How To Make North American Homes Climate Friendly
Everyone is well aware that low density, sprawling, and energy inefficient is bad for the planet. Years of mindless development have left us with homes which are not well built…
shelter
Want Better Communities? Get rid of Homeowners
\ The North American dream often hinges on owning the shelter you reside in, but with raising home prices this is a challenge for many. It may work out in…
The Suburbs Are Bad, Here’s How to Make Them Good
We need to change the way we build and live if we’re going to avert catastrophic climate change, and it’s time we think about the biggest carbon offender: the suburbs.…
Manage the Summer Heat in Your Home Without AC
Global warming is making our cities hotter than ever before, which has led many to turn on the air conditioning. The irony is that to keep us cool we turn…
Architects Need to Build Their Knowledge to Build a Sustainable Future
Current popular building practices lack a nuanced approach to sustainability due to years of it being culturally ok to put future generations into ecological debt. Thankfully, things are starting to…
Let’s Live in Mushrooms – It’ll be Fungi
Our current selection of building materials tend to be carbon intensive and can have long lasting unhealthy impacts on humans. This issue (and others) have led some to look into…
Condos Looking to the Ground for Energy
When you think about geothermal power you may think of giant installations benefiting from the heat the earth produces; however much smaller geothermal setups exist. These smaller systems are often…
To Build a Green Future We Need Green Buildings
Buildings suck up a lot of energy and thus are massive contributors to our collective carbon footprint. After they are built ongoing operational costs are incurred, and the costs are…
Fleeing the City During This Pandemic? Do so Sustainably
Inequality has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we ought to be conscious about this. Wealthy individuals can work from home and afford to move, while others need to…
Truly Smart Cities are Actually “Dumb”
Earlier this year Sidewalk Labs (Google) opted out of building a “smart” neighbourhood in Toronto due to local pressure (protests work!). What the “smart” neighbourhood wanted to do was monitor…
Push: A Documentary on the Housing Crisis
Push from WG Film on Vimeo. When housing prices collapsed in the USA a decade ago corporations saw an opportunity to buy a basic human need and profit off of…
We can Still Learn from Traditional Approaches to the Built Environment
In a new book about how humans build and shape the environment around us, Julia Watson, argues that traditional indigenous techniques are the most efficient. Forget techno-carbon capture, smart cities,…
The Complex Mental Model of the Suburbs
It’s well established that the suburbs are bad for people’s health, the environment, mobility, and are associated with many other societal ills. However, amongst people who don’t live in the…
How Architects are Responding to the Climate Crisis
Architecture is all around us and most of us don’t even think about it. The built environment shapes how we think and provides (or denies) us with options on how…
Dirt Houses are Good for the Planet
Inefficiently constructed housing is a problem for the planet and people. Poor insulation, intensive manufacturing process, and costs all have long term impacts on energy usage and people’s budgets. There…
Let’s Empty Half the Earth of People
The housing pattern pictured above is not sustainable, nor is how we as a species consume the planet’s resources. A way to think about our sustainability is to think of…
Download This Home
The standard North American home (pictured above) is horrible inefficient and quite bad for the environment. As the climate crisis conies to worsen we need to change the way we…
Solve the Global Housing Crisis by Recognizing Buyers
The cost of housing has skyrocketed since the banker-caused 2008 financial crisis and there are no signs of prices stabilizing. In Toronto we’ve seen the price of housing rise faster…
Christiana Figueres: The Climate Risk Reward Ratio has Changed
The architect of the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres, is optimistic about the future of the planet and she sees the technology sector key in moving our economy to a carbon…
The UN Cares About Your Local Housing Crisis
Without a doubt a global housing crisis is hurting all of us. In the majority world basic housing needs aren’t being met while in the richer minority world owning a…