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sustainable.TO provides sensible, sensitive & sustainable solutions to create or renovate your home or workspace.
After two decades of green architectural practice, we understand the client's challenge: to see clearly through the fog of green technologies, products and philosophies. sustainable.TO provides realistic, achievable and affordable resource and energy-efficient design /build solutions.
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SUSTAINABLE.TO is extremely proud to again be the presenting sponsor for the 2012 OCAD U Sustainable Design Awards.
Special thanks to Allan Chochinov for his inspirational talk, the initiators, the organizers, the jurors, our fellow sponsors, and especially to all of the participating students ... without whom this would not be possible. Heartfelt congratulations to the winners !!
Green Space App, Sustainable Library and Public Transit Food System designs take top honours
(Toronto--April 23, 2012) Three projects have shared top prize in the 2012 Sustainable Design Awards, a student-conceived and led design competition that challenges young designers to approach their projects through the lens of ecological sustainability and social consciousness.
The competition, the brainchild of Industrial Design student Mike Lovas and now in its second year, has attracted the attention of artists and designers as well as environmental organizations across North America. This year's competition, presented by SUSTAINABLE.TO Architecture + Building, included an inspirational talk by Allan Chochinov, Editor-in-Chief of the leading online design magazine Core77. Chochinov, who teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, also participated as a juror.
The awards drew a three-way tie for the $2,000 purse, plus an honourable mention and a student-choice award from the 51 submissions. The winners are:
Three-way tie for the top prize:
- Green Space App by third-year Environmental Design student Hannah Smith;
- Concept: To empower the green movement from the ground up by harnessing the power of networking and community to help plan community gardens and improve parks.
- Public Transit Food System by third-year Graphic Design student Laura Headley and first-year Environmental Design student Ian Brako;
- Concept: To leverage existing public transportation such as GO Transit and the TTC to get locally grown food into the city.
- Sustainable Library by Benjamin Gagneux, a Spatial Design major on exchange from L'École de Design Nantes Atlantique in Nantes, France;
- Concept: The Library, built out of recycled wooden shipping pallets, created a space for students to have access to resources about sustainable and socially responsible design.
Honourable Mention:
- International Non-Consumptive Currency by fourth-year Graphic Design student Elliot Vredenburg;
- Concept: A jewellery-based carbon-credit micro-trading currency system that enables autonomy, stigmatizes unsustain able habits, and rewards non-consumptive practices within the current para digms of society, industry and politics.
Student-Choice Award:
- Obot (The Robot) by fourth-year Industrial Design student Matthew Del Degan;
- Concept: a low production run non-toxic toy with five opposable parts made out of a transparent soybean resin called EcoPoxy.
In addition to Chochinov, the jury included local furniture designer Jason Dressler of Brothers Dressler, Graeme Stewart of ERA Architects, Partner and Co-Founder of Public Displays of Affection Katherine Ngui, and Susan Spencer Lewin, Principal and Director of Sustainable Strategies at CS&P Architects.
Organizers of the Sustainable Design Awards extend their thanks to their generous sponsors: SUSTAINABLE.TO Architecture + Building; OCAD University and its Faculty of Design; the Ontario Association of Architects; Vans; CS&P Architects; Engineered Assemblies; 608 Designs; Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario; the Ontario Crafts Council; the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario; the OCAD Student Union; ERA Architects Inc.; Public Displays of Affection; archiTEXT; the Interior Design Show; the David Suzuki Foundation; the Design Exchange and Angell Gallery.
OCAD University (OCAD U): 135 Years of Imagination
OCAD University (www.ocadu.ca) is Canada's "university of imagination." The university, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD University is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD University community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
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For more information on the projects or images, please contact:
Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer, OCAD University
416.977.6000 Ext. 327 (mobile Ext. 1327)
Join us Friday, April 20th for The Sustainable Design Awards (www.sustainabledesignaward.ca), an initiative conceived of and led by OCAD University students, preceded by the inaugural SDA keynote lecture on April 19th. New York-based industrial designer Allan Chochinov, Editor in Chief of core77.com, a multi-disciplinary talent and thought leader in the global design community, will speak on "Negotiating the Improbable: Recipes for Creating Promise in Design." The jury's decisions will be announced and awards will be presented at a reception April 20th at Angell Gallery.
- Sustainable Design Awards Program:
- Inaugural Guest Lecture
- What: Sustainable Design Awards Guest Lecture with Allan Chochinov
- When: April 19th, 2012
- Where: The Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street, Toronto
- Awards Presentation + Reception
- What: Sustainable Design Awards Presentation + Reception
- When: April 20th, 2012, 6 pm
- Where: Angell Gallery, 12 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
- The jury
- Allan Chochinov, Chair and Co-Founder, Products of Design program at the School of Visual Arts, New York
- Graeme Stewart of ERA Architects
- Jason Dressler of Brothers Dressler
- Katherine Ngui, Co-founder of Public Displays of Affection
- Susan Spencer Lewin, Principal and Director of Sustainable Strategies at CS&P Architects, Chair of the OAA Sustainable Built Environment Committee
- About the Sustainable Design Awards
- The Sustainable Design Awards, a new, annual, student-led initiative, aims to inspire young designers to approach projects through the lens of ecological sustainability and social consciousness. OCAD U students are invited to develop ideas that will create meaningful change through their designs.
For further information, please contact: Anne O'Hagan at aoh@rogers.com or +1(416) 566.6516
Winners of the 2012 Awards to be announced April 20
Toronto, ON - April 11, 2012 - The Sustainable Design Awards (www.sustainabledesignaward.ca) is stepping up its game in its second year with a high profile jury and an inaugural guest lecture to set the tone. New York-based industrial designer Allan Chochinov, Editor in Chief of core77.com, a multi-disciplinary talent and thought leader in the global design community, will deliver the inaugural keynote lecture on April 19th at the Design Exchange. Chochinov will give a talk entitled "Negotiating the Improbable: Recipes for Creating Promise in Design". The jury's decisions will be announced and awards will be presented at a reception April 20th at Angell Gallery.
An initiative conceived of and led by OCAD University students, the Sustainable Design Awards debuted last year to great reviews and results. With the support of presenting sponsor SUSTAINABLE.TO Architecture + Building (www.sustainable.to), the awards were launched to inspire young designers to approach their projects through the lens of ecological sustainability and social consciousness. OCAD U students are invited to develop ideas that will create meaningful change through their designs.
Chochinov, who leads the jury, is the Chair and Co-Founder of the Products of Design program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. The SDA jury, which is drawn from various design disciplines also includes Graeme Stewart of ERA Architects, Jason Dressler of Brothers Dressler, Katherine Ngui, Co-founder of Public Displays of Affection, and Susan Spencer Lewin, Principal and Director of Sustainable Strategies at CS&P Architects and Chair of the OAA Sustainable Built Environment Committee.
- Sustainable Design Awards Program:
- Inaugural Guest Lecture
- What: Sustainable Design Awards Guest Lecture with Allan Chochinov
- When: April 19th, 2012
- Where: The Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street, Toronto
- RSVP: www.sda2012lecture.Eventbrite.ca
- Awards Presentation + Reception
- What: Sustainable Design Awards Presentation + Reception
- When: April 20th, 2012, 6 pm
- Where: Angell Gallery, 12 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
- RSVP: www.sda2012.Eventbrite.ca
- About the Sustainable Design Awards
- The Sustainable Design Awards, a new, annual, student-led initiative, aims to inspire young designers to approach projects through the lens of ecological sustainability and social consciousness. OCAD U students are invited to develop ideas that will create meaningful change through their designs.
The Sustainable Design Awards are made possible through the support of presenting sponsor SUSTAINABLE.TO Architecture + Building as well as OCAD University, OAA (Ontario Association of Architects), Vans Inc., Engineered Assemblies, ERA Architects Inc., CS&P Architects Inc., 608 Designs, OCC (Ontario Crafts Council), ACIDO (Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario), OCADU Student Union, PDA (Public Displays of Affection), IDS (Interior Design Show), Angell Gallery, Design Exchange, archiTEXT, David Suzuki Foundation, (RGD Ontario) Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario.
- About Allan Chochinov
- Allan Chochinov is a partner of Core77, a New York-based design network serving a global community of designers and design enthusiasts. He is the editor-in-chief of Core77.com, the widely read design website, Coroflot.com design job and portfolio site and DesignDirectory.com design firm database. Allan is also the Chair and co-founder of the SVA MFA in Products of Design Program. He writes widely on design education and the impact of design on contemporary culture. He has been a guest critic at various design schools in including Yale, NYU, University of Minnesota, RIT, and RMIT, and is a frequent design competition juror. Allan lectures around the world and at professional conferences including IDSA, AIGA and IxDA.
- www.sustainabledesignaward.ca
For further information, please contact: Anne O'Hagan at aoh@rogers.com or +1 (416) 566.6516
sustainable.TO is extremely proud to again be the Presenting Sponsor for the two thousand & twelve SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AWARDS
Prizes are awarded to the OCADU students who best display excellence in an ecologically-sustainable & socially-conscious design project during the 2011-12 academic year.
Juried by an International Expert Panel + Peer Voting for a Student-Choice Award Reception - April 20th, 2012
For immediate release
Canadian firm sustainable.TO Architecture + Building takes top prize in international Passive House design competition
(Toronto, Ontario) Canadian firm sustainable.TO Architecture + Building has taken the top prize in an international competition to design a Passive House for New Orleans, Paul Dowsett, sustainable.TO principal, announced today. Acclaimed as "an incredibly thoughtful and viable response to this challenge," sustainable.TO's "Low Cost, Low Energy House" was selected from 65 entries from around the world. The competition was launched by the ArchDaily website and DesignByMany, a challenge-based design technology community.
"Winning this award is hugely exciting," said Dowsett, "confirming that it is possible to design an affordable and sustainable house that is also attractive -- no matter the climate -- and validates our approach to design and construction."
The competition challenged both students and professionals to design a passive house for hot and humid New Orleans focusing on key components of The Passive House Standard and the 2030 Challenge, which has influenced the Better Buildings Initiative issued by US President Obama. Submissions came from Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the UK and the US. According to the Canadian Passive House Institute, the Passive House Standard is "the world's most ambitious and scientifically verified route to truly sustainable buildings, achieving 80 - 90% energy savings over conventional construction." Originating in Germany and Sweden, today there are over 25,000 single and multi-family passive houses worldwide.
About the winning design
"Low Cost, Low Energy House" features an airtight, thermal-bridge free and super-insulated envelope combined with passive shading in the summer and solar heat gains in winter; concrete floor topping for thermal mass to radiate the heat into the space as required; highly reflective galvalume wall and roof cladding; a balanced energy recovery ventilation system and split-zoned high-efficiency heating and cooling units with an ultra high-efficiency on-demand water heater and supplemental radiant floor heating. The use of low-cost, durable and long-lasting materials, and proven construction techniques assures value to returning homeowners.
In accordance with post-Katrina building codes, guidelines and best practices, the house is raised 7 feet above grade, securing its safety during flooding and providing shaded parking, storage, and outdoor living spaces.
"Low Cost, Low Energy House" is not the first design by Dowsett using the principles of The Passive House Standard. Previously, as a principal at Scott Morris Architects Inc., he was also responsible for two off-grid, passive solar houses in Ontario (the Hunter House and Frog's Hollow).
About the judges
"Low Cost, Low Energy House" was chosen by a select group of judges, including: David Basulto, co-founder of ArchDaily; Katrin Klingenberg, co-founder the Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS); Alejandra Lillo, co-founder of Undisclosable Design; Corey Saft, assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; and Trey Trahan, FAIA, President and Principal-in-Charge of Trahan Architects.
About sustainable.TO Architecture + Building
Founded in 2009 by entrepreneur David Daniels and architect Paul Dowsett, sustainable.TO Architecture + Building draws on Dowsett's two decades of "green" design. The company sees clearly through the dense fog of technologies, products and philosophies to provide realistic, achievable and affordable resource and energy-efficient design /build solutions for home and workplace.
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Note: Digital images are available.
For further information, please contact:
Anne O'Hagan
+1 416.566.6516
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