In 1999, The Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) set out to create a revolutionary fire and emergency services training facility that uses the newest and most innovative environmentally-conscious building standards. The result is this $13.5 million state-of-the-art training facility designed by Kleinfeldt Mychajlowycz Architects, which was awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) Silver Rating. The structure not only provides a healthy place to live and work, it reduces waste sent to landfills, conserves energy and water, and reduces harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

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Post tags: "leed", Daylighting, FESTI, green roof, GTAA, toronto, toronto airport authority

The UN predicts that we will need 60% more food over the next 30 years in order to meet the demands of the world’s ever-growing population, and one designer has found an interesting place to look for other alternatives for growing food as agriculturally viable land becomes more and more scarce. That is, up! Skyfarm is a vertical farm designed by Gordon Graff, a student in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Waterloo. The vertically set farm for Toronto is intent on meeting the needs of a tightly packed planet in the face of a limited food supply, while removing dependence on the food transportation via energy intensive and emission heavy methods.

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Post tags: Add new tag, canada, gordon graff, self-sustaining, skyfarm, skyscraper farms, toronto, urban agriculture, urban farms, vertical farms

Several weeks ago in Toronto, real estate development company Landmark Building Group announced a new design for the Westside Lofts. You may already be thinking, “Not another mid-rise, mid-town loft development” – but this project has us intrigued for social as well as environmental reasons. Active 18, an impressively responsive and realistic community association, has taken an interactive roll in this project’s design (during the second go-around, anyway) and that of other developments nearby. Because of this community response, the developers have committed to making the project a more pedestrian friendly, economically varied, and environmentally sustainable place. Or so the story goes.

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", green architecture, Green Building, Sustainable Building, toronto, Westside Lofts