Sustainable Design Principles

• Sustainable design should avoid putting toxic materials into the environment each year. Additionally, it should not produce materials dangerous enough to require constant vigilance.
• It should not leave gigantic amounts of waste or bury valuable materials where they can never be retrieved. Sustainable design should not require complex regulations just to keep people and systems safe or to maximize productivity with fewer workers
• Sustainable design should avoid creating prosperity by depleting natural resources and burying them, and it should not erode the diversity of species and cultural practices.
• Sustainability: To hold, to uphold.
• Sustainable development meets present needs without compromising future generations. "Less bad is not good enough."
• Hedonistic sustainability: Sustainability should be pleasurable. Sustainable cities/buildings should increase the quality of life.

Venn Diagram vs Euler Diagram

• A Venn diagram's overlapping circles show the relationships between social, economic, and environmental factors.
• An Euler diagram uses concentric circles.
• Realistically, there is room for improvement in the overlapping areas of environment, social, and economic factors.

Standard House Materials and End-of-Life

• Standard houses use high embodied carbon materials like carpet, spray foam insulation, vinyl tiles, asphalt shingles, concrete, and drywall.
• All these materials result in landfill at the end of their life.

Wood Frame Construction

• Wood frame is the most common form of North American house construction.
• Most wood frames use platform framing, where each floor rests on the walls below.
• Other methods include continuous vertical balloon framing and heavy timber post and beam.
• Stick construction is combined with lateral bracing.

Wood Harvesting Cycle

• Plant
• Growth
• Harvest
• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Use
• Disassembly
• Mulch
• Biofuel
• Logging is essential to wood's carbon and environmental impact. Forest stewardship standards include longer growth cycles, harvest timing, small clear cuts, wider waterway buffers, and herbicide limits.
• Debarking: stripping the tree trunk of its bark.
• Cutting: Logs are cut into the desired grain pattern.
• Edging: Edges of boards are trimmed.
• Air Drying: boards are left for a year to dry.
• Finishing: planning and routing the edges of each board.
• Kiln drying: large Buildings dry the lumber via mechanical means, increases Lumber stability.
• Insulating: wood frame walls have a void between the studs for insulation.
• Branches can be used for pulpwood and fuel.
• The trunk can be used for sawlogs and veneer.

Bamboo as a Sustainable Material

• Bamboo is a woody grass with significant carbon mitigation and architectural potential. It has a vast array of historical uses, flexibility, and strength.
• It can be used minimally processed as primary structures, aggregated into surfaces, or transformed into strips/laminated/woven.

Bamboo Lifecycle

• Plant
• Growth
• Harvest
• Processing and manufacturing
• Construction
• Use
• Disassembly
• Mulch
• Harvesting: Bamboo of a suitable diameter is selected and harvested.
• Puncturing: Culms are cleaned, and a metal rod is used to break interior partitions.
• Treating/Preserving: Culms are submerged in borax solution to treat insects and mold.
• Sun drying: Treated culms are arranged vertically to dry.
• Splitting: Culms are split in a machine.
• Crushing/Pressing: Rough bamboo slats are crushed into trends, bundled, and dipped into adhesives.
• Laminating: Slats are thermally treated, cleaned, and glue-laminated vertically or horizontally.
• Cutting: Strand-woven bamboo is cut into usable pieces, such as flooring or panels.

Straw as a Building Material

• Straw is a byproduct of critical food sources and is the residual stock after harvest
• Composition: ~40% carbon
• Baling machines transforms it into a useful form for construction. Left to decompose or is burned, returning CO2 to the atmosphere.
• Can be a load-bearing material.
• Lifecycle
• Plant
• Growth
• Harvest
• Baling
• Prefabrication
• Plastering
• Construction
• Use
• Disassembly
• Mulch

Straw Processing

• Harvesting: Reeds for thatching are harvested into carefully formed bundles.
• Baling: Bales are positioned with the strings within the walls, allowing the outer sides to be notched for posts.
• Plastering: A crucial component of straw-bale construction that contributes to structural capacity and resistance to fire, moisture, and vermin.

Cork

• A material derived from the bark of the cork oak tree. This renewable material combines water resistance, thermal, antifungal, acoustical, structural, and sensory qualities. Cultivation provides ecosystem services.
• Cycle
• Plant
• Growth
• Harvest
• Waste
• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Use
• Disassembly
• Mulch
• Harvesting: Cork is harvested from mature trees every 9-14 years by skilled workers using specialized tools.
• Piling: Harvested cork planks are stored in piles for drying.
• Boiling: Planks are boiled or steamed to soften and clean.
• Cutting: Planks are graded and cut into workable pieces.
• Punching: High-end stoppers are hand-punched, others machine-punched.
• Grinding: Scrap wine stopper pieces are milled into granules of different sizes.
• Shaping: Cork granules are fused using adhesives or thermal processes into different shapes/products.

Examples of Sustainable Design

• Wikado playground used discarded rotor blades.
• Public benches for Willemsplein made with discarded windmill blades.
• Villa Welpeloo uses as much surplus materials as possible.
• Espresso Bar designed with reused washing machine fronts.

Toronto Green Standard

• Toronto's sustainable design requirements apply to new private and city-owned developments.
• The standard has tiers of performance measures with guidelines for sustainable site and building design.
• Tier 1 is required for planning approval; Tiers 2-4 are higher voluntary standards that associate with financial incentives & verified post-construction

Key Objectives of the Toronto Green Standard

• Improve air quality and lower the urban heat island effect.
• Reduce energy/ greenhouse gas emissions in new buildings; increase resilience to power disruptions, encouraging renewable and district energy.
• Reduce stormwater runoff and water consumption while improving water quality draining to lake ontario.
• Protect ecological functions, integrating habitats and decreasing bird collisions.
• Reduce household and construction waste going to landfill.
• The policies are implemented through the community planning and development.

Implementing the Toronto Green Standard

• Apply this standard to new planning applications received on or after May 1, 2022.
• "Guidelines by Building Category"
• Low-rise residential
• Mid-to-high-rise residential and non-residential
• City agency, corporation, and division crown facilities
• Toronto Green Standard Version 4 applies to residential apartment buildings 4+ stories and Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) developments
• Tier 1 performance measures are required for all planning applications.
• Tier 2 and 3 have voluntary performance measures and associated with the Toronto Green Standard Development Charge Refund Program.

Key Performance Measures for Sustainability

• Air Quality: Low emissions transportation, cycling, pedestrian infrastructure.
• Building Energy, Emissions, & Resilience: Optimize energy efficiency, reduce GHG emissions, enhance building resilience.
• Water Quality & Efficiency: Stormwater and water management.
• Ecology & Biodiversity: Enhance urban forest, increase biodiversity, and minimize urban heat islands.
• Waste & Circular Economy: Divert waste from landfills, use sustainable building materials.

Liu Jiakun, Architect

• Connects past, present and future.
• West Village: A megastructure, A masterpiece
• Materials as memory
• Born: 1956, Chengdu, China
• Grew up in a hospital environment, influenced by Christian values.
• Education:
• Attended the Institute of Architecture and Engineering in Chongqing
• Graduated in 1982 with a Architecture Bachelor's Degree
• Early Career:
• Worked at Chengdu Architectural Design and Research Institute
• Volunteered in Nagqu, Tibet (1984–1986) – remote, harsh environment
• Balanced architectural work with literary writing
• Inspired by Tang Hua's 1993 solo exhibition in Shanghai, realized architecture could be personal and expressive.
• Architecture is “like water”—fluid, site-sensitive, spiritual, balances tradition, local identity, and innovation
• Founded Jiakun Architects in 1999 in Chengdu
• Over 30 civic, cultural, commercial, urban planning projects
• Current practice: Based in Chengdu, focused on public, contextual, and meaningful architecture

Contemporary Landscape Design: Landscape and Space

• Enclosed garden
• Open garden/continuous garden
• Vertical garden
• Context specific

Quotes on Landscaping

• "The modern movement always had a very Puritan relationship with the earth," -Dominique Perrault
• "When Le Corbusier imagined setting up buildings on pilotis so that they would not touch the earth, his attitude was very peculiar...The garden is not only beautiful, it is sacred. Visitors cannot enter it. It is a symbolic place of origin of the library, it brings calm and light to the interior. It is in some sense the first garden."

Open Grid Park

• A park design where the layout complements, and often uses a grid pattern for streets that incorporate the park.

Vertical Gardens

• Patrick Blanc is a French botanist, researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and pioneer of the modern vertical garden (aka "living wall").
• Usually involves a hydroponic system where plants are rooted in a structure attached to a wall with nutrients delivered without soil.

Context Specific Design

• The surrounding environment, including natural and built elements, influence the design and development of a space.
• Design choices respond to the unique characteristics of the surrounding landscape.
• It considers physical, social, cultural, and historical factors.

Landscape and Time: Seasonal

• Involves understanding/planning changes in landscapes and gardens throughout the year.

Landscape and Time: Winter Garden

• Extends the growing seasons.
• Provides space to grow plants that are not hardy in the local climate, allowing for their enjoyment in winter.
• Can also be a greenhouse.

Climate Resilient Block

• A type of urban renewal project that focuses on adapting buildings and landscapes to climate change impacts.
• Aims to increase block ability to withstand and recover from extreme weather events.
• Achieved through natural and engineered solutions improving rainwater management, reducing flood risk.

Landscapes of Memory: Memorials. Void.

• Physical or symbolic locations or structures created to preserve cultural practices.
• Void signifies absence and can be a space for remembrance, reflection, and insertion of personal memories.

Artificial Landscapes

• Artificial flowers: Human-created imitations of floral designs in parks or gardens, crafted from materials resembling real-world counterparts.
• Artificial Tree: Mimics a natural tree, often made of plastic, metal, fabric, or foam.
• Artificial Pergola: Outdoor structure that adds an open-air roof supported by posts/beams. Provides shade or supports climbing plants.
• Artificial Garden: Uses synthetic materials and techniques, mimicking natural elements, or deviating to create aesthetic or functional purposes.
• Indoor Artificial Forest: Mimics a forest ecosystem in a building or enclosed space.

East Bayfront Precinct

• Research that is part of the Quality in Canada’s Built Environment: Roadmap to Equity, Social Value and Sustainability partnership.
• Coordinated by the University of Montreal (Canada Research Chair in Architecture, ACME).
• TMU is one of the teams.
• One of L. Farah's case studies is in the East Bayfront Precinct

Limberlost Place

• A new academic building at George Brown College in Toronto.
• Designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects.
• Notable as one of Canada's first tall wood institutional buildings.
• Used Sustainable and innovative mass timber construction integrating advanced environmental systems to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

Sugar Beach

• Sugar Beach is located in Toronto
• Designed by Claude Cormier + Associates.
• Turned a former industrial parking lot into public park.
• Opened in 2010, is 8500 sqm.
• Has white sand, 36 pink umbrellas, plaza with grassy mounds, and a tree-lined promenade.

Sherbourne Common Storm Water Management

• Sherbourne Common is a waterfront park is the first park in Canada to incorporate a UV purification facility.
• It reflects 3 elements: Maple tree groves (the Woods), interactive water features (the Water), and open lawns (the Green).
• The central plaza transforms seasonally, splash pad in Summer/skating rink in winter.
• The park includes public art and serves as a central gathering space.
• The UV purified stormwater is celebrated by visually presenting three 9-meter sculptures that delivers tactile, optical, and acoustical effects.
• A 240m channel collects water and runs through a jewel-like zinc clad pavilion, seamlessly integrating landscape and architecture.
• Once sediment is removed from the collected stormwater, it is delivered to the UV filtration system in basement of the park pavilion.

The Green Roof Bylaw

• Toronto is the first North American city that requires that new developments have green roofs. The rule happened through council in May 2009.
• The bylaw applies to permit applications related to residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial development.
• Regulations include the formula:
• Area must be designated for renewable energy
• Residential private terraces
• Residential outdoor amenity space up to 2m²/unit
• Only roofed areas are permitted in the calculation for “Available Roof space"

Industrial Building Green Roof Requirements

• An industrial location needs to permit additions if the gross floor area is 2,000 m² or greater
• An industrial building should provide a Green Roof that covers 10% of available roof space, or use materials for 100% of available roof space.
• If a Site Plan is not required, rainfall needs to be retained at 5mm from annual volume

Classifications for Green Roofs System

• Green roof systems are generally classified as extensive, semi-intensive, or intensive.
• Extensive green roofs have plant communities designed to tolerate environmental conditions and generally use a shallow growing medium. Generally lighter systems needing less structural support, frequent maintenance, and lower costs. Plant options are mosses and succulents
• Semi-intensive green roofs are in between intensive systems. They are intermediate in that they have higher costs and more weight for the Green Roof type. Plants have deeper substrate which allows a greater range of perennials, shrubs, grasses
• Intensive green roofs have a medium that supports a wide variety of plants, such as perennials, bushes, and trees. Higher instillation and maintenance costs.

Exemption for the Green Roof Bylaw

• Applicants may be exempt from providing green roofs, an exemption would mean making a payment of $200/m², and application can be approved.

Tips for Birds and Glass

• Minimum of 85% exterior glazing can be achieved within a parameter of 16 meters of ground level
• Visual markers applied to the 1st surface of glass must be spaced with a maximum of 50mm -Integrate structures to mute reflections on glass
• Non-reflective glass includes: railing and fly-though conditions, clear balconies facing High Hazard