MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Oct 16, 2012) - Mortgage Architects is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Sylvain Poirier as Lead Planner in Montreal, Quebec.Sylvain cited the reputation and visionary mind set of the management team at Mortgage Architects as key reasons for joining.

For over 2 decades Sylvain has been working in the financial field, operating one of the largest independent brokerages in Quebec."CUSTOMERS FIRST" is the key rule of conduct that guided Sylvain from the very beginning of his career. Today, it is the satisfaction of thousands of customers, supported by him throughout their personal and professional projects that reflect his noble motto.

Deeply involved in the emergence and development of new skills in his professional field, Sylvain Poirier has worked as an editor and has taught Mortgage Brokering at theCollege de l''immobilier du Qubec. He has served as Vice President for a major Canadian alternative lender and has also acted as a consultant forCAAMPandOACIQ.

We are honoured and thrilled to welcome Sylvain and Pentagone Services Hypothcairesour Mortgage Architects Professional Broker Network said Luisa Simonetti, VP- Quebec Region.A seasoned broker, he is well respected with the lender & the mortgage broker industry.He will be a great addition to our Quebec Brokers team.

Mortgage Architects is a national mortgage brokerage with a national network of brokers across Canada and offices in Toronto, Mississauga, Vancouver, Calgary, Laval and Halifax.

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Sylvain Poirier of Pentagone Services Hypothecaires Joins the Mortgage Architects Broker Network

Sustainable design is practically status quo now, but many clients are still unfamiliar with the lexicon surrounding building performance. Enter the architect. With this increased emphasis on energy efficiency, the onus of communicating and even assessing a buildings performance is starting to fall on the architect.

In the past, architects may have deferred to the engineer or dedicated energy modeler for the information, says Jim Hanford, AIA, the energy-efficiency leader in Miller Hull Partnerships Seattle office. But integrated design and increased client awareness are blurring the distinction in roles. As architects, were being asked to give more information about the performance we expect out of our projects, Hanford says. Energy modeling is how we can do it.

Assessing the performance and operations of a building is new territory for most architects. To help introduce architects to the relatively technicaland potentially intimidatingtopic, the AIA recently released An Architects Guide to Integrating Energy Modeling in the Design Process, a document that covers the building energy fundamentals and provides step-by-step instructions to predictingand hopefully reducingthe energy consumption of buildings.

Available as an online download for free, the 86-page guide was written, compiled, and reviewed by a committee of architects, sustainability experts, and building-science officials, as well as staff members at the AIA. The guide covers a range of topics on energy modeling, says Sean Quinn, Associate AIA, a sustainable design specialist based in the Washington, D.C., office of HOK. It gives a nice breakdown of the reasons why we care [about building energy performance] and definitions of key metrics such as energy use intensity and benchmarks, which are some of the things that confuse people the most, Quinn says.

The guide not only serves as a primer for energy modeling newcomers, but is also informative for people with experience in the process. For tech-y guys like myself, Quinn says, the review of energy modeling software toward the end of the guide is great because we have many designers who want to learn more about this stuff. The guide, he says, provides advice such as if you're trying to accomplish x, then look at this tool.

Other topics covered include a background on the role of energy modeling in the design process, baseline best practices, and suggestions on how architects can take a leading role in the energy discussion, from a projects conceptual design to post-occupancy. The guide also explains how architects can offer energy modeling as both a value-added service as well as an ongoing service.

The guide wont turn its readers into energy modeling experts. But it should empower architects to become integrally evolved in the [energy modeling] process, Hanford says. Too often we let the engineering side run with it, and in some cases they dont fully understand the intent of the design, or its hard for them to model. We need to be involved to ensure they're representing the architecture and design intent as best as it can be done.

Beyond the technical, financial, and business aspects, learning about building energy performance and modeling will also benefit design, Hanford says. In the past, energy modeling has been used by most firmsand ours as wellas a means to confirm the decisions that we've made and to quantify how much better we're performing than a typical building. As were working on more low-energy buildings and higher performing buildings, this offers an opportunity to drive design decisions.

As with any technology, the tools used for energy modeling are evolving every day. The AIA anticipates developing the second phase of its energy modeling guide next year, pending budget approval from its board this December.

Quinn, for one, looks forward to increased compatibility among building design and energy modeling software programs, which he says would streamline the workflow significantly. Hanford, the energy-efficiency veteran from Seattle, is optimistic about several upcoming programs that he is currently beta testing. Software programs that offer qualitative, simple, but still informative output, he says, could help encourage more designers to participate in energy modeling.

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AIA Releases Energy Modeling Guide for Architects

The Olympic Stadium failed to gain its final gold medal of a momentous year, after it was pipped to the UK's most coveted architecture prize.

The Olympic Stadium was shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize

The 80,000-capacity stadium, by Populous, was one of six new buildings to be shortlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects' (Riba) Stirling Prize.

But the 20,000 prize went to 82 million Sainsbury Laboratory, a new plant science research centre in Cambridge designed by first-time winners Stanton Williams, at the ceremony in Manchester.

The judges described the laboratory as a timeless piece of architecture, a university building "taken to an extraordinary degree of sophistication and beauty".

Riba president Angela Brady said: "The Sainsbury Laboratory is an exceptional building that achieves at many levels - in blending a world-class science facility with a public social space in a highly energy efficient building. It is testament to the skill, experience and imagination of Stanton Williams architects that they have found a creative solution to this complex project."

The Stirling Prize is in its 17th year and celebrates the best of new British architecture.

The judging panel was led by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, the architect and former president of the Royal Academy; Sir Mark Jones - master of St Cross College Oxford and former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum; architects Joanna van Heyningen and Hilde Daem; and the designer, writer and broadcaster Naomi Cleaver.

In their judgment, they said: "The Sainsbury Laboratory is a timeless piece of architecture, sitting within a highly sensitive site, one overlooking the woods where Darwin walked with his tutor and mentor (John Stevens) Henslow, discussing the origin of species. The project is both highly particular and specialised, and at the same time a universal building type, taken to an extraordinary degree of sophistication and beauty."

Funded by Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Foundation charity, the centre that bears his name is part of the University of Cambridge. It was praised for its energy efficiency and green approach. Rainwater is collected from the roof and stored in two huge tanks which irrigate the garden's glasshouse and plant chambers. Lord Sainsbury said that he was "very proud" to be associated with the inspiring building.

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Laboratory wins architecture prize

A new plant science institute built to advance the research of plant growth and development, it features cutting-edge laboratories, meeting rooms and public spaces set within Cambridges botanical gardens.

Alan Stanton and Paul Williams, the directors of the London-based practice, were presented with the 20,000 prize at an award ceremony in Manchester on Saturday. It was the first time that Stanton Williams had been shortlisted for the prize.

Angela Brady, the RIBA president, said: The Sainsbury Laboratory is an exceptional building that achieves at many levels - in blending a world-class science facility with a public social space in a highly energy efficient building.

It is testament to the skill, experience and imagination of Stanton Williams architects that they have found a creative solution to this complex project. The low-rise building with its grand, colonnaded faade cleverly integrates itself with the surrounding botanical gardens and it is no surprise that the new public caf has proved to be extremely popular.

The building features energy efficient design, with rainwater collected from the roof and stored in two tanks which irrigate the gardens glasshouse and plant chambers.

Lord Sainsbury said: I am delighted that Stanton Williams has won the RIBA Stirling Prize for the Sainsbury Laboratory, in competition with some outstanding buildings. I am also very proud to be associated with their inspiring building which sets a new standard for laboratory design and blends in beautifully with the historic Botanic Gardens.

The RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the architects of the best European building that is built or designed in Britain.

Others shortlisted for this years Stirling Prize included David Chipperfield Architects for the Hepworth Wakefield gallery in West Yorkshire, ODonnell + Tuomey for the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, OMA for Maggies Centre in Gartnavel, Glasgow, OMA with Allies and Morrison for the New Court building in the City, and the London Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London, designed by Populous.

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Sainsbury Laboratory wins 2012 Stirling Prize for architecture

R. Wayne Estopinal, AIA, ACHA, LEEDAP, President, TEG Architects, The Estopinal Group, a solution provider at the marcus evans National Healthcare CXO Summit Fall 2012, on planning and designing healthcare facilities to be more efficient and productive.

New York, NY, Oct 12, 2012 - (ACN Newswire) - For many years now, healthcare organizations have tried to find efficiencies in their supply chain and staff, but most have not considered the facility as part of the solution, according to R. Wayne Estopinal, AIA, ACHA, LEEDAP, President, TEG Architects, The Estopinal Group. The good news is that it is not necessary to build a new facility to achieve the efficiency and productivity gains that TEG Architects considers possible.

A solution provider at the marcus evans National Healthcare CXO Summit Fall 2012, in Dallas, Texas, October 21-23, Estopinal discusses how better designed healthcare facilities can be the answer the industry has been looking for.

- How can healthcare facilities become more profitable?

Maintaining profitability, in spite of declining margins, is the biggest issue in the industry today. In our opinion, the only way that healthcare facilities can achieve the patient outcome, staff productivity, efficiency, to satisfy reimbursement metrics, is by utilizing innovative planning and design strategies, and letting facilities become part of the solution. This is a new weapon for successful and dynamic healthcare providers, titled Efficient Design+Productive Care, at TEG planning and design strategy.

- What innovative strategies could you share?

We have conducted many years of evidence-based design, research looking at how facilities can add efficiency, and planning and design with innovative clinical solutions coupled with facility metrics to reduce your staffing costs for decades to come. Understanding how a hospital's clinical utilization fluctuates throughout the day and year, we identify opportunities for more efficient departmental designs and adjacencies of departments which are supportive and in many cases diametrically different in functions. Designing departments for their peak capacity is unnecessary, if the same space can be used for different purposes at different parts of the day.

Healthcare construction in the US costs USD 300-600 per square foot. That is capital that does not need to be poured into bricks and mortar or inefficient designs that cause you to spend more on staffing that would be required utilizing TEG's Efficient Design+Productive Care Strategies.

Another way is looking at how departments function and flow, and identifying how staff can be cross-utilized, how adjacencies can improve patient care and outcomes and how clinical capacities can be increased while staffing remains the same or is reduced. Our time and motion studies of multiple hospitals has found that staff spend only 30 per cent of their time on patient care, the rest going on moving between locations and getting the materials they need to provide care. Hospitals must improve on this, but most do not consider the facility as being integral to achieving efficiency and productivity.

- If building a new department or building is not an option, can this be achieved easily by reorganizing and renovating an existing facility?

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Making the Facility Part of the Solution in the Healthcare Industry

At our upcoming VERGE conference, well be talking a lot about cities as the laboratories of the future. Youll hear how big data, smart grid technologies, connected vehicles, next-gen buildings and many more trends are shaping the urban environment.

But how these all come together depends upon whos at the table. At the recent American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) conference in Phoenix, leading landscape architects got together to discuss their role in shaping this future.

As award-winning landscape architect Thomas Balsley observed, We have to look at the design of cities more holistically. As more and more people move into cities, our quality of life will be defined by our public spaces.

Proof of that migration comes in recent U.S. Census data, as many of the nation's largest cities recorded spikes in population growth last year as Americans flocked to urban centers. New York City added nearly 70,000 residents and by 2030 it will add the equivalent of the population of San Francisco. Strategies for transitioning to denser city cores that are livable, and maybe even enjoyable, was a major topic of discussion at the ASLA meeting.

Photo of city park provided by GeorgeM Photography via Shutterstock

Next page: Reclaiming in-between spaces

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Urban interventions: Landscape architects take back the streets

Athfield Architects has taken out the 2012 Supreme Concrete3 Sustainability Award for its extensive refurbishment of the new Christchurch Civic Building on Hereford Street.

The award, presented at the annual New Zealand Concrete Conference in Hamilton on Friday evening, recognised the transformation of what was the New Zealand Post Building into an architectural statement that adds tremendous value to Christchurch, says Cement and Concrete Association of New Zealand (CCANZ) chief executive Rob Gaimster.

The judging panel applauded Athfield Architects for the way in which significant changes were made to the existing concrete building, creating spectacular work and interactive spaces without losing the original architectural and industrial heritage.

"This is a truly outstanding example of adaptive reuse, one which demonstrates the flexibility of concrete as a sustainable construction material. It continues the emerging trend in New Zealand of optimising resources and enhancing the built environment through the innovative refurbishment of our existing concrete building stock," judges say.

The design reconfigured the buildings existing service and transportation cores, and added mezzanines to the main office levels. The existing precast concrete cladding panels from the southern facade were removed, reworked and reused on the northern side to create a completely new extension with double skin facade, and circulation stair and winter gardens behind.

Despite the significant changes, the design retains and celebrates the buildings original Brutalist style.

"The new construction materials read deliberately as distinct insertions, to set up a contrast between old and new, providing visual interest and complexity."

The Christchurch Civic Building is the first to receive a 6 Green Star Office Design rating, further testament to the projects successful outcome.

On their way to the top prize, the Athfield Architects team were also presented with the Excellence in Commercial Concrete Construction.

The Awards are part of the Concrete3 initiative launched in 2007 by CCANZ and acknowledge projects, products and initiatives which demonstrate excellence in environmental, economic and/or social sustainability for the built environment.

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Chch Civic Building wins award

The Garden by the Bay in Singapore has been anointed World Building of the Year 2012. Photo: Supplied

Architects from around the world gathered in Singapore last week for the World Architecture Festival and the anointing of the World Building of the Year for 2012. After winning their categories, many Australian buildings were in the running for the impossibly grand title. Among them, Melbourne architect John Wardle for his Shearer's Quarters in Tasmania (right) which took home ''World's Best Villa''. Sydney Architects FJMT won the Offices category for Darling Quarter. The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne seems to win everything Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart enter it in and duly nabbed the Health category. Hassell was recognised for several projects, including three Futures projects: Perry Park in Sydney and two projects in China. The Garden by the Bay in Singapore (bottom) designed by UK architects Wilkinson Eyre and landscape architects Grant Associates received the top accolade. The jury loved its dramatic greenhouses - the Cooled Conservatories: ''If they can cool these glasshouses through natural cooling, we should ask why it can't be done in other buildings?''

worldarchitecturefestival.com

Melbourne architect John Wardle's award-winning shearers' quarters. Photo: Supplied

FROM HER TO ETERNITY

It's generally accepted that precious jewellery will be passed on within families, yet to recycle someone else's heirlooms into contemporary jewellery might seem unacceptable and slightly ghoulish. But then Julia deVille treads fearlessly among the dead. She is renowned for her taxidermied sculptures, but her jewellery also serves as memento mori - reminders of mortality. For Bequeath, deVille's first jewellery show in five years, the past lives on in ''eternity rings'' made of jewellery and gemstones that deVille has collected over the years from owners long since deceased. ''I'm constantly in awe of jewellery's capacity to carry meaning beyond our own lives,'' she says. ''For example, my mother is going to be turned into a diamond when she dies and I will make her into a ring for myself. Thus her life, in some form, continues ''

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Space: Award it and they will come

MANILA, Philippines - City dwellers will make up 70 percent of the world population by 2050, and cities must enact drastic changes now in order to accommodate the city dwellers of the 21st century; and offer them living conditions that are conducive to personal development and well-being.

Architects can play a crucial role in the city evolution by their capacity to meet the challenges of urban sustainability, and develop the tools needed to create resilient, sustainable and livable cities.

Renowned architect Philip H. Recto, the keynote speaker during the Philippine observance of World Day of Architecture celebration conducted by the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) recently, urged architects to be city changers by playing an active role in the city evolution, especially in areas such as: mitigating climate change, reducing carbon emissions, and improving management of resources and energy; structuring cities to be more socially-inclusive, accessible and equitable; developing cities that can resist crises and cataclysms; developing economic, educational and creative opportunities for all; and ensuring the security and sanitation conditions essential to all inhabitants.

Architects alone, and on their own, cannot bring about the ideal change that society needs in the face of climate change. however, we are in a position to initiate and lead the desired change to mitigate the challenge and get our communities more prepared in dealing with the adversities that climate change may bring, Recto said.

The task is not really as awesome as it seems. The first step is to work towards getting everyone engaged in the change process, and inculcate the notion that the change has to begin with oneself, he continued.

At this point, he also mentioned that his own architectural office was furnished with 97 percent recycled materials in support of sustainable development.

Recto stressed that in the context of the UN Human Settlements campaign I am a City Changer, it begins with an awareness of the urban issues that confront us today; and it is this awareness that should transform our attitude -- from one of resignation that things happen by chance, to a victorious attitude that we can make a difference because things happen by choice.

The World Day of Architecture celebration was initiated by the Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA) or International Union of Architects which is an international federation of national associations of architects with headquarters in Paris. Since its founding in 1948, it has grown to encompass the key professional organizations of architects in 124 countries and territories, and counts on some 1.3 million members worldwide today.

In 1996, the UIA arrived at a decision to celebrate the World Day of Architecture on the first Monday of October of each year. This is the same day that the United Nations observes World Habitat Day in order to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. - (Philstar News Service, http://www.philstar.com)

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Architects urged to be city changers

USA Architects of Somerville is being honored on Thursday, Oct. 11, during the U.S. Green Building Council New Jersey chapter's 10th anniversary Gala & Awards Dinner at the new Revel Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City for their participation in the design and construction of the Center for Lifelong Learning, a school for autistic and mutliply disabled students in Sayreville.

The center is the first public school in the state and first special needs school in the country to gain LEED Platinum certification. USA Architects designed the building collaboratively with the Middlesex County Regional Educational Services Commission.

" They are strong advocates of sustainability," said Principal Peter Campisano of the commission. "Designing to the highest environmental standards was vitally important to the health and well being of its severely autistic and multiply disapled and preschool disabled student population. Many environmental factors impact the learning experiences for this highly sensory-sensitive student body. Anything less than LEED Platinum was not an option."

The facility was designed and constructed using all natural building materials and green power. Its ongoing energy conservation systems serve as effective teaching tools as part of the school's "green" curriculim to educate students and the community on the value of a self-sustaining facility.

The Gala & Awards dinner is considered the "event of the year" for green building and sustainability professionals in the tri-state area. The keynote speaker will be business leader and environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and two-time Olympic gold medalist Cari Lloyd will be a special guest.

For more information or to register, visit usgbcnj.org/events.

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USA Architects of Somerville to be honored for 'green' efforts