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B.C. is moving ahead with plans to build what is expected to be the tallest wood building in North America and possibly the world, Jobs Minister Pat Bell said Wednesday. The proposed 10-storey Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George will become a test case for creating a value-added forest products industry around tall wood building construction methods that would differ radically from the way traditional mid-rise and even highrise buildings are constructed ... »»»
Vancouver is more expensive than New York, more expensive than Paris, more expensive than London. But what we discovered was that in each generation, Vancouver has rebuilt itself to respond to some huge demographic shift. So how do we understand these organic trends and take the next step forward? How do we find space for our kids and our elderly so our community stays a real place? We came up with four basic strategies ... »»»
According to the ‘U.S. Telecommuting Forecast, 2009 to 2016’ report from Forrester Research, by 2016, more than 63 million Americans will telecommute – working from home at least one day per week. Consequently, corporate offices are increasingly accommodating multiple working populations – full-time workers, part-time workers and remote workers who come to the office on both a scheduled and sporadic basis. But as workforce dynamics change, are physical office spaces keeping pace ... »»»
The arguments are all wrong regarding a development proposal in one of Vancouver's funkiest neighbourhoods. Nostalgia is not a reason to preserve an area of cheap, temporary and often ugly buildings. The fight shaping up over a development proposal in a funky Mt. Pleasant location says just about all you ever want to know about where the city of Vancouver is these days ... »»»
Upgrade your fire alarms to the new standard with IP communications and watch analog telephone lines become a thing of the past. As traditional phone lines fall by the wayside, digital systems such as Voice over IP (VoIP), GSM cellular networks, and fiber optics are taking their place. But if your fire alarm communications still depend on outdated phone lines, your system’s reliability is being sacrificed ... »»»
B.C.'s construction industry is honing a skill of turning this old structural material into new exciting shapes and forms. Known as architectural concrete, it is being used to express different colors, finishes, building shapes and sustainability objectives. “In Vancouver, during the 60s, 70 and into the 80s, a lot more was done,” said Roland Haebler, president of Haebler Construction, which is known for working on challenging projects that involve architectural concrete ... »»»
The technologies of tomorrow promise to revolutionize how we collaborate, power our devices and navigate our world, but innovative designers are already changing these tasks with the technology of today. This month, we’ve decided to look forward and give you a taste of what’s to come in the places where we work and live, as well as look at some useful tech-related products that are already hard at work, transforming the office of today into the office of tomorrow ... »»»
The Skyscraper Index, has been published annually since 1999 and the latest report, published late last year, shows some cause for concern. There is, said the bank’s analysts, an “unhealthy correlation” between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent financial crashes. It cites a number of examples. The Empire State Building and the Great Depression. Now, the Burj Khalifa, presently the tallest building in the world, was built in Dubai just as the emirate almost went broke ... »»»
A building material that absorbs heat during the day and releases it at night promises to save building owners a bundle of cash when it's time to pay the monthly electricity bill. They’re called phase-change materials, or PCMs, and scientists have been experimenting with them for decades. Although there have been some efforts to introduce them to construction markets in North America and Europe, they remain largely unknown or ignored ... »»»
To redress this lack of information, the architecture firm Perkins+Will went about creating a free, online database – called Transparency – of building materials that contain substances known or suspected to be harmful to health. The database is geared towards the consumers who most often specify what materials should be used in a building project: architects and interior designers ... »»»