February 6th, 2018

Canada Green Building Council Net Zero Trade Mission

Posted in: All News

Our CEO, Joanne McCallum, was fortunate to attend the Canada Green Building Council’s Net Zero Trade Mission in Amsterdam and Vienna, providing an opportunity to share knowledge and learn from a dynamic community of green building professionals in the Netherlands and Austria.

Highlights from Amsterdam included:

  • A tour of Architect Paul de Ruiter’s office space. A showcase of sustainable design in an old warehouse, thoughtfully reinvented as a light filled environment, unabashedly acknowledging the heart of the mechanical geo-thermal exchange system as part of the entrance experience.
  • The Fluor offices, a dynamic, highly sustainable building designed around the concepts of health and well-being, connectivity, featuring natural light and high performance sustainable materials.
  • The 30,000 SM Hogeschool, connected by a large public stair and designed around a large passively ventilated atrium. The functional programming of the space embraced the changing pedagogy of collaborative learning in all spaces. A networking reception concluded the day at the PRIVA offices.
  • Team V architectural offices, where a lively discussion occurred on the 20 storey Timber Frame Haut Building. Team V are working on exciting projects across all building typologies, embodying deep sustainable design concepts.
  • A visit to one of the earliest sustainable designed housing developments, a car free cluster of apartment buildings 3-4 storeys in height, brick veneer and wood the typical exterior finish material.
  • The Edge, a building conceived of and developed by the OVG Real Estate. The major tenant is Deloitte. This stunning building is characterized by a form that takes maximum advantage of solar orientation. The floorplate is designed around three of the four perimeters with relatively narrow floorplates. Natural light penetrates into all working spaces. This building has attracted worldwide recognition and is informing the OVG Real Estate Group trends to be embedded in their next project – The Boutique.

These trends include:

1) Big Data

2) Bring your own Device

3) Sensors – with the ultimate goal to be focused on the User Experience

Highlights in Vienna included:

  • The Erste Complex, a large commercial venue that houses 5,000 employees, constructed with a beautiful double glazed wall design allowing the materiality of the interior glazing units to be clearly visible from the outside. The layout of the tenant spaces boldly captures concepts of connectivity and interaction and includes a performance space that can be rented out for a broad variety of events.
  • The TU (Technical University) building represents the extents to which an existing building can be renovated to achieve exceptional performance. This relies of complete synergism between the envelope, building systems and functionality
  • The DC Tower, certified as LEED Platinum, displays similar characteristics of building system synergy.
  • Joanne attended the 15th annual BauZ! Congress to listen to presentations from participants, many Austrian but also from Turkey and China. This was followed by a reception hosted at the Rathaus, the Vienna City Hall, arranged by the Canadian Government with the intent of connecting people and businesses from Austria and Canada together for networking opportunities. Honoury guests included Maria Vassilakou, the Deputy Mayor of Vienna and Heidi Hulan, Ambassador of Canada in Austria both of who spent considerable time graciously mingling with all of the guests at the reception.

Further details on the CaGBC can be found here