Byzantine Homes

Air-fueled Cars

2012-12-19T11:30:00.000-05:00

If only there were a way to take carbon out of the atmosphere, and find a new fuel source for our vehicles.

Oh wait. There is 1 solution to both those problems. Enter: The Quimera Project.

....so where do I buy one?

LEED Infographic

2012-10-13T14:37:00.001-04:00

Since not many people fully understand LEED (as opposed to Leeds, which is a city in England - and Ontario!) here is a nice concise infographic produced by the good people at Archdaily.

Full infographic after the jump.

Update from the Cottage

2012-10-08T09:26:00.000-04:00

Well, it is officially the end of summer (he said hanging on to his last shreds of sanity). Our traditional (Canadian) thanksgiving weekend includes a trip to the cottage for some great food, great friends, and decent football. I'll leave you with the beautiful vista that we wake up to, and as always get in touch with us if you'd like to have us build your own cottage getaway.

Mirror Basket Light Fixtures

2012-10-02T14:38:00.002-04:00

Remember our palletier from last week? Well we are now announcing our second Etsy item: the Mirror Basket Light fixture. Available in Pendant style, and the Triple (chandelier) style, these LED bad boys are made to order and ready to ship in 6-8 weeks.

Drop by our Etsy store here. Mention the blog, and I'll give you a 10% rebate - Effective until Oct. 31, 2012.

The Palletier (Now on Etsy!)

2012-09-28T13:37:00.000-04:00

So in an exciting bit of entrepreneurial news, we are now making and selling custom light fixtures on Etsy!

The Palletier is our first offering: Made from a reclaimed shipping pallet, this industrial style chandelier is perfect for an atrium or large room looking to add a grunge industrial conversation piece. Suitable for high ceilings (12' or more). Can be fitted with LED, CFL, or Incandescent bulbs. Custom made to order.

Click Here to check out our Etsy Shop

55,000 Page Views Giveaway!!!!

2012-09-27T14:04:00.000-04:00

Wow, guys. You totally did it. You hit refresh 55,000 times!

Do you know that that represents 0.000003% of TOTAL INTERNET TRAFFIC during the past 3 months?
I'm banking on the butterfly effect having an internet analogue. In order to commemorate this spectacular contribution to the realm of human understanding, I'm giving 1 (one) free rendering of a new home or renovation project of your choice. That's a $500 value, people. We're in the big leagues now. Watch out 99.999997% of the remaining internet traffic!

All you have to do is email us and tell us about your project: clicky

Most interesting project wins...so captivate my imagination.

Pay no attention to the fact that I'm tracking my own page views.

The Huron Lake House

2012-09-25T14:25:00.000-04:00

An open, fresh cottage concept that boasts 75 feet of floor to ceiling retractable glass facade, the Huron Lake House offers 3,150 ft² of tranquility. The Northern Bruce Peninsula is one of Ontario's best kept secrets. Crystal clear water, coniferous forests on the Canadian Shield, low traffic, year-round serviced roads, clear night skies with little to no light pollution, and all within 4 hours of downtown Toronto.

The Huron Lake House offers tremendous southern vistas of Lake Huron. Your deck is within 70 feet of the shoreline, which boasts 300 feet of lake frontage. Sustainability features include: Retractable facade for natural ventilation, tremendous amounts of natural daylight, demand controlled ventilation, and smart home automation for reduced heating and cooling consumption.

Luxuriously finished from the low 800s, own a rare piece of Canadian Shield tranquility and move in by June 2013.

Download the .kmz to view in Google Earth

Email us today!

LIFX: The Light Bulb Reinvented

2012-09-19T10:00:00.001-04:00

Phil Bosua has a nice little Kickstarter campaign that is close to my heart. LED bulbs with color temperature controlled by wifi and your (not my) smartphone. I'm not sure I have anything left to say. Except maybe: "When can I get one?"

"It's a wifi-enabled, energy efficient, multi-colored bulb that you control with your iPhone or Android. LIFX gives you unprecedented control of your lights, reduces your energy costs, lasts up to 25 years and delivers an amazing range of experiences we think you’ll love."

So not only can you turn it on and off with your smartphone, but you can change the color of light, sync it up with the music you're playing (because everyone's living room should be a club), set automatic off instructions for when you leave your home (LOVE), and WAY more. I won't be able to do it justice here. Check out the Kickstarter page for all the goods, and maybe even pledge and get one shipped to you.

Seriously Green Part 3 - CaGBC Video Series

2012-07-23T12:19:00.000-04:00

The third installment in the series takes a look at the work that the Canada Green Building Council did to their own offices. If you ran a green building council, what would your office look like?

Seriously Green Part 2 - CaGBC Video Series

2012-07-16T12:14:00.000-04:00

The second video in the series takes a look at some of the green technologies being employed across the world. A good introduction to some basic principles of green technology.

Seriously Green Part 1 - CaGBC Video Series

2012-07-09T12:12:00.000-04:00

Here is the first installment in a series of videos the Canada Green Building Council has produced to help people grasp the technical ins and outs of green building. They are good watching if you can spare a few minutes.

The first video is a general introduction to the reasoning of why the Canada Green Building Council is doing what it is doing. Why do we even need "green" buildings?

University of British Columbia's UTown EcoDistrict

2012-06-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

Dr. Nancy Knight, Associate VP, Campus + Community Planning at UBC gave a presentation at the CaGBC National Conference and Expo on Wednesday discussing the green campus development happening at UBC. The University of British Columbia's 1,000, acre, 45,000 student campus has developed an "EcoDistrict". UTown proper houses the recreational facilities and cultural centres for the larger neighbourhood on the campus. One of the really unique things about the campus is its location in the heart of some of the most expensive land value in North America. This is a real driving force behind the desire to reflect sustainability in UBC's campus planning.

The goal was to transform from a commuter campus to a sustainable community, build affordable housing options for student and families, engage students and staff, and enhance the image of UBC on the national and international stage. Centralization of housing on the campus, insertion of campus transit, and densification are some of the primary strategies being undertaken. Affordability is driven by UBC offering land at cost, and requiring developers to go with a rental model instead of freehold development. This resists "ghettoization" by allowing mixed income families to share the same community.

The transit services (*cough* subsidized transit passes *cough*) have reduced vehicle trips by 20% overall, despite a 35% increase in daytime population. One controversial policy was to charge more for daytime parking. Despite the outcry, and as demonstrated by London's congestion charges, if you punish people enough, it will discourage eco-selfish behaviour. That's not all; $45M of funding will go into public realm improvements, largely the greenway/bikelanes. Knight was astute in pointing out how "intertwingled" all these issues really are. Hilarious word-mashups (or worshups) aside, UBC's planning department is doing a lot of good things. Nothing extremely sexy from an optics point of view, but good, sound, holistic planning initiatives with real demonstrable results.

Continuing in her clever wordplay, Knight offered that "minimum parking standards are fertility drugs for cars..." and so UBC has established Maximum parking standards to really limit the amount of actual vehicle parking on campus. A covert accounting of actual vehicle parking in the dead of a rainy November night revealed that only 60% of the existing spots were filled. This was used as justification for the maximum parking standards. This was not blindly instituted, though. Options have to be given to people if you take away their cars. Campus shuttles, carshare programs, bikeshare programs, and increased transit supported this.

As per BC legislature, all public buildings must be LEED Gold certified, but there was a bit of a gap for wood-framed multifamily homes in LEED at the time. So what did UBC do? They wrote their own darn design standard, REAP. Knight likes "mandatory performance because human behaviour sucks." The requirements aren't loosely "encouraged", but are actually a requirement for permit approval. Why can't I have this much power over developers?

Infrastructure is another big reason why UBC claims to have one of the greenest campuses on the planet. Roads have been replaced by green street. These linear parks completely displace roadways. Pizza guys park at the end and walk up to the front door instead. It's not delivery, its cold? Actually no one seems to mind much. These properties are in high demand. Since the campus sits on a cliff at the tip of a peninsula, and since there is a substantial clay layer, infiltration of storm water is actually discouraged. UBC, superhero campus planning organization that it is, decided to create gorgeous water features to direct and retain the the stormwater through canals and ponds that just make me jealous.

I have a lot of respect for what UBC is doing. None of it is easy, but at the same time, it isn't rocket surgery either. Ok, maybe the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Power Generation Project is rocket surgery. I can't be certain. Electro-pyrolysis of organic compounds to create biofuels may well involve a rocket, and the definition of "surgery" is a little subjective to begin with.

So How Green is Toronto These Days?

2012-06-13T10:10:00.001-04:00

Linda Weichel, of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance presented at the CaGBC National Conference and Expo today. She gave a nice report on the current state of sustainability in the GTA. The group measured Carbon Emissions, Air Quality, Water, Waste, Land Use, and Biodiversity and then graded and set short to long term targets for the various municipalities within the Toronto Region, which falls under the purview of the TRCA.

The key findings from the report are:

The Greater Toronto Area has scored some environmental wins in recent years, spewing fewer carbon emissions into the air, diverting more waste from landfills and using less water, but is “struggling” on other fronts, such as controlling sprawl and traffic congestion, according to the findings of a new report. The Living City Report Card, released Monday by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Civic Action, is described by its authors as the most in-depth analysis of the environment, and what drives environmental health in a Canadian urban region. A sample of some of its findings are found below. The TRCA covers the city of Toronto, and parts of Durham, Peel and York.

The document also reports on Halton and Durham with data provide from the TRCA and was realeased in 2011.

Grades in the report card were largely in the C-F grade range. Very few B and no A grades were awarded. One thing Weichel referred to was the example that landlords, tenants, and businesses displayed during earth hour: the display below shows how effective conservation can be when effort is given; "...existing office buildings are significant contributors to air pollutants and carbon emissions...the smart energy office challenge the Race to Reduce [is] a way we’re aiming to address the barriers [to real performance]". But this does not happen all the time (I'm sure we can all think of valid reasons, but nonetheless we can do this more often).

She cited 3 barriers to this disparity between sustainability goals and actual performance:

Barrier #1 - Communication breakdown between landlords and tenants

Barrier #2 - Energy management data is not widely available

Barrier #3 - A lack of unified standards across jurisdictions limits a coordinated focus across the industry

Joe D'Abramo with the City of Toronto also spoke, and described some of the issues. He noted that Toronto currently has the greatest number of Highrise new construction projects of any North American city - a good local economic indicator, but not necessarily a commentary on sustainability.

*courtesy of J. D'Abramo, City of Toronto

D'Abramo championed the Toronto Green Standard as a key guiding document, and praised its language, and its position as a mechanism to achieve things like higher air quality, lower GHG emissions, higher water quality, urban ecology, and solid waste diversion. He stressed that the standard is not just a version of LEED Toronto (Admittedly there are key differences, but one can observe the strong influence the LEED documents have had on TGS). My perception is that the standard offers incentives to developers to comply with LEED-like requirements. My primary concern was dampening of developer enthusiasm, but there is little evidence to prove my theory to be accurate.

D'Abramo showed some interested imagery overlaying heat island affect and large clusters of flat roofs over 350 square meters. A very discernable correlation certainly existed, yet for some reason the vast majority of Green Roofs built (thanks to the Toronto Green Standard) are smaller in size and happen in the core, away from the red-hot industrial areas shown on the imagery. The question must be asked; Why isn't Toronto pushing for industrial green roofs instead? One intrepid blogger I know asked the question.

D'Abramo offered that Toronto does recognize that the worst urban heat-island effect is happening in the industrial buildings north of the core and that "you do what you can with what you have." Development is happening in the core, those new roofs naturally get most of the attention. The real issue here seems to be that there isn't much new construction happening in these industrial areas, and the Toronto Green Standard really is a New Construction program, so the opportunity to have a real impact on the existing conditions is somewhat limited. That said, Toronto has been proactive in setting up a new program for existing industrial buildings, but take-up was not great. It is harder to get existing building owner/operators to invest in that particular effort, but Toronto is still continuing to support the new program for the time being.

It may sound like I'm being hard on Joe, but D'Abramo brought up a concern very close to my heart: Bird Friendly Development Guidelines. I wrote some time ago about a building that claimed to be uber-green, but cast so much light spillage that I openly mocked it. The Toronto Green Standard encourages developers to use Glass Density Pattern to allow birds' eyes to recognize glass as a solid surface, and the Muting of Reflections to minimize the bird perception of open space behind glass. Good on you, Toronto. More cities need to embrace bird-friendly development initiatives.

Toronto continues to work with groups like the CaGBC (their presence at this conference is a testimony to that fact) on promoting better development in the context of local development.

To summarize, individual buildings may show signs of greeness and success, but the GTA as a whole is struggling with mediocrity. The work done during the recession made measurable environmental improvements, but those gains are at risk of being reversed as we come out of the recession. The Toronto Green Standard has not discouraged local development, and should push the local design construction community to do better. That said, communication, engagement, and encouragement of all stakeholders is still needed in Toronto.

Finally, I would like to thanks Ms. Weichel and Mr. D'Abramo for contributions to the sustainability agenda at the conference, and in providing materials for use in this article.

The Vodena Custom Home

2012-06-12T15:23:00.002-04:00

The newest model developed by Byzantine Homes, the Vodena is a beautiful modern walkout concept built into the grade of a site in New Dundee Ontario. This property boasts a great vista of Lake Adler and mature trees. The Vodena is a sleek concept that emphasizes the kitchen and dining area. Hosting is a key social element that is facilitated with the open concept 3,600 square foot home. Two large rooftop patios, double garage hidden around back, and private studio are all part of this great concept.

Sustainability Features Include: Geothermal heating and cooling, Insulated Concrete Formwork, Tertiary Bio-treatment of waste water, high performance windows and doors, heating and cooling load sharing, heat island effect mitigation, and rainwater harvesting. Additional Information:

Rendering is indicative of possible design only. Fully customized floorplans, layouts, finishings, landscaping, and extra space is arranged by Byzantine Homes’ dedicated design team to fit your exacting specifications. Well-appointed from $799,000.

Tim Hortons: Green Coffee?

2012-05-17T18:06:00.000-04:00

No, not raw. That stuff will make your head spin. I had the priviledge of attending a TSSS event today, and the keynote was delivered by Tim Faveri of Tim Hortons. The message was about the ubiquitous coffee and doughnut shop's quiet (e.g. not in-your-face-marketed) approach to sustainability.

"Tim Faveri leads Tim Hortons sustainability and responsibility initiatives and activities. Tim is responsible for cross-functional execution of the company’s sustainability and responsibility strategy, stakeholder engagement and corporate sustainability reporting. Prior to joining Tim Hortons, Tim was a senior leader in Deloitte’s Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Practice." via TSSS

Serving the Community - Tim Horton Children's Foundation and community investment programs are a key pillar to TH's approach to reinvesting in the local and global communities that such a large corporation operates in, but these are not inherently green programs. The Coffee Partnership is the program that Tim Hortons employs to foster sustainable sourcing of coffee - coffee is 2nd next to oil in terms of global trading volume, and Timmies certainly is a significant player in this market - 8 out of 10 cups of coffee sold in Canada are Timmies. Wow. So what are they doing to reduce their global environmental footprint?

Small holder farmers work 4-5 hectares of land and are forced to compete with large conglomerates in marketing their produce. The Coffee Partnership was created in 2005 to help these small family farmers and their communities. Tim Hortons does not actually source coffee from these communities in Guatemala/Hunduras, Colombia, and Brazil, but rather invests in these programs to make these smaller market players more competitive. IF the quality they produce reaches Tim Horton's production standards, then they will source beans from the farmers. The program has three main spheres of influence;

Economy - Technical training, organizational coaching, cost reduction and efficiency planning

Society - Providing a framework for youth and education in the industry, as well as housing improvements.

Environment - Pesticide reduction, sustainable farming techniques, water recycling, erosion control, etc.

Ok, nice. So what is Tim Hortons actually doing to green their operations?

Restaurants - They are pushing LEED certification for their restaurants.

Fleet - They are streamlining their fleet operations to reduce logistical carbon footprints.

Waste Diversion - Multi-stream waste and recycling stations are now commonplace at Tim Hortons restaurants.

Cups/Trays - Packaging reduction - recycling cups into trays, cup diversion programs, recyclable cup development.

All in all, interesting to hear the real world efforts of a large corporate entity trying to drive the sustainability bottom line. Nothing revolutionary, but certainly positive steps and encouraging story for corporations striving to improve their environmental footprint.

Mercedes Hydrogen Fuel Cell

2012-03-05T13:56:00.002-05:00

Here's the promotional video for the new Mercedes Fuel Cell. They claim it is invisible to the environment. I won't spoil it for you, but...yeah I will. They cover it with LEDs and make it look invisible. Cool concept, well executed, good soundtrack.

Earth Blocks

2012-02-08T12:16:00.002-05:00

So in other green news, Earth Blocks are fun and made from compressed ~~garbage~~ post consumer content. $30 for 50 you say? Sounds like I need to find a way to make $30....

I know! I'll scrounge our office garbage can for coffee grounds and squish them together and make blocks and sell them for $31 for a 50 piece set. I am a marketing Genius.

Sarcasm aside, I really do want a set. I have yet to see a desk toy that I don't want. I have a problem. Please send help. Or more desk toys.

Niche Modern Lighting

2012-02-01T15:42:00.000-05:00

In another example of me considering changing the name of this blog to Lighting Enthusiasts Anonymous, here are the Niche Modern lighting systems that I am currently coveting. They all come in a variety of colours and seem to also have a number of arrangements from single pendant style to chandelier, to modern arrangements. I'll let the images speak for themselves.

MIT Soft Rocker Solar Powered USB Charging Station

2012-01-31T11:10:00.000-05:00

Not many people accuse MIT of sitting on their laurels. Even their lounging around is innovative.

Presenting the Soft Rocker: A solar powered USB charging station meant for lounging around in. More shots after the jump.

When I went to university, all we got were dilapidated hard plastic deco chairs in the student life centre. I would have ~~used these fruitfully everyday~~ gotten up to some serious shenanigans in these.

Glass Floor a la Gulliver's Travels

2012-01-26T12:01:00.000-05:00

This is in no way green, but it certainly is cool. Imagine being a giant walking on a glass floor held up by a horde of normal sized people. Alternatively imagine being normal sized and walking on a glass floor held up by tiny people. Or be boring an walk on a glass floor supported by small plastic figurines. Whichever way you imagine it, this is what it would look like.

The Ultimate Man-delier

2012-01-26T09:20:00.000-05:00

Looking for that perfect light fixture for your man-cave?

Look no more. Introduing what I'm calling the Man-delier:

This beauty comes from bow-berlin, a jewelry and leather boutique. Check out The Cool Hunter (who writes a way better blog than yours truly, I must admit) for more shots of this really unique design.

MTH Woodworks

2012-01-23T15:57:00.001-05:00

Makers of the WAY COOL tables and cradenzas seen here, MTH Woodworks operates out of Vancouver, BC. They take natural and organic materials and fashion them into beautiful, earthy, and modern pieces that reflect a desire to demonstrate good stewardship of the environment, with a keen eye for taste. Rarely do I come across responsible design that is as appealing as this.

3GLighting

2012-01-18T19:33:00.001-05:00

I just love these luminaires. LEDs, sleek. That's pretty much it. 3GLighting

Yeah...I don't really know what else to say. You know how I feel about lighting.

Fiber Optic Skylights

2012-01-18T12:27:00.003-05:00

Ok, so in my latest effort to inundate my readers with material on lighting, I came across this:

The Parans fiber optic systems harvest natural light and channel it through fiber optic cables to be diffused into a dark interior space. You get natural lighting where you need it, without having to bring a cumbersome skylight tube through some otherwise valuable space. Very slick.

The solar collector does consume some power (it has tracking Fresnel lenses to amplify the the light) but at 2W for the amount of light harvested is still quite good.

The system comes with a number of different luminaires, depending on your application, and can be arranged just as creatively as standard luminaries, since all you are pulling in is a fiber optic cable.

For American order inquiries try: HUVCO Lighting Solutions 1-800-832-6116

A Day Made of Glass

2012-01-17T12:09:00.001-05:00

So yesterday I posted a video about Samsung's new window-mounted touchscreen computer. I thought today I would share an older video made by Corning. Sure, in internet years this thing is like the iron age, but there was definitely some good fore-sight in it.

Definitely a worth-while video.