Form Follows Performance

It is hot here and probably where you are. We’re all looking for ways to keep our indoors comfortable. Although the AC is tempting, it is also expensive and tough on the environment and our i…

These days, we provide thermal comfort in winter by heating the entire air volume in a room or building, an approach that consumes a lot of fossil fuels. In this series of articles, LOW←TECH MAGAZINE focuses on our forebear’s concept of heating, which was more localized. They used radiant heat sources that warmed only certain parts of a room, creating micro-climates of comfort, and they used personal heating sources that warmed specific body parts. It would make a lot of sense to restore this old way of warming, especially since newer technology has made it much more practical, safe, and efficient. By placing heating technology in a historical context, LOW←TECH MAGAZINE challenges the high-tech approach to sustainability and highlights the possibilities of alternative solutions. Contents table: Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Spaces Insulation: First the Body, then the Home The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle Energy Labels Oblige Frugal Homeowners to Make Unsustainable Investments How to Keep Warm in a Cool House Sunbathing in the Living Room: Tile Stoves and Other Radiant Heating Systems Heat Storage Hypocausts: Air Heating in the Middle Ages The Revenge of the Circulating Fan

This book is to further the debate on new sustainability thinking in the built environment, by bringing together a selection of short contributions from thought leaders in the UK and the rest of the world (USA, China, India, Australia, NZ, Indonesia) with an overarching narrative from the author. Although progress in sustainable solutions has been made over the past decade, the trend is still one of a woefully wasteful construction industry. This book aims to show that being ‘less bad’

The size of a home's windows impacts the building's energy efficiency, utilities costs, and carbon output--so smaller is better.

Buildings account for over one-third of global emissions and energy use. Meeting climate pledges will require achieving high operational energy effici…

A collaborative project designed to provide information about marine biodiversity and human activity in BC's marine waters.

This quick video-tutorial shows how to painlessly import elevation data from grid format (.tiff, .asc, .hgt etc.) to CAD software, such as Rhino and Revit. W...

This video demonstrates how to generate a digital surface model (DSM) from a city using a point cloud (LAS) file. First you see how to configure the LASTools...

WUFI Passive is the industry standard for assessing passive building. The following tutorials were created to guide users to successfully modeling buildings for project certification.

A Carbon Tool (ACT) is an open source web application that enables users to estimate embodied carbon equivalent (LCA) content from Building Information Models (BIM) - using Speckle to solve the challenge of data interoperability in the AEC industry. It is designed to provide quick and efficient feedback during the design process to enable users to identify carbon hotspots and reduce the impact their design has on the built environment.

Transition Engineering: Building a Sustainable Future examines new strategies emerging in response to the mega-issues of global climate change, decline in world

ClimateNA is a free MS Windows software package that generates scale-free climate data for specific locations and for gridded climate data at any spatial resolution. It is developed and maintained by the Centre of Forest Genetic Conservation, Faculty of Forestry, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and sponsored by the BC Ministry of Forests. All data generated using ClimateNA are subject to the CC-BY license.

This tool compares typical industry building systems in an apples-to-apples manner by using the same module and system boundary for each building system. Tally was used to generate the LCA analysis.

In this backyard membrane test, three weather resistive barriers are exposed to the same situation to see how they deal with vapor diffusion. The thermometer...

Located in the third most populated city in Burkina Faso, the Lycée Schorge Secondary School sets a new standard for educational excellence in the region, while providing an inspiring showcase of local building materials applied to an iconic and innovative design.

Climate map defining the geographic area for each weather station, which is used to determine the appropriate climate zone when evaluating a house under the EnerGuide Rating System using HOT2000.

A brief guide and free tool for the calculation of the thermal mass of building

This tool shows the impact of shade and glazing geometry on indoor occupant discomfort from direct sun.

This channel hosts video material in support of the BC Energy Step Code. The BC Energy Step Code is a new opt-in provincial standard that aims to create healthier, more efficient, and more comfortable new buildings. It does so by establishing measurable energy-efficiency requirements for new construction.

Explain to team members and clients the basic considerations for designing and building to Step 3 and beyond, including for future climate readiness, market expectations, cost, diverse building types, and future code readiness. Qualitatively assess a building’s likelihood of meeting the performance requirements of the BC Energy Step Code based on its design.

This video introduces builders to the different options they have to achieve higher performance levels when it comes to the building assemblies and their interfaces.

This module focuses firstly on building envelope details that are more commonly associated with performance issues. Viewers will then learn about quality assurance and control of the air barrier, and diagnosis and repair of the air barrier with the assistance of air tightness testing.

This module discusses correct design and construction steps for heating, cooling and ventilation systems used in Energy Step Code homes.

This module sets the groundwork for the overall design and compliance process. It shares the motivation behind this evolution towards performance-based code. It is not intended to cover design principles for the BC Energy Step Code (covered in Module 2).

This module builds on basic building science principles and applies them to the evolving/emerging enclosure design and construction practices required to meet the "envelope first" approach. This video is not intended to cover all foundational concepts and terms but offers important ideas to support.