WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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The way we build houses today is
very different from when I spent

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the summers working as a carpenter in
my family’s construction business.

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Back then, people didn’t ask whether
a house was environmentally friendly

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or worry about how well it was insulated
or even how much it cost to heat it.

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Today, traditional construction
methods are being reinvented

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and new technology is explored.

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A friend of mine who also happens
to be a rock and roll star

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actually built his home out of dirt.
The technology is already here

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to tap into free energy
from the wind and the sun.

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It’s quite possible to live smaller

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without sacrificing beauty or
design and there is no reason

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that nature can’t be part
of a rise apartment tower.

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In the industry, it’s
known as building green.

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[music]

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This is Salt Spring Island. One of the
gulf islands of the West Coast of Canada.

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These islands are one of my favorite places in the
world. And this spectacular natural environment

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is the inspiration for
an innovative builder

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who uses the most natural of building
materials. The earth itself.

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What if we built our houses out
of what’s beneath our feet.

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Rammed earth is a traditional building technique
still used today. Its name says it all.

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The main ingredient is simply
highly compressed dirt.

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The material allows for the creation of
buildings with an organic look and feel.

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One of the most stunning rammed houses
is home to rock icon, Randy Bauffman

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of the Guess Who and the
(inaudible) turn it overdrive.

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Making their home as green
as its surroundings

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was a labor of love for
Randy and his wife Denise.

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Hey. How are you? Glad to see you.
Glad to see you.

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So this is actually rammed earth?
This is it?

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That looks just like solid concrete. Yeah, very solid and
colorful And colorful. Not, but you have to had that though.

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Yes. Denise, she had a color pallete.
Choose the colors and throw in seashells

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and different oxides which turn colors.

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Randy and Denise took advantage of the layering
process of the wet earth to implant shells

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and other treasures along
with the different colors.

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It all creates a feeling of a natural
geological formation eroded by time.

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Even ancient fossilized creatures

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have been recreated by an artist
and sculpted right into the walls.

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[music]

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Inside, a pond keeps the
humidity levels comfortable.

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And outside, a plant covered roof
keeps the house well insulated

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and intrigues the local wildlife.
I can imagine birds.

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Well, we caught and see deers right there. Sometimes a very confusing
looking deer comes up and looks in the window while I’m on the computer.

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I’m like go back.

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The (inaudible) house was constructed
by builder and designer (inaudible)

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rammed earth houses are famous
throughout Salt Spring island.

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[music]

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Rammed earth is an ancient technology
that has recently undergone a revival

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and has become very popular
and accessible in a lot of

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uh… regions where it
wasn’t available before.

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Some things haven’t changed. Soil that has been compacted
still forms the bases for making rammed earth walls.

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Okay, we’re standing in the foam work and we’re
gonna put some foam in. That’s the insulation.

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That’s exactly right. Yeah. Okay.
(inaudible) has adopted the process

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by insulating and strengthening the walls.

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And then we take some steel. I was
excited about doing rammed earth

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but it needs to be insulated.
So we thought insulation,

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let’s hide it in the middle because the beauty of the
rammed earth on both sides is, you know, a good attribute.

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(inaudible) has coined the term SIRE wall to describe
his modernized version of building with earth.

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SIRE wall stands for stabilized
insulated rammed earth.

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We use a little bit of cement,

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5 to 10% cement and we use
some steel reinforcing

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uh… to make it strong against earthquakes.

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We put the soil in on either
side of the foam and compact it.

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You’re just guiding it, okay, you don’t have
to press down or anything. Just guiding it.

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[sil.]

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The rammed earth walls are tested for strength and the
result indicate that they will be standing for a long time.

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We take a diamond drill

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and drill out a cylinder like this which goes
to the geotechnical lab and then gets crushed

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and that’s how they determine the
strength of our walls and normally,

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the results are twice what the engineer expects. SIRE walls are extremely
strong. How do we know, it just won’t wash away with a lot of erosion?

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Well, let me show you.

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Water doesn’t penetrate rammed earth.

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So the walls remain free of mold. The
result is healthier indoor air quality.

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It looks pretty good.

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Another advantage of walls made of rammed earth is that they don’t
contain obnoxious chemicals present in many modern building materials.

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It was these kinds of health concerns

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that convinced the Bokmans(ph) to choose this
method of construction. Growing up, I had asthma,

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I had allergies and I was, you know, pretty
much all the time. And in this house, it’s gone

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and we notice it when we are traveling.
We come in and we go.

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Doesn’t it smell great? Just a natural
smell. If you haven’t smoked for a long time

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and to have the house partially into the earth, into
the ground, they have the walls being that thick,

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there is no real outside noises or vibrations that you get
acoustically, it’s just great for recording. For sound.

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Recycled timbers that used to be
part of an old logging bridge

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have been installed to provide additional
structural support to the house.

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And they make a good
place to hang a hammock.

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[music]

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The thick rammed earth walls
definitely make for a great sound

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but their mass also helps to keep the house
at a comfortable temperature year round.

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A material

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that has a lot of mass will store
heat and then release it later.

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Like a hot water bottle that warms up a cold
bed, these walls absorb heat from the sun

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and will keep the house warm for days
even with the heating system turned off.

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[music]

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We may not always have uh… you know
cheap oil or cheap electricity.

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So that housing that doesn’t require heating
is a great gift to our descendents.

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[music]

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Why shouldn’t we build
with nature’s leftovers?

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Green buildings are healthy buildings and natural
materials that have been used for centuries

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are gaining new respect.
Architect Martin (inaudible)

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designs top of the line sustainable homes.

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One of his favorite building
materials is straw.

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Straw is a waste product in farms. It’s
used for bedding for horses and cows.

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But essentially, it’s something
that’s not much done with

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and uh… so why not build a house out
of it and many have been built.

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This is one of those things where
a cellulose or wood product

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is essentially waste nothing is done
with it can be used to build with

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and it’s labor-intensive and it’s, you
know, it’s a very simple process,

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so it’s, it’s really perfect for people
who want to just make their own houses.

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[sil.]

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Builder Colin Richards(ph) made the
decision to specialize in green building

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and ever since he’s been a mentor to young workers interested
in learning the techniques of straw bale construction.

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Well, the bales arrive and

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uh… they need to be a year old. So it’s nice and dry
and it smells very nice, it smells like a barn initial

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when it arrives.

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It gets stacked up umm… much
like your lay up bricks

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and it’s just really, really pleasant to
work with and the bales are easy to lift.

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And then a little later on

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uh… you put wire mesh.

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Okay, got it, yeah.

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And you kind of sow it together much
like you’re making a piece of clothing.

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Okay, coming back. The most interesting
thing about straw bale is,

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is that it’s so high insulating.

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And then as a last thing, we
do is uh… one or two coats of

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umm… cement plaster and it makes
it a very, very stiff wall.

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There is always fresh air in the
house because it’s breathing.

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Air quality is a top priority
in green construction

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and because these straw bale walls
naturally let steal air out

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and clean air in, they were the first choice of
a homeowner with severe chemical sensitivities

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when she shows Martin (inaudible) to design a
cooperative residence in Clarkson, Ontario.

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The only hint of what the walls are
made of is revealed in an opening

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left to show the origins of the building
material. People call it, the truth window.

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How can we get heat and light for free?

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This lake side retreat
is Martin (inaudible)

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latest design for a straw bale home. It
takes green living to the next level.

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So you know, just looking at
the house for the first time,

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it looks fairly ordinary. But what are the features
that would distinguish this from other houses?

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It’s off the grid. So there is no… There
is no wires for the home and that’s it.

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So this is what, what it takes to be
off the grid. It’s solar electric,

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those are the panels on. And there are
two kinds of panels. Solar hot water.

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A solar hot water for house. Even in the winter? Even in
the winter, yes, it, it really react to just plain light.

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And then on the top, we have
the wind turbine. Well,

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it’s a bit of a climb but uh… This is
a roof but a roof with a difference.

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Of course, this one is a
kind of a character here.

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It’s very vital in the energy role. It’s a wind
turbine and it’s very gusty and everything.

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All these free energy

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is harnessed by gadgets inside the
house that are compact enough

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to fit right into the bedroom closet. So this is
all the equipment we need to take all the power

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that’s been produced by the
solar panels and the turbine.

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It comes here as, as direct current.
It’s being uh… stored into batteries

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which are 12 batteries that are
each two volts. So it’s 24 volts.

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And that runs everything, the refrigerators, the
television. Not as the low voltage. What happens is

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that we also have an inverter and
it changes the direct current

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to alternating current which is what you need for
regular, running all the household appliances.

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This home is meeting its
energy needs all on its own.

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For Martin (inaudible), that’s
a revolutionary concept.

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One of the things when you
see the solar panels here,

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it’s not a big system which supplies all the, the electricity
for this house and if every house were to do that,

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if every building would do that then
essentially we can see that the housing stock,

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the building stock is
actually power generated.

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Then it actually means that the city is becoming the
generator of energy rather than the consumer of energy.

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But it would be most remarkable thing that we
can actually think that neighborhoods actually

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take the place of a nuclear power plant.

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[music]

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What’s the easiest way to go green?

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A sustainable home works with nature rather than
against it. The first priority for building green

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is to position a house so that it
can use its natural surroundings

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to the greatest advantage. On
lake Ontario’s bay of Quinte,

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that means opening the structure
to sunlight from the south

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and wrapping it up against
strong winds from the north.

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I think, things should be kept very simple and the
simplest thing is to say, okay, there is the rain,

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there is the sun, how do we make use of it, how do we store
all these energy and all that water for later usage?

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It results in having a house
be heated by the atmosphere

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and it means that you reduce
or you remove 90% of an

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average heating and cooling load.
In the interior,

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Martin (inaudible) has utilized the mass
of the materials to great natural effect.

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This room really shows
all the main ingredients

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on how to harvest warmth from the sun. The heat that
does come through the windows, lands on the window ceils

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which are concrete on the black
counters, granite counters.

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Fantastic for heat absorption.
The floor is the same way.

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It’s concrete so sun comes on to it and it heats
up. All these stone, any surface that can see

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the sunlight can fulfill that function. The major part
is that the house has to be oriented toward the sun.

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It just says, okay, we’re here, there
is the sun, let’s make use of it.

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Having mass under glass actually
provides the heating system.

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It’s the primary heating system.
On a very cold day,

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a super efficient wood burning stove
can supplement the sun’s warmth

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and then there is the added
benefit of a little stone oven.

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Keeping the house as warm is
only part of the equation.

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During the summer months, cooling things
down can be even more of a challenge.

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So there is no need for air-conditioning
at all? No need for air-conditioning.

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Essentially, when you look at
this, it’s a combination of,

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of high-tech, the latest and
the best with solar panels

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that the basis of it is very
old technology. You know,

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pass the solar heating is as old since the beginning of
time. It’s a combination that, that makes it all work.

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[music]

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Can we make do with less
without sacrificing

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our quality of life?

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At their best, city centers have
made it possible to live small

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but well. Established downtown locations

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use all the space available.

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Land is often expensive so a
renovation or a new modern house

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becomes worthwhile no matter
how tiny the property.

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But living small can also
mean living affordably.

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For architectural intern Andy Thompson,

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the solution was a mini home. There is an idea that if,
if we are all to live the way we do here on the west,

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we need an additional ten planets. So instead of saying,
well, that’s absurd, we can’t have ten more planets to,

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to draw resources from, why don’t
we reduce our consumption,

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our impact to one-tenth. So what we’ve done here is
one-tenth the gas, one-tenth the water and in fact,

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one-hundredth the electrical requirement
that a conventional house would have.

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Many people see it from the outside and have all kinds of
pre-conceptions, oh, this is too small for me to live in.

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But when they see the inside, they
feel how light, airy, open it is.

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I have lived here in the many, throughout
the summer for four months and

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uh…, I mean, we loved it. The kids love it.
I mean the whole family

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had input in the design process. You know, my six year old
sitting around the kitchen table saying, I’d love to have a loft

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that I can climb up into.
Go on up, let him go.

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The materials that we are using in the
mini home are the greenest we could find.

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All the woods that we have, plywood, uh… framing
lumber, are all first year council certified.

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We selected alternatives for pretty much
everything. We have a natural rubber floor.

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The finishes are all plant
oil based and beeswax

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and we also have no formaldehyde
in any of the mill work.

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The day it came out of the factory, it smelt like a
fresh country kitchen, you know, it was, it didn’t have

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the usual being hit with a wall of toxic
gas which most new cars and trailers have.

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The mini home is designed
to be comfortably warm

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and well lit on its own. Without
the use of any fossil fuels.

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This is accomplished with a small and very quiet
co-generator that’s based on a sterling engine.

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So in a typical house, you have a furnace,
a hot water heater and electricity

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being generated from a plant somewhere. On the
mini home, we have one unit that does all of that.

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It gives you hot water, space
heating and electricity

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and this is an engine called a sterling engine and it can run
on biodiesel. So there is no need for propane or fossil fuel.

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Basically, it’s a personal power plant.

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All the gear to keep the mini home running is
neatly tucked under the living room floor.

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
So what we’ve done here is placed
all the mechanical systems

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
for the mini home in a raced floor cavity. We’ve got three
systems, air system, a water system and an electrical system.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
From the solar panels and wind turbine, we have
electrical energy coming in to the batteries,

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
through the charge controller. The solar
panels are actually located right here

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
on a canopy, the entrance to the mini home

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
and we can also tilt it to the most
appropriate solar angle for the time of year.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
We have a waste water tank which
from the kitchen sink shower

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
and bathroom sink will go into a gray
water system outside of the unit

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
and then we also have a compost for toilet.

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
The prefabricated little mini home is light.
Simple to set up and totally self-sufficient.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
Making the best use of valuable space

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
is increasingly important. Especially
in big cities like Vancouver.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
There in the eastern suburbs one
young architect has set out

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
to green his own small patch by cleverly
positioning two new houses on one lot.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
Lucio Pichano(ph) crammed
ecological ingenuity

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
into every corner I was able to split

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
the properties into two
thereby doubling the density

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
that was, that existed on this lot.
On a small lot like this,

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
really have to pay close attention to all the details.
The footprint of the house as well as the landscaping.

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
We don’t have a traditional
lawn on this property.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
Everything apart from the house is
at a path to the house or planters,

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
gardens, flower beds.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
A green roof also puts plants right
up on the top of the building.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
A membrane seals the roof so
no moisture gets through.

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
A thin layer of soil keeps the weight to a
reasonable limit. And then hardy plants

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
such as (inaudible) and ornamental grasses are used
because they can withstand windy and dryer conditions.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
The green roof brings multiple benefits.

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
Basically retain rain water and we add

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
insulation value to the roof. The house was designed
to take advantage of the prevailing breezes.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
A tall thin stairtower acts like a funnel

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
to move air throughout the house.
It’s all quite simple

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
and no additional energy is required.
By building smaller,

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
we can actually put more of that money into
the quality and the details of the house.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
At the same time, reducing
our footprint on the planet.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
But our urban centers are
full of big buildings.

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:35.000
Can there ever really
be a green skyscraper?

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
Vancouver Falls Creek waterfront is been revitalized
with new apartment complexes and public garden.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
Architect Peter Busby(ph)

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
relishes the challenge of
greening the city’s high-rises.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
All around us we have
environmental change happening

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
and I believe fundamentally that the architects
have a responsibility to be part of the solution.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
The apartment building is
actually very easy to make green.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
I mean, we think about the fundamental
aspects of it. What is it?

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
It is a way of living more densely. You can
put more people on a smaller parcel of land

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
and have less of an impact on the
environment. Peter Busby’s architectural team

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
design Lee of falls Creek complexes.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
It’s been deliberately created so that all of the living space
and the public space is within the building, dining and kitchen

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
so on faced to the sunshine. So the shaping
of the building is important for daylighting.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
Uh… all of the kind of cranking of the
building in this elevation and the terracing

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
of the building up so designed to ensure that daylight
gets to all the habitable spaces in the building.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
We don’t need any lights
on these buildings at all.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
The problem with sunshine is in the summertime, it’s, it’s
too hot. So uh… normally, we just put air-conditioning in

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
and we don’t worry about it. But if you try to design a green
building that doesn’t have much air-conditioning in it

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
and this building has almost no air-conditioning in it. It
won’t get used that much because the building’s shade itself.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
You can see in the arrangement of
the balconies uh… and the overhangs

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
and these shading devices which you can see
on the building, these metal projecting

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
uh… louver grills. They are specifically designed
to, to cut off the solar in the summertime.

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
There is greenery on the balcony

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
and on the roof of the buildings.
There is a very strong effort here

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
to extend nature into all parts
of the urban environment.

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
Garden, apartments and the sky.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:50.000
What can we do about the suburbs?

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
The suburb surrounding the city of Toronto

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
are expanding at a rapid pace.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
The Toronto region conservation
authority is determined to prove

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
that sustainability is also possible here.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
So they put out a call to architects to
design the ultimate green suburban house.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
The proposal attracted many submissions.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
But the model that won first prize
was for a healthy modular house

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
that would generate its
own heating and cooling

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
and treat its own waste water. The model for the
house may look like a standard suburban home

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
but it’s full of green surprises.
For heating

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
and even cooling this ideal house, the
choice was for a geothermal system

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
that taps into the constant temperature
of the earth just below the surface.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
In cold weather, it heats the house.
In the summer, it cools it down.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
Copper pipes filled with refrigerants
are buried under ground.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
The refrigerant circulates into and out
of the house through the looped pipes.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
Inside a compressor unit
handles the heat exchange.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
The house is a comfortable
temperature year round,

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
all thanks to free energy
from the ground below.

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
Geothermal energy was the first step
for this ultimate suburban home.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
The next was to give
everybody more green space.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
This doesn’t look like a
typical suburban backyard.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
But there is no reason that it couldn’t be.
Hiking trails and bubbling streams

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
are the natural advantages of an innovative
approach to waste water treatment

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
known as constructed wetlands.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
The shower can be the perfect place

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
to go green. To start,
the water can be warmed

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
with a solar heating unit
modeled on the roof.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
A low flow showerhead reduces water
consumption while you’re soaking up.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
Underneath a special drainpipe
wrapped with a heat recovery coil

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
recycles the free heat from
the out going warm water

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
and uses it to pre-heat the incoming cold
water. The waste water is then released to

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
the biofiltration system under the
garden for a final cleansing among

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
the reeds and bull rushes
of the backyard pond.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
The green components made perfect sense.
The hard part was

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
that the design had to be successful on
the ever expanding streets of Suburbia.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
Greening Suburbia

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
demands a rethink of the planning
and layout of new developments.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
The ideal design proposed by architects
Ann Stevens and Terrell Wong

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
would use land efficiently and
introduce some much needed variety

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
into the structure and size of the homes.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
One of the challenges of designing in
Suburbia is that the diversity of spaces

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
that are here. Uh… most suburban developments
try and fit as many houses as they can

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
on to and spread them evenly
over the entire property.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
So that everyone feels like they get their piece of
land. Natural landscapes are vital to a community

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
and because the model home can
be adapted to a semi detached

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
or town house format, more space is made
available for gardens and greenery.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
I think we have to reengineer
on thought process.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
So that uh… we can get the things that we need
out of life but we are using less materials,

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
we are using less toxic materials.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
Two of these ideal homes will be
constructed as demonstration project

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
to show that it’s perfectly possible
beginning now to build green.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
But what do we do with all the
buildings we already have?

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:25.000
We can’t just start over.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
Established communities have special challenges
when it comes to building sustainably.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
How do green buildings
that were put up long ago.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
In Montreal just west of the downtown,

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
the Benny farm housing complex has been
home to many generations over the years.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
But with time, the buildings
have fallen into disrepair.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:03.000
The government and every expert they talk
to wanted to tear the whole thing down.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
But there was a strong sense of community
among the people still living there.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
And its precious urban garden

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
was too valuable to lose.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
Two architects saw beyond the rusted
balconies and realized the site’s potential.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
For Mark (inaudible), the only way to save
Benny farm was to give it a green renovation.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
Building on the existing,
bringing it up to day,

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
we are all in agreement that it was old and
it needed, it needed some love and some care.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
For Danny Pearl(ph) it was also
about preserving a community.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
It was really about community values and the
idea of garden city is not simply the garden

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
as a boughtful garden that we are still here
now. It’s about the relationship of the units

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
to the landscape, the families.
Some new buildings were constructed

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
but the heart of the complex
remains the old buildings

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
that are undergoing a green retrofit.
So what we are gonna do here is take

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
down the brick, sort it, prepare
it and then we are gonna insulate

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
the entire outside of the building.
It’s like putting on a blanket.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
We really believe that by
preserving the existing buildings,

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
there was a strategy here that we could ensure the
affordability of housing here over the long term.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
The other strategy for keeping cost down

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
was to capture all the free energy they could.
The logical place to start was with the sun.

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
So here, we’re looking at a solar air wall.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
Basically which pre-heats the fresh air that
we need in our building. And right here,

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
we are looking at a wall that’s got thousands of holes
and the principle is very simple. The sun hits the wall,

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
the surface heats up and therefore
the air behind the surface heats up.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
And basically the hot air that stale before we throw it
out, we transfer the heat to this fresh air going in

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
and this is how we are able to get
fresh air in the building for free.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
The second green energy strategy

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
was to use solar collectors to heat
up the water for the apartments.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
We are looking here at two
of the solar evacuated tubes

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
that are gonna heat the hot water for all the
domestic hot water use in this building.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
By not having any air inside, we increase the
efficiency of the sun, hitting the surface,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
the blue metallic surface absorbs that
heat and this water then gets collected

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
in thousands of tubes here on the roof and will become the
pre-heating of the hot water for the entire building.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
To heat the actual buildings

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
the architects chose geothermal energy from
the earth. But with a made in Canada setup.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
Under the courtyards between
the Benny farm buildings.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
24 deep wells have been dug to
contain the geothermal pipes.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
A heat pump in each individual complex
captures the heat from the ground below.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
The installation works cooperatively
among the different buildings.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
Any surplus heat from one project
can be sent through the network

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
to be shared with the others.
But in Montreal,

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
the winters are cold. There was the possible
danger of taking so much heat out of the ground

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
that the temperature in the geothermal
wells would drop or maybe even freeze.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
Then there wouldn’t be enough ground
heat available for the buildings.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
The answer was to put energy from
the sun back into the ground

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
during the summer. The rooftop
solar evacuated tubes

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
collect surplus heat energy which is then
sent down to warm up the geothermal wells.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
Over the 12 months of the year,
the system balances out.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
The sustainable energy system
is not only work together,

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
they are also owned by the complex’s
new central energy company called

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
green energy Benny farm.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
The idea is that this cooperative is going
to own, manage and sell the energy to

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
each of the three housing groups that’s connected
to it and this is a wonderful relationship

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
that takes itself away from the utility
companies, gives it a certain freedom.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
People are tired about waiting for a
magic pill to solve our problems.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
In the end, it’s about to
do with social activism,

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
appropriating your own community and it’s hard work but it’s
exciting when we see other communities buoyed by our success.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
When I come and walk around here umm… in the early evening in
the summer and there is hundreds of kids running around and,

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
and playing here. That to me is a
tremendous satisfaction. It works.

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
[music]

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
What will it take

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:10.000
to really make a difference in the
way we put our communities together?

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
Off Canada’s West Coast on the
southern tip of Vancouver island

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
sits the city of Victoria.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:33.000
It’s an historic city that’s not afraid
to experiment with a green retrofit.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
This industrial area may seem like a
strange place to be building green

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
but construction is going on here
for an entire ecological community.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
It’s going to take about
ten years to complete

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
but the visionaries who are pulling it all
together are convinced they’re building

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
the very future of sustainable living.
Across the bridge from downtown Victoria,

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
the western side of the
harbor is being transformed.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
At dock side green,

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
architect Peter Busby is taking
green design to new height.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
Dock side green

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
is a completely new opportunity for us.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
First of all there is wide variety of buildings going up at dock side. That’s important.
We don’t want to build neighborhoods that are just about living or just about

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
working in our urban environments.
We want to have a balance so that

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
if people choose to live and work in a reasonable
proximity of one another, they, they can do that.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
There is a certain amount
of industrial space

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
and warehouse space so that people
can run little businesses here

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
and there are lost apartments above that.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
Whenever we put up a building people have to get to and from it. So
of course, we want to build in urban locations so we can take the bus

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
or walk or ride a bicycle.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
Busby’s partner Terrence Williams
showed me around the construction site.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
When the village is complete,

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
uh… we’ll see a community of about two to two and a half
thousand people in a mixture of low-rise townhouses

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
and umm… concrete condominiums
and uh… hopefully hotel.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
This is harbor road on the right hand side

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
of the existing heavy industry will stay.
This will continue to be

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
umm… a ship repair plant here. The
repair facility for the ships

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
will include a new dry dock turntable.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:50.000
The architects picked up on the circular form in their design
for dock side’s town plaza which will be build across the road.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
It’s going back to and trying to
understand living with nature.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
All of the routes for instance on our buildings are gonna be
green routes. So when you’re at the tenth floor looking down,

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
you don’t see a sea of asphalt. The
developer of the dock side project

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
is Joe (inaudible). For him
water is a valuable resource.

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
So he’s constructing a waterway to treat

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
and recycle all the water right on site. So then the
water is gonna come. Where is the creek gonna come?

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
Well, the creek actually flows right even underneath
these decks and stands out here and what we are using

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
umm… is an adaptive uh… species

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
uh… a plant material. So that it actually serves
as a cleansing process for the stone water

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
and rain water as well. So
when you’re on this deck,

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
umm… you know, you’ll have your, your table out here
and you’ll see this flowing creek going right behind.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
Nice. We are not using municipal
storm or sewer system

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
because we are treating all our sewerage on site and
using the treated water to flush toilets and irrigation.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
Well the onsite treatment plant
is cleaning up the sewerage,

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
it’s also producing heat.
That’s a free source of energy

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
that will be tapped to warm the buildings.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Any excess heat and even the cleaned up water
could also be sold to the neighboring industries.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
For this eco village,

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
waste actually becomes a resource.
The cement plant across the water

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
is supplying dock side with a byproduct of
its manufacturing process called fly ash

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
which is used to make a
greener type of concrete.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
And a pile of woodchips will end up making heat
and electricity for its new eco neighbors.

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Waste sawdust will be heated under pressure

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in order to power a turbine that will create all
the heat needed for the dock side buildings.

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[music]

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
I really believe, where the future is gonna be that
this type of development will become the norm.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
Umm… out of necessity. You know, when you’re in
an office building and you have natural daylight

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
and you feel thermally comfortable and you can
breathe fresh air. You know, what are you gonna do?

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
You’re gonna demand that, that’s the kind
of space you’re gonna get in the future.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
We relied on engineering solutions
to design our buildings.

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We, we sealed all of our buildings and we said, don’t worry
about the fresh air because we can do with air-conditioning.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
Don’t worry about the daylight because we can blast
the hell out of other rooms if you are working

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
by putting in vast amount of artificial
light. And, and that’s backfired.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
[sil.]

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The construction industry unfortunately is one
of the slowest industries to learn about change.

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Construction after all is the
largest industry in Canada.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
Consumes the most materials. It has
the biggest impact on environment,

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
in every aspect of the way it works.

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
We have larger and larger houses
with rooms that never get used.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
We are consuming vast resources.

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
Education is very important for, for change in the
construction industry and education has to be at every level.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
First of all the marketplace, the purchasers
are where the consumers of buildings.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
We need the people who are going into
those spaces to ask the right questions,

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
how healthy is my environment.
What’s my building made out of?

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
What’s, what are the pollutants
that are off gasing into my house.

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People are not willing to pay for
electricity and gas as it continues

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
and continues to go up. What’s the
alternative? Well, design a house tighter

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and make your monthly bills less because you’re
gonna pay more for the cost of running your house

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than you ever will for the cost
of the purchase of the house.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
I think what the green movement
is doing is basically,

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
hopefully, we are gonna be able to say, we made a big mistake
there. We’re sorry. We now are gonna have to go on a new direction

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
and be a little more humble.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
We’re already building houses and departments
that are easier on the environment

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
and what’s more, they are healthier,
economical and even fun to live in.

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[music]

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To purchase a transcript of tonight’s
episode email us at tnot@toronto.cbc.ca.