“Sky garden” is the term given for vertically stacked, three-story tall landscaped interaction hubs, flanked by formal and informal conference spaces. The design intent of the sky garden is to create an environment that serves as a tool for increasing business performance. A literature review was conducted to determine if that premise is supported by... Read more »
The conservation of water across the globe is not a concern for the future, but a pressing issue for us to face today. This issue is of even more importance with regard to the healthcare sector, where the values of health and sustainability are intrinsically linked. This paper explores the application of water throughout the... Read more »
This research focuses on investigation of context based design for double skin facades, particularly focusing on climatic considerations during the design process. Double skin envelopes are gaining popularity as a successful methodology for controlling thermal building performance and energy loads. However, their performance in different climates is an important design consideration. If properly designed, they... Read more »
This report accesses the potential carbon emissions of harvesting dead lodgepole pine as a result of an outbreak of mountain pine beetles. The report reviews the potential benefits (pros) and the many concerns (cons) about the harvesting practices and strategies utilized to mitigate the socio-economic and carbon emission impacts of mountain pine beetle outbreak. The... Read more »
This paper is based on a technical report that was intended to provide the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Sustainability Office with a potential strategy to move the Point Grey Campus to carbon neutrality without the purchase of carbon offsets by 2030 and to recommend a green building rating system that would form part of... Read more »
Our healthcare market sector is large and widespread across the firm. If there was a way to quantify the experience and expertise we have between our offices, it would be a very significant and impressive figure. Over the years we have demonstrated to ourselves the strength in our “collective collaboration” between our offices and have... Read more »
Building performance monitoring has a great potential to reduce energy usage through improved operation and maintenance. Enhanced functioning, lower energy costs, better indoor air quality and overall design satisfaction are some of the key benefits. However, in order to achieve these goals, successful transfer of design intent is required through all stages of design process... Read more »
In a diverse design practice such as Perkins+Will, we have found recent trends in interior design that reach across market sectors that appear to link aspects of environmental design to improvements in productivity, health and learning capacity. Several common attributes or trends are found to occur in all project types, regardless of the particular functionalities... Read more »
This article examines the use of “event planning” for the determination of the functional and physical requirements of the new emergency department for Halifax Medical Center. Based on clinical processes, functional and operational goals of the project were established and projected workload, practice trends and strategic directives of the institution were developed. The method for conducting this... Read more »
Computation in architectural design, specifically algorithmic/generative design, is a byproduct of advances in software development that have enhanced the digital tools available for explorations in all design disciplines. It is also quickly becoming a sub-discipline with a broad inter-disciplinary range. Currently, computational design methods have extended design and analytical capabilities in software tools available to... Read more »
Concerns over the effects of climate change affect not only the architectural design world, but the larger web of society as a whole. As such, the solutions developed need to address the complexity of factors leading to current atmospheric carbon levels. Moving forward, new ways to work, collaborate and structure fees need to be considered... Read more »
