THE NEW LANSDOWNE : PROBLEM SOLVING - PART 2

Let's take a look at the Aberdeen Square, which is located right beside the Aberdeen Pavilion. The design brief describes it as "a formal, paved plaza graced by the full north facade of the Aberdeen Pavilion. Its larger, contiguous space accommodates opportunities throughout the year, including the Farmers’ Market". 

What do you think of this location for the Farmers Market? I don't like it at all. There's nothing innovative or original about it at all. In fact, next to a newly built area, this will look cheap.  It's just a bunch of tents on a parking lot.

There's also an issue with the placement of the fountain. Unfortunately vendors typically tend to throw dirty water on the street in the Byward Market. I doubt it will be different in Lansdowne. What will most likely end up happening is that the fountain will get dirty or clogged. Then it won't be functional anymore and it will end up as a pit with random garbage in it. In the summer, you'll get a sea of random tents taking over the lot and in the winter it will be empty. 

There is a better solution. Why not build a permanent open air structure like the Convington Farmers Market in Virginia. It was designed and built by students and two teachers from the Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design. Their budget was only $150,000.00 and they made it happen. The project was awarded a 2011 Design Excellence Award from the Virginia Society AIA. How awesome is this!

References : Dezeen | City of Ottawa | Flickr | Local Tourist Ottawa 

CENTRAL CONDOMINIUM : HRV

Central 1 is registered with the Canadian Green Building Council as a LEED Silver building. As such, a LEED consultant also works on this project, meeting the trades on a regular basis to check the progress of the building. One of the main LEED features is the presence of a Heat Recovery Ventilator (also known as an HRV or Air Exchanger) in each unit. The HRVs, which will be hidden in the ceiling, contribute to making the building eco-friendly, by reducing energy consumption.

Having access to fresh air is very important in a home, but in Ottawa, fresh air is rather cold most of year. Opening the windows in the winter to let fresh air in and stale air out, also means that the space inside will get cold and will have to be heated again, which wastes energy. Enter the HRV which is essentially a box that "recycles heat" so that you can get fresh air without having to reheat it too much.



Here's how it works: In the winter, we know that the fresh air outside is cold and the stale air inside is warm. By having both streams of air passing through the HRV, the heat from the stale air leaving the unit is transferred to the cold fresh air entering the unit. The two air streams don't get in direct contact with each other but there is a transfer of heat that occurs. The heat from the exiting stale air is transferred to the entering fresh air. As a result, the heating system doesn't have to work as hard to heat keep the indoor temperature at a comfortable level and the occupants pay less in energy bills.

There are a lot more eco-friendly features in this project. Stay tuned for more.

MINTO PLACE'S LIVING WALL

A couple weeks ago I discovered a really nice living wall inside the Minto Place downtown. It looks like a natural pieces of abstract art measuring 18 ft by 40 ft with over 6,000 plants. There's a little plaque at the bottom stating that this wall can support oxygen for 15-20 humans per day. Pretty neat isn't it?

Based on a previous post on Urbsite, it looks like this wall was installed a little over a year ago. It's a great feature and the air definitely feels nicer inside compared to other buildings.

According to Green Over Grey, green wall specialists, there are a lot of benefits in having a green wall in a public space like this, including better indoor air quality, reduced noise pollution, higher property value, reduced stress and increase in well being. It definitely feels good to be in this place. There are also live plants and flowers along the walls and around the eating area. Aren't they beautiful? I also like how clean the place was when I was there. A+ to the building managers and maintenance staff!

The skylight is also a great addition and allows natural light in the building which is another great plus, specially in the winter. If you're around and have a bit of time, I suggest you go check it out. Let me know what you think. We can never have too many green walls in the city! I hope others building developers and owners will do the same in the near future.

Do you know of any other places in town with great looking living walls? If so, let me know by commenting below and on MOOT's facebook page.

Turn-key modern homes in Ottawa

Ever heard of Hidden City Design? It's a group of building professionals specializing in turn key green and modern homes in the Ottawa/Gatineau region. They basically design and build modern homes from scratch that you can buy.

The first time I heard about this concept was through the Cassels Avenue project by Reigo and Bauer in Toronto. I just love the way they integrated a modern minimalist home in a traditional neighborhood, as shown below.




I'm glad we have that here too. Check out the beautiful kitchen of the Carruthers project, a semi-detached home in Mechanicsville, which includes several eco-friendly features such as tank-less hot water heaters, renewable bamboo floors, energy efficient equipments and organic paint.



Next on their list is the Keyworth Collection project,three modern single family homes individually designed for buyers looking to live in an environmentally responsible way. This project features several eco-conscious items such as radiant floor heating throughout the houses, integrated garbage and recycling units and rain collectors. Looks like this project is well underway based on the latest Google Street view.




I'll definitely keep an eye on them to see what else the come up with.

Photos: Hidden City Design | Reigo and Bauer

cardboard wall at Bridgehead

Over the holidays I came across this neat little project in the Bridgehead coffee shop downtown Ottawa : Cardboard pieces attached to a wall arranged like art. As per the shop's blog, this is a nod to the Ini Ani Coffee Shop in New York designed by LTL Architects. They used cardboard on the walls as a way to meet their tight budget, site limitation and time frame (shown below).


Cardboard is a eco-friendly and inexpensive material to use in a space to add texture and interest. Check out these other neat spaces using cardboard on the wall.

Wall Wave from Splace and designer Tung Chiang (via Mocoloco)


Istanbul Santral (via tom$ Flickr)


Papercut shop by darchstudio

Modern Green and Affordable

I was recently made aware of a neat new building development project by Centertown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, a non-profit social housing provider. Located between the museum of nature and the 417, this rental housing complex, called Beaver Barracks, is a multi-phase / multi-building project on the site of a former air force barracks, demolished in the early 90s after which the lot was left vacant.

The two-phased project includes several energy efficient and green features such as a geothermal heat pump system (said to be the largest residential geothermal unit in Canada to date), low-flow water fixtures, energy Star appliances, energy efficient lighting systems, a community garden, a green roof, composting and recycling stations.



Argyle apartments

Catherine Mixed Use Building

Catherine Mixed Use Building

Stacked Townhouse Building B

Metcalfe Mixed Use Building

There's even photo blog updating readers on the construction process. The Metcalfe building is almost ready and the foundation for the stacked townhouse has already been poured. CCOC is planing to be handing over keys to 160 units at the end of this year and is currently accepting applications.





It’s great to see such projects in the city, and it's definitely a nice add-on to the area. Based on Loom's knitnut, a former tenant of CCOC, the landlord is really good and caring too, which makes a huge difference in the sustainability of this kind of project. It will be interesting to see the completed project with the green roof.

photos: Beaver Barack | ottawa.ca | ccoc

Recycled Design at Fresco Bistro's New Guest Room

Last Thursday was also the launch of the 2nd floor of Fresco Bistro Italiano. The new Guest Room is designed by Crawford Alexander, who used recycled and reclaimed materials in their concept. There were all sort of reclaimed items in the room: old windows, suitcases on the wall, wood shingles, reclaimed wood planks, funky lamp shades, etc.



There was way too many people in the space for me to take pictures of the entire space that night, but fortunately photographer Michael Davidson was able to take some pictures of the space, shown below. Enjoy!






Photo : MOOT | Michael Davidson

I found a modern eco friendly government building in Ottawa!

Yes, it's true! It is the Rideau Valley Conservation Centre (RVCC). Named Ottawa's most environmentally-friendly building, RVCC is the headquarters of the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, a watershed-based environmental organization aiming to protect water resources from contamination and misuse.



This 2,000 m² government office building was designed by Christopher Simmonds of Christopher Simmonds Architect Inc and received the CaGBC LEED Gold Certification. Eco friendly characteristics include low VOC paints and adhesives throughout, grey and black water treatment systems reducing water consumption by 80%, passive heating, plenty of natural daylight in the offices, heat recovery units and high efficiency boilers. The energy consumption was also reduced by 42% compared to the Model National Energy Code for Buildings.






Another great aspect of this building is that it's opened to the public. It's also a visitor centre for the Beryl Gaffney Park. In fact, the public atrium, meeting and boardrooms are available for community meetings and private functions. Can you imagine hosting a cocktail party in this place? It's nice to see that not all government buildings in Ottawa are boring. This one is quite nice and modern. I'll definitely have to go visit at some point.

source : City of Ottawa | Rideau Valley Conservation Authority | Canadian Green Building Council | Christopher Simmonds Architect | SabMag | Peter Fritz Photographer

Fishing for Trees in the Ottawa River

During one of my visits to Custom Home Interiors, I learned something rather interesting from one of the products they carry: wood floors planks from Logs End. This Ottawa-based company "fishes" logs from the Ottawa river, processes and distributes them in the form of wood floors and wood paneling amongst other things. Ottawa used to be "one of the mightiest logging rivers in the world" and an estimated 14 billion logs floated down the rivers to be distributed in Ottawa, Quebec and even Europe. 2 to 5% of these logs were "lost" in the river at the time. Now these "lost" logs, preserved over the years by the cold water, the lack of natural light and lack of oxygen at the bottom of the river, they are being recovered to be sold.

This is a very eco friendly way to obtain wood from very old trees. They simply fish them out of the river. There are many available wood species based on what was found. It's really like a treasure hunt. Check out the following video for more.