The Next Green
Innovation in Sustainable Design
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Danish Architecture Policy
Denmark – With the sheer number of buildings under construction in our cities, it’s easy to dismiss architecture as something that’s predictable and inevitable at the hands of developers. But what if developers and policy makers favoured other objectives, like people and sustainability, through government initiatives? Denmark’s government has done just this through the development…
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St. Kjeld’s Neighbourhood
Denmark – ‘Climate change is a huge opportunity to build greener cities. We should stop pushing nature away and stop pretending that we can push the weather away.’ —Flemming Rafn Thomsen, Architect, Tredje Natur A neighbourhood in the port city of Copenhagen, St. Kjeld’s, was partially revitalized in 2014 as the world’s first climate-change-adapted neighborhood, in…
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3XN/GXN
Denmark – While most architects are known for designing buildings, some of the world’s most innovative architecture firms have research divisions that study how we can live better lives within our built environment. Take 3XN, one of Denmark’s leading architecture practices, as an example: a decade ago the firm launched GXN to investigate new green…
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Energy Flex House
Denmark – If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live in a house without any energy bills, you may want to consider becoming a test subject for the Energy Flex House—Denmark’s first energy neutral residence. Developed by Henning Larsen Architects in conjunction with the Danish Technological Institute and Buro Happold Engineers, the Energy Flex…
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Dubbeldam Awarded 2016 Prix de Rome in Architecture
We are very honoured to have been awarded the 2016 Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture from the Canada Council for the Arts! This award will support our research project entitled ‘The Next Green – Innovation in Sustainable Housing’, which entails travel to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany to study sustainable housing precedents and research…
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Woodcube | Germany
Germany—Aptly named for its recognizable form, Hamburg’s Woodcube offers a strategy for constructing multi-storey housing with a renewable natural resource material commonly found in northern climates—wood! Since wood is especially abundant in Canada, we’re eager to see the unique construction methods developed by Architekturagentur, the firm behind this innovative project, in the context of a…
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The Mountain | Denmark
Denmark – A residential development called “The Mountain,” known for its distinct form amidst the suburban district of Ørestad, is one of the highlights on our upcoming trip to Copenhagen. Instead of creating two separate buildings for parking and living, architects BIG chose to combine these two programs in a form that allows all 80…
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ZEB Pilot House | Norway
Norway – We will be visiting the ZEB Pilot house in Ringdalskogen, Larvik, Norway designed by Snøhetta and completed in 2014. Built as a pilot project with The Research Center on Zero Emission Buildings, it is a demonstration project created to facilitate learning on building methodology for ‘energy-plus’ houses with integrated sustainable solutions. An energy-plus house…