We are very honoured to have been awarded the 2016 Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture from the Canada Council for the Arts! This award will support our research project entitled ‘The Next Green – Innovation in Sustainable Housing’, which entails travel to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany to study sustainable housing precedents and research applicable to northern climates. We will explore how architects in these countries set new standards for buildings that surpass current protocols for sustainability, while developing a unique spatial and artistic architectural language in which energy efficiency and design merge seamlessly. Our intention is to stimulate a dialogue about the role of sustainable design as a generator for design excellence in architecture.

Our broad areas of study will focus on resiliency, responsive design, and innovative sustainable design and systems. We plan to study firsthand passive houses, Net Zero Energy homes, and regenerative design in housing (buildings that produce more energy than they consume), as well as integrated technologies such as building-integrated photovoltaics, new materials such as biocomposites, and responsive or ‘intelligent’ materials – all features of tomorrow’s buildings.  The program of study will include meetings with Scandinavia and Germany’s leading architectural practices in sustainable design and architecture, visits to significant high-performance buildings, participation in conferences and symposia on sustainable architecture, and explorations of cutting-edge research on building-integrated sustainable systems and materials at research and academic institutions.

Stay tuned for posts on our ongoing research and upcoming travel commencing next year. Subscribe to automatically receive our updates.