OpenBuilding.ca is a national Canadian non-profit that offers open-source tools for a diverse group of construction industry and design professionals. We also feature web-apps, calculators, software, APIs, plug-ins, details, drawings, best-practices guides and professional articles in the spirit of advancing ecological and resource efficient design in the AEC sector in Canada and abroad.
Manifesto for Open Building – an Open Document 2024.01.15
We need practical, actionable, affordable solutions.
Decisions that we make today will haunt our future. This is no time for half-measures. New buildings and renovations must consider lifecycle analysis impacts, climate mitigation, adaptation/resilience and regenerative potentials alongside conventional economics. We have found net cost savings across the board when implementing best-in-class solutions for all of these considerations. Excluding these considerations with business as usual is the real drag on our economy, due to increased losses, wasted resources and vulnerable and short-lived buildings and infrastructure.
We will explore big systemic issues and how they are connected to specific architectural systems, materials, details & practices that can be implemented in real projects, right now, not in 2030 and 2050.
We must be fast, nimble and flexible: the conversation around climate action and buildings is evolving rapidly.
We approach these existential challenges with open-minded curiosity and constructive critical thinking.
We are continually learning, questioning, testing and iterating. Everything we do is a work in progress.
We focus on outcomes and measurable results.
Better and more objective data leads to better informed decision-making: we aim to provide the tools, data, metrics and methodology that can support changes in building codes and policies.
We drive change by developing tools and setting benchmarks.
We show our work: our methodology is transparent and we cite our sources.
We guide choices in Materials.
Architects, Engineers and Allied Professionals bear a responsibility to specify materials that have the lowest possible ecological, carbon and energy footprints, and we support materials and systems that have EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) and are not Red Listed (per ILFI). Ethical material selections can foster regional and local economic benefits, community resiliency, regenerative practices and support networks of local businesses on the ground, making differences in their communities. We aim to be honest brokers of information on materials that align with best practices for durable design, with end use-considerations for re-use, re-purposing, design for disassembly and with a clear forethought of BAMBs (Buildings As Material Banks).
Everything is on the table.
Complex problems require complex solutions.
Nothing should be taken for granted. Business as usual is ill-suited to a changing world with limited resources, planetary boundaries and accelerating climate change.
This is an opportunity to reimagine our future.
Focus
Without a framework of metrics, we cannot see where we are, or where we are going. We will develop, discuss and reference metrics covering Sufficiency, Regeneration, End-of-Use Considerations, wbLCA, Ephemeralization/De-materialization, RenoFirst, 5-Storey Limits, Point-Blocks, Multimodal Transportation, Biophilia, Building Integrated Renewables, SD Stage BEM, Demand-Based Controls, TEUI reporting. (this list will form part of all point cloud article tags)
Audience
Architects, Engineers, Builders, Planners, Designers, Educators, Journalists and Allied construction professionals and policy-makers involved in regulating, commissioning, designing and constructing ecological and resource-efficient buildings.
The Open Building Project Structure
Formerly a project of Thomson Architecture, Inc. (a short-term necessity to support legal and financial reporting), OpenBuilding.ca is now (2024.11) a National, Incorporated Nonprofit. With somewhat low operational overhead website, hosting ($448/yr), zoom ($170/yr) and woo-commerce accounts ($60/yr), legal ($800) and accounting ($3.5k) our initiatives are currently 100% volunteer supported. We are targeting additional funds and grants to bring on part-time staff. To provide contributors remuneration for their efforts, we seek out ethical partners (Universities, Individual Donors, Corporate Sponsors) to provide sponsorship for the articles, tools and efforts we make here.