BLOG4 - Page 15 of 32 - Coolearth Architecture

Toronto Offsite Design Festival – Best in Festival: New Work for Ojibway Quillwork

It is with great delight that we announce that artist Tracey Pawis of the Gzaagin Art Gallery who exhibited her work at Coolearth last week as part of the Toronto Offsite Design Festival has won the Best In Festival Award for new work!

The piece that won was a stunning 12″ diameter quill box depicting a man wearing a ceremonial head-dress. The level of detail is exquisite.

To everyone who came out to the show and the opening reception: if you are interested in learning more about Tracey’s work you can check out her website or message her.

Interior Design & Interior Renovations

“Thank you for all your hard work. We have really enjoyed the process with you and we are pleased with the final plans. You are truly professionals and very knowledgeable in your field, and it has been more than pleasant dealing with you and your firm throughout.”
Quote from the owners of this house.

If you’re thinking about giving your home a bit of a ‘re-vamp’, Coolearth Architecture can help you achieve your the interior design dreams. Using an integrated, informed, and simple approach, Coolearth Architecture will work closely with you, guiding you through each step of the process.

Our 3 stage approach to an Interior Design or Internal Renovation project gives you the peace of mind that every aspect of the interior design brief and your ideas have been thoroughly considered.

STEP 1: Schematic Design
At Coolearth Architecture our first step is to develop three schematic design options for client review. Each option presents different layouts while maintaining your main design requirements at the core of each. Whether it’s more light, better storage, or open plan living, we will look at how various arrangements and interior approaches can achieve or enhance your home.

We will meet with you and review in detail all three schematic design options, allowing you to make an informed decision on which design to move forward with.

STEP 2: Interior Design Development

At this stage, we develop 3 color pallet/interior mood boards considering color and material choices, built-in storage arrangements, feature walls, and interior characteristics.

At the end of Stage 2, we meet again to review all three design options, helping you make an informed final choice for the final scheme. Whatever your priority, be it time, cost, choice of materials, lighting, we will review all your ideas and concerns before we progress to the final stage.

STEP 3: Permit/Construction/Tender

The final step is a detailed drawing package that can be used for permit submissions, and/or costing/quotations, and/or construction. Depending on the extent of the Interior design, and your specific requirements the final drawing package almost always varies, from client to client.

Once the drawing package is complete, we have a final meeting ensuring that all parties understand the next steps.

FUTURE STEPS: Costings and Construction

Upon completion of the 3 stages mentioned above we can also provide further assistance through the construction stages including reviewing costs and quotations, sourcing samples, reviewing site works or providing additional details, drawings, and specifications. Whatever your need, we are here to help.

Do you have an Interior design project in mind for your home? Give us a call at 416-868-9224 for a free consultation: we are here to help.

Colleen receives LEED AP Certification

We are proud to announce that Colleen, a member of the Coolearth Team is now a LEED Approved Professional in Building Design and Construction!

LEED is a green building rating system used in over 160 countries. There are almost 8,000 LEED certified or registered buildings in Canada. The image below from the LEED site hints at the scale of impact that the LEED program has had.

Coolearth has done LEED projects before, most recently the Parry Sound District Social Services Board building, which achieved LEED Silver. We have also helped a private commercial client achieve LEED Silver.

To learn more about LEED send us an email at info at coolearth.ca or give us a call at 416-868-9774 and ask to speak to Colleen.

OAA Building – Net-zero Carbon Retrofit

The Ontario Association of Architects began a project to retro-fit their own headquarters in Toronto to make it Net-zero Carbon in March 2014. As a member of the Sustainable Built Environments Committee of the OAA, Coolearth principle Sheena Sharp has been involved in conceptualizing the need for the project, as well as guiding it’s direction which aims to be carbon neutral by 2018.

The project has a budget of $1.8 million dollars and will result in cost savings of $85,000/year resulting in a 20 year payback on the investment. As the President of the OAA Toon Dreessen says: “The next generation of architects will be left with a building that has low operating costs, helping them in future financial planning.” But beyond that the project will act as a demonstration of how to do net-zero retrofits in Ontario which is sorely needed. This is because over 70% of the existing buildings will still be in use by 2050, and in order to meet the climate change objectives many existing buildings will need to be similarly retrofitted.

Wood Burning Stove with Thermal Mass and Update Pictures

“

This house will have a very cool wood burning stove (forgive the pun). It has a closed combustion chamber with a direct vented intake that will use exterior air for combustion, thereby retaining an airtight envelope: a key element in passive house design. But the thing we are most excited about is that it has cement blocks on the upper section that act as thermal storage, maximizing the heat from the flue gases, and releasing the heat via radiation after the logs are burned. This is similar in principle to the operation of masonry heaters Thermal losses when the stove is off are a concern so we are adding dampers to avoid the circulation of cold air a reduce the thermal losses.

The special duct at the end has an air chamber to reduce the risk of high temperatures in the flue. Rockwool insulation will be surrounding the duct as it is proven highly resistant to heat and doesn’t burn.

In other news, construction is progressing well. Here are some snapshots of the progress. The deck is on and roofing is on its way. Once the windows go in the house will be weather tight.

The insulation in the roof cavity is blown fibreglass. The installers cannot believe how much insulation they had put on the roof and still a lot to be added. We love it!

To keep the ventilation cavity on top of the roof insulation a layer of paper was taped at the top edge. As much as we like insulation, we also want to have the vented cavity working properly to remove any vapour and condensation that might occur in the assembly.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Coolearth Architecture at IIDEX 2017

Last Wednesday and Thursday Coolearth was at IIDEX and Construct Canada. We had a booth with the Passive House Canada team and gave two seminar talks to the audience as part of Construct Canada. The energy at the conference was great and we met and chatted with so many interesting people. The major take-away is that we, as Canadians, have the knowledge, skill, and willpower to meet our Climate Change and Sustainability targets. Having talked to so many committed passionate people has given us reasons for optimism that we can make our buildings more resilient, energy efficient… and also better looking!

As part of the Passive House Canada pavilion we helped communicate and advocate for Passive House design in Toronto and Ontario. It was great to be able to share the details of passive house and answer such questions as “what is the difference between passive house and net-zero?”

On Wedneday Sheena Sharp and German Vaisman gave a seminar on our net-zero conversion of a semi-detached residential building. The overview of the presentation is: Ontario’s climate action plan seeks to improve the energy efficiency and performance of buildings in order to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The province has identified that we need to take all buildings to Net-Zero or near Net-Zero Energy Use. This means upgrading the leaky, badly insulated homes which pre-dominate much of Toronto and were built after World War 2. We will present a Toronto semi-detached home that we are doing an envelope upgrade on with the aim of making it Net-Zero. We are doing this by adding external insulation, making the home air tight, replacing the original single-pane windows with new high performance windows and doors, installing efficient heating and ventilation equipment, and mounting solar panels on the roof. The upgrades to the home will make it more comfortable, improve the appearance of the home, and reduce energy consumption and therefore lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

On Thursday Sheena Sharp, and Trevor Nightingale, the Program Leader, High Performance Buildings at National Research Council presented a seminar entitled “Making Net-Zero Commercial Buildings a Reality”. From the Construct Canada Website: “For the early adopters, it is typically not a simple ROI but rather there are often less tangible outcomes and benefits. In this session, the National Research Council Canada (NRC) will present information on the incremental cost of the NZEB to begin building the case. The speaker will discuss the business case as well as technical issues, including those associated with retrofit and energy positive. The session will also include an examination of real and hypothetical scenarios to identify the considerations and implications and to show the delta between traditional energy systems and Net-Zero”.

Sheena’s and Trevor’s talk is also reviewed in detail by Brownen from the Canadian Consulting Engineer website:

http://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/buildings/net-zero-energy-buildings-will-standard-2030/1003404017/?custnum=23024476895&title=Energy+Efficiency+Manager&utm_source=419&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=161206S

Thanks again to everyone who came out to the seminars, and to everyone we met during the show: we look forward to crossing paths again in the future.

🙂