that the mechanisms for implementing densification are not sufficiently clear. Business people like reliability: to know they can develop and replicate a particular kind of development model, rationalizing costs and investment of time.

Existing mechanisms for everything from engineering standards for roads to requirements for tree planting facilitate the execution of urban development projects. Developers seeking reliability are frustrated by planning documents like Plan It Calgary because they can't easily discern what these new mechanisms or regulations are, and how they will behave.

Citizens reading the detail in these plans react strongly to any hint that their community will be the site of denser development. The level of detail in these documents further conspires against community acceptance because it becomes difficult for people to see the forest for the trees. Readers become fixated on small details, sometimes losing sight of the benefits of the whole.

The big questions for planners and community leaders writing these documents include:

• What is the right level of detail for citizens, whose support for these plans is critical?
• What is the best way to write a plan so that it engages rather than instructs community readers?
• What kind of detail, by way of bylaw changes and other regulations, is required for the development industry, so that they support changes to existing planning documents and mechanisms?
• How can community associations ensure that their own area redevelopment plans go beyond platitudes about community, to planning information that will have teeth with local municipal planning departments?

Posted by Andree Iffrig

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC)–Alberta Chapter is holding its annual conference in Calgary May 5-6 and Edmonton May 6-7, 2009. Internationally-renowned sustainable design practitioner Edward Mazria is the keynote speaker opening the conference. Jaime Lerner will provide an urban planning and policy perspective on the second day of the conference.

Mazria is an architect, author, educator and visionary with a long and distinguished career. His award-winning architecture and planning projects span a thirty-five year period. Mazria is the author of the 'bible' of solar design, The Passive Solar Energy Book.

The conference's theme, Architecture 2030, refers to an organization founded by Mazria to address the building sector's contributions to global warming and climate change. Architecture 2030 aims to make carbon neutral buildings the norm in architecture by 2030.

Contagious in his enthusiasm for turning cities green, Lerner is an architect, planner and former mayor of Curitiba in Brazil. His innovations and accomplishments in municipal and state government are legendary. Lerner will speak to the city as the solution for creating a more sustainable environment.

The focus of this year’s conference is the ECOnomics of greening the built environment. The big question is: How do you navigate the new economic landscape and enshrine green building as a priority? Twelve breakout sessions at the conference will offer case studies, advanced presentations on the practical aspects of sustainable design, and an overview of new LEED® products.

CaGBC is leading the transformation of the built environment, creating buildings and communities that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live. It collaborates with industry, government and other organizations to accelerate sustainable building and development in Canada.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Canada’s oil and gas capital is getting ready to host a different kind of energy conference. This one isn’t for the old boys network from The Petroleum Club. The Gaining Ground Summit on sustainable urban development is being held in Calgary May 7-8, 2009 at the Westin hotel. Expect to see die-hard environmentalists rubbing shoulders with suits from the business community.

Entitled “Energy and the Future of Calgary”, the conference will bring together leaders from diverse backgrounds to discuss land use and transportation issues in a changing energy environment. Keynote speakers include Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Peter Tertzakian.

Delegates and speakers alike will be challenged to imagine the post-carbon city of the (near) future. Calgary’s choice as the host city seems ironic in this regard; it has a well-earned reputation for suburban sprawl. That may be slowly changing with the city’s decision to endorse sustainable design principles for urban development as part of the Plan It Calgary project.

The Center for Urban Innovation (CUI) in Victoria, B.C., is organizing the conference. CUI is a loosely-affiliated group of planners, policy makers and innovators concerned with urban development. With conference themes like preparing Calgary for a future without oil and whole-city change, delegates will be invited to imagine and debate the city’s future. It promises to be a not-to-be-missed event.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

In the most recent issue of Architectural Record, editor Robert Ivy, FAIA, reminds readers that preservation of existing building stock is a good alternative to building new. Doing the right thing ecologically makes good economic sense and may be a silver lining in this recession.

Strategies that architectural practices are adopting for survial include reducing hours worked so that more employees retain their jobs and cutting salaries across the board to spread the pain. Tactics for finding work run from making the most of an existing business network to working in another field that might eventually become a specialty in architectural practice.

Architects of all ages and experience might find that this is an ideal time to re-evaluate what being an architect is all about. Meeting in informal groups of like-minded peers, it is possible to revive the heart of work and identify new ways to realize a dream of service to community. Self-directed peer learning groups can explore big questions, such as:

• Are we relevant and do we really make a difference?
• What social, environmental and financial impacts do we deliver?
• Does our economic model fit with our values and is it driving the kinds of projects and services we want to deliver?

There is value in exploring beyond the usual tacit understanding of what being an architect means. In the heady run-up to the recession, most architects were too busy to bother with this kind of challenging self-reflection. Taking time now cultivates big picture thinking. It also positions practitioners for a positive response when the economy finally turns around.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

For most of mankind’s history, house design has been executed by local homeowners, builders and masons. They used readily-available materials and simple technologies for shelter construction. Vernacular architecture is the term assigned to this type of building. It includes not only dwellings but barns and other workspaces.

Vernacular architecture is not restricted to buildings from the past. From the adobe house of the American southwest to the concrete-domed vaults of housing on the Greek isles, architecture-without-architects has been the norm.

The growth of cities and the advent of more sophisticated building technologies during the Industrial Revolution changed the vernacular paradigm. In the span of a century, domestic construction increased in scope and complexity. A growing middle class could afford larger houses in rapidly expanding cities; Catherine Beecher’s American Woman's Home is an example of this trend. By the end of the 19th century, suburban development was taking place in green belts around existing cities, and denser development of housing was occurring in urban areas.

The 20th century saw architects assuming a greater role in the design and building of domestic architecture, especially in large-scale urban development. Architectural history celebrates the achievements of architects of the Modern Movement, who created a new paradigm for multi-family house design, made famous by Le Corbusier’s Modular studies and infamous by public housing development, Pruitt Igoe.

In reaction to the perceived excesses and failures of Modernism, Christopher Alexander, architect and author of A Pattern Language, spent several years exploring vernacular design to understand its patterns for living and working. Alexander maintained residents are quite capable of designing and building their own homes, without recourse to a professional architect. His assertion irked design professionals. Ironically, his pattern studies, intended for a lay audience, are an essential part of any architect’s education.

A more recent critic of architectural education and practice is Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity (AFH). AFH rebuilds the vernacular in areas hard hit by natural and manmade disasters; post-tsunami South East Asia and New Orleans are two locations. As Western architects watch their practices disappear during a severe economic downturn, some might consider re-immersing themselves in vernacular design as volunteers with AFH. It’s a way of redeeming the practice of architecture while housing those most in need of shelter.

Posted by Andree Iffrig

Not everyone is happy with Richard Florida's new book, Who's Your City? The book explores trends in economic development and the rise of what Florida has dubbed the creative class. If Florida's group is right about clustering of industries in a select number of mega-regions, some cities and regions can expect to miss out on prosperity.

The spread of digital technology was supposed to create a level playing field for economic development. Some areas of the developing world will certainly benefit: Bangalore in India is a good example of a city that is capitalizing on the outsourcing of digital technology. Its success speaks to the rise of a creative class in the region, brilliant entrepreneurs and a capacity for innovation.

Examining the growth of mega-regions, Florida demonstrates that where we choose to live does matter; the world is not flat. Talent and creativity are not distributed evenly, in part because those who form the creative class have preferences about the kind of places where they want to live and work.

The maps in Who's Your City? are captivating and illustrate just how unevenly economic development is occurring in the world. In the creative economy, growth comes from concentrations of talented, productive people. The implication of this finding is that future economic growth is likely to result in further disparities between have and have-not regions.

Florida's research on basic personality dimensions and their application to cities is intriguing. Some cities, it transpires, tend to be more conscientious (think of manufacturing centres) while others tend to be neurotic (New York, no surprise) or extroverted (Chicago). Understanding the differences in personality between cities is a first step in deciding where to take up residence and work.

The link between identity and place is the great 21st century theme. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Florida's next book. Who's Your City? is sufficiently rich that readers will have lots to debate in the interim.