1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
1.5 AIA LU

 
This session draws on a recent research project investigating the cost-benefit of no/low-carbon Garden Suites in Toronto and GAGA [Green Accessible Granny ADU]—the winning professional entry in the City of Kitchener’s recent design competition for backyard homes. Garden suites, an emerging typology in the wave of backyard homes (e.g. laneway suites, coach houses, etc.), are used as a case study to examine how new low-rise buildings in Ontario provide an actionable pathway to meet climate change targets. The findings from the research and constructed projects indicate the conventional cost to ‘go green’ is not prohibitive, particularly when carbon becomes the ‘currency’ to weigh the cost of new builds. Additionally, the presenters will explain the importance of considering upfront embodied carbon and describe how lowering carbon emissions through energy efficiency alone is not enough to reduce carbon footprints.
The case study is a scalable example for missing-middle housing typologies: from the growing number of permitted backyard homes to six-plex apartment buildings. The magnitude of business-as-usual upfront embodied and emitted carbon from new low-rise housing is a problem requiring immediate action to meet the local and national climate policy goals.

Learning Objectives:

1. Acquire the tools to address client concerns about the cost of no/low-carbon design.
2. Learn, from real world examples, the key steps to no/low-carbon design.
3. Gain an understanding of the relative impact of upfront (embodied) versus operating (emitted) carbon together with proven cost-effective strategies to reduce both.
4. Understand the true costs and payback periods for a range of low-rise green building strategies.

Speakers

Paul Dowsett, OAA, FRAIC, LEED AP (CanPHI Passive House Planner, Congress for the New Urbanism advocate, principal architect and co-founder, Sustainable Architecture for a Healthy Planet)

Paul Dowsett is a leading thinker and advocate in the space of sustainability and architecture. He is the founding principal architect at Sustainable, an architectural design collaborative that works toward a healthy planet. For the past decade, Paul has been central to the introduction of sustainable architecture to the mainstream, while practising deep community engagement with equity-seeking groups of all backgrounds and abilities. Design and material science inform the use of natural, non-toxic materials to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the built environment. At the core of Paul’s philosophy and practice is the belief that design and construction solutions should be simple, sensitive, and sustainable.

Daniel Hall, OAA, RAIC (Red Seal Carpenter, director of design for the Architect Builders Collaborative Inc.)

Daniel Hall is the founding principal of the Architect Builders Collaborative Inc, a progressive Architecture and Design studio focused on delivering socially sustainable and affordable low-carbon design. With more than 15 years of experience in hands-on buildings both as a Red-Seal carpenter and woodworker, Daniels work and research focuses on the intersection of design intentions and practical affordable ways to construct near-zero-energy buildings (NZEBs). The current focus of his research and practical design projects is the mass scaling of low-carbon retrofits and fuel-switching for existing smaller-scale buildings.

Allison Evans, Technologist OAAAS, MES Planning (junior urban designer, the Architect Builders Collaborative Inc.)

Allison Evans’ research investigates a variety of urban conditions from a critical perspective to better understand how the complex and dynamic forces of a globalizing world shape everyday life in cities. Her areas of interest are urban development and governance, urban informality in the global northwest, and all things housing: from policy to typology. Allison’s ongoing research on many urban housing forms provides a broad and nuanced understanding of the current policy landscape as it applies to sustainability, affordability, accessibility, and adequacy. She holds a master’s degree in environmental studies (planning) from York University in addition to over a decade of experience in residential architecture.