The Future of Building
Here at Bird Stairs, we are always looking to where building is going in the future. We’re not the only ones! Eric, son of Sophie Cormier who works out of our Moncton branch and has been working in the construction industry for 18 years, recently completed a design project for a Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC) design competition. Their team came in second out of more than 100 projects!
Here’s the design challenge:
The design challenge is to select a site in a Canadian city where a market would stimulate an underused space, offer nearby services to residents at walking distance, and create an area for social gathering that would support small businesses and the local community. – CISC website
Eric and his teammates, Maggie Claus and Meghan Engelen, are all the future of construction, attending the architecture program at the University of Waterloo. In response to this challenge, Eric and his team decided to focus on “adaptive reuse,” that is, re-using an existing structure and giving it new meaning and purpose through design and construction. What this design represents in terms of planning and design for the future is the importance of re-using and retrofitting old structures.
Eric told us a bit about where he thinks the future of building construction lies:
“I have only just started architecture school, so I still have a lot to learn. But from what I have learned so far, the main thing I can say is there is an increasing focus on insulation. The Canadian climate has some intense temperature fluctuations and precipitation. Our buildings therefore need to be designed to withstand these extremes. And high-performance insulation and windows are key players. Going that extra mile for better insulation may be a steeper upfront cost, but it is well worth it in the long run.”
We agree! Bird Stairs is the leading distributer of Insulated Concrete Forming (ICF) in Atlantic Canada, and the exclusive distributer of Nudura ICF.
“There is an ongoing shift toward more truly sustainable building practices including more sustainable products. There is also a shift in considering the entire impact of the building and supply-chain process, from beginning to end. Truly innovative products and building process will be what we look to in the future.”
Here at Bird Stairs, we undertake the time, effort, and expense into finding new products. We research and carefully evaluate potential construction products with and eye to the future of the construction industry.