Alistair Vaz
@zavriatsila.bsky.social
Father, Foodie, Traveller, Climate Resilience & Construction Decarbonization Advocate, Architect OAA MRAIC
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Why urban design standards shouldn't be based on the turning radius of a massive truck. A great piece by Mitchell May and @kellyalvarezdoran.bsky.social — a Toronto focus but applies to many cities across North America.
Parking, Garbage and the Decline of Toronto's Small Businesses
Kelly Alvarez Doran and Mithcell May examine how parking and Type G loading regulations lead to lacklustre retail in new buildings.
www.azuremagazine.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Why urban design standards shouldn't be based on the turning radius of a massive truck. A great piece by Mitchell May and @kellyalvarezdoran.bsky.social — a Toronto focus but applies to many cities across North America.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Elsa Lam continues to prove & document how corrupt & full of lies the Doug Ford closure of the science centre was & is. Read & share widely - not that it matters in Ontario, a province that seems ok w a high level of this.
www.canadianarchitect.com/draft-engine...
www.canadianarchitect.com/draft-engine...
New documents reinforce that Science Centre closure was not supported by engineers
The Ontario Science Centre was shuttered on June 21, 2024, with the Ontario government claiming that a structural roof issue made it unsafe. New documents suggest that the engineers inspecting the roo...
www.canadianarchitect.com
May 17, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Elsa Lam continues to prove & document how corrupt & full of lies the Doug Ford closure of the science centre was & is. Read & share widely - not that it matters in Ontario, a province that seems ok w a high level of this.
www.canadianarchitect.com/draft-engine...
www.canadianarchitect.com/draft-engine...
An absolute rollercoaster of emotions during that match. The fury, agony, despair, incredulity and the ecstasy. To score 3 goals in 6 mins of extra time to win it. Football, bloody hell. We don't do it the easy way at United, do we? #MUFC #Believe #EuropaLeague
April 18, 2025 at 3:09 AM
An absolute rollercoaster of emotions during that match. The fury, agony, despair, incredulity and the ecstasy. To score 3 goals in 6 mins of extra time to win it. Football, bloody hell. We don't do it the easy way at United, do we? #MUFC #Believe #EuropaLeague
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Unbelievable. The @nytimes.com reports that Therme was misrepresenting basic aspects of its business - they copied the name of another company and claimed to own its properties.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...
European Spa Company Therme Misrepresented Itself in an Effort to Expand Into Canada
A Times investigation shows Therme, a European firm, exaggerated its track record in securing a deal with Ontario, and government auditors found that the process had been unfair and opaque.
www.nytimes.com
April 16, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Unbelievable. The @nytimes.com reports that Therme was misrepresenting basic aspects of its business - they copied the name of another company and claimed to own its properties.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
It’s time your government got back in the business of building affordable homes.
March 31, 2025 at 1:18 PM
It’s time your government got back in the business of building affordable homes.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Interested in how to build the housing we need without screwing the environment? Join us May 7th for the second Embodied GHG Symposium. www.eventbrite.ca/e/embodied-g...
Embodied Greenhouse Gas Symposium 2025
Come join us at the Embodied Greenhouse Gas Symposium 2025 to learn about the environmental impact on building more housing & infrastructure
www.eventbrite.ca
March 18, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Interested in how to build the housing we need without screwing the environment? Join us May 7th for the second Embodied GHG Symposium. www.eventbrite.ca/e/embodied-g...
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Some pretty nice designs in here. Kudos to the consultant team that led the work. The federal government has unveiled its new Housing Design Catalogue with 50 housing designs for rowhouses, fourplexes, sixplexes, and accessory dwelling units www.housingcatalogue.cmhc-schl.gc.ca
March 7, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Some pretty nice designs in here. Kudos to the consultant team that led the work. The federal government has unveiled its new Housing Design Catalogue with 50 housing designs for rowhouses, fourplexes, sixplexes, and accessory dwelling units www.housingcatalogue.cmhc-schl.gc.ca
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Climate change is an environmental issue – but it’s not only an environmental issue.
It affects our health, and the economy. It impacts food, water, and resources. It contributes to geopolitical instability and even conflict.
Here are the Canadian scientists who study this.
It affects our health, and the economy. It impacts food, water, and resources. It contributes to geopolitical instability and even conflict.
Here are the Canadian scientists who study this.
March 5, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Climate change is an environmental issue – but it’s not only an environmental issue.
It affects our health, and the economy. It impacts food, water, and resources. It contributes to geopolitical instability and even conflict.
Here are the Canadian scientists who study this.
It affects our health, and the economy. It impacts food, water, and resources. It contributes to geopolitical instability and even conflict.
Here are the Canadian scientists who study this.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Nobody in Canada asked for this economic war, but we have it now. We should use this time to not only stop using products from the USA, but also the tired, high-carbon planning and development patterns we copied from them. We can build, instead, a walkable, wooden world.
How Canada's planning, design and construction industries can adapt to the Trump tariffs
We are on our own now. We are changing what we buy; now we have to change what we build.
lloydalter.substack.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Nobody in Canada asked for this economic war, but we have it now. We should use this time to not only stop using products from the USA, but also the tired, high-carbon planning and development patterns we copied from them. We can build, instead, a walkable, wooden world.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Important research by the Pew Trusts shows that 4-6 storey apartments with a single fire stair do not put residents at any greater fire risk (as compared to 2 stairs)
Single stairs are also cheaper, and could allow much more housing to be built!
www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...
Single stairs are also cheaper, and could allow much more housing to be built!
www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...
Small Single-Stairway Apartment Buildings Have Strong Safety Record
Policymakers could increase the supply of multifamily housing in their states and localities by revising outdated building codes that require more than one stairway in small apartment buildings. If en...
www.pewtrusts.org
February 28, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Important research by the Pew Trusts shows that 4-6 storey apartments with a single fire stair do not put residents at any greater fire risk (as compared to 2 stairs)
Single stairs are also cheaper, and could allow much more housing to be built!
www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...
Single stairs are also cheaper, and could allow much more housing to be built!
www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Get out and vote him out!
February 27, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Get out and vote him out!
Attended as much as I could of this today. A stellar lineup of speakers gathered by Alan Organschi of GOA and Yale. Hope they publish the recording. It's essential viewing and should be part of the discourse at every architecture school on the planet. www.architecture.yale.edu/calendar/152...
Building a Planetary Solution: Regenerative Architectural Strategies for a Planet in Crisis - Yale Architecture
Please register for the Thursday, February 20, tours and workshops individually, through the "Sign Up Here" links listed in the Tours and Workshops section below. Please register for in-person or l...
www.architecture.yale.edu
February 22, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Attended as much as I could of this today. A stellar lineup of speakers gathered by Alan Organschi of GOA and Yale. Hope they publish the recording. It's essential viewing and should be part of the discourse at every architecture school on the planet. www.architecture.yale.edu/calendar/152...
DSR should know better than to design something clad in so much glass in a place that's facing an overheating climate crisis. Therme just cut down 800 trees to build their glass behemoth on our waterfront in Toronto while our spineless leaders looked on. Parasitic and irresponsible. So, on brand.
This will be a new “Wellness Resort” in Dubai
Because nothing says wellness like a transparent blob in a lake with views of a highway
www.dezeen.com/2025/02/07/t...
Because nothing says wellness like a transparent blob in a lake with views of a highway
www.dezeen.com/2025/02/07/t...
February 8, 2025 at 3:47 PM
DSR should know better than to design something clad in so much glass in a place that's facing an overheating climate crisis. Therme just cut down 800 trees to build their glass behemoth on our waterfront in Toronto while our spineless leaders looked on. Parasitic and irresponsible. So, on brand.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Canada is being threatened with 25% tariffs on our exports to the USA. Many are retaliating by buying local. The building industry has to think about this, too; 30% of our building materials come from the USA. The best way to fight the Trump tariffs is to go local and fix what we have.
For self-sufficiency and sustainability, we need more renovation and restoration
The best way to fight the Trump tariffs is to go local and fix what we have.
lloydalter.substack.com
February 7, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Canada is being threatened with 25% tariffs on our exports to the USA. Many are retaliating by buying local. The building industry has to think about this, too; 30% of our building materials come from the USA. The best way to fight the Trump tariffs is to go local and fix what we have.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Great to see this project that I toured a couple weeks ago with the architects Jana Levitt and Dan Goodman featured in the latest issue of Canadian Architect!
@canadianarchitect.bsky.social www.canadianarchitect.com/building-in-...
@canadianarchitect.bsky.social www.canadianarchitect.com/building-in-...
February 3, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Great to see this project that I toured a couple weeks ago with the architects Jana Levitt and Dan Goodman featured in the latest issue of Canadian Architect!
@canadianarchitect.bsky.social www.canadianarchitect.com/building-in-...
@canadianarchitect.bsky.social www.canadianarchitect.com/building-in-...
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
“This crisis is not about a lack of money: it’s about a lack of imagination.” I talk with the inimitable @vishaan.bsky.social about architecture’s power to tackle climate mitigation and global urbanization. www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-an...
Can architecture save the world? It’s worth a try
Vishaan Chakrabarti, who founded the New York-based Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, argues that the design professions need to deliver mass quantities of new buildings, mostly housing
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 24, 2025 at 9:31 PM
“This crisis is not about a lack of money: it’s about a lack of imagination.” I talk with the inimitable @vishaan.bsky.social about architecture’s power to tackle climate mitigation and global urbanization. www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-an...
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Paris has developed a 16-storey timber tower, with 132 apartments, that could be a prototype for future high-rise housing far and wide
By LAN Architecture
www.ribaj.com/buildings/la...
By LAN Architecture
www.ribaj.com/buildings/la...
January 8, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Paris has developed a 16-storey timber tower, with 132 apartments, that could be a prototype for future high-rise housing far and wide
By LAN Architecture
www.ribaj.com/buildings/la...
By LAN Architecture
www.ribaj.com/buildings/la...
Toured the under construction Lawson Centre for Sustainability at Trinity College at @uoft.bsky.social today. Designed by Mecanoo & RDHA with structural design by Blackwell and facade by RDH BldgSci, mass timber by Element5 and CM/GC services by Graham.
December 12, 2024 at 12:46 AM
Toured the under construction Lawson Centre for Sustainability at Trinity College at @uoft.bsky.social today. Designed by Mecanoo & RDHA with structural design by Blackwell and facade by RDH BldgSci, mass timber by Element5 and CM/GC services by Graham.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
If you’re interested in cities and how to make them better, scroll to my “Starter Packs” section & explore 4 Packs I’ve created:
- Urbanism & City-Building
- Better Transportation & Mobility
- Canadian Urbanism
- Smart Cities & Climate Action
Please help share them, especially with NEW audiences!
- Urbanism & City-Building
- Better Transportation & Mobility
- Canadian Urbanism
- Smart Cities & Climate Action
Please help share them, especially with NEW audiences!
December 4, 2024 at 3:08 AM
If you’re interested in cities and how to make them better, scroll to my “Starter Packs” section & explore 4 Packs I’ve created:
- Urbanism & City-Building
- Better Transportation & Mobility
- Canadian Urbanism
- Smart Cities & Climate Action
Please help share them, especially with NEW audiences!
- Urbanism & City-Building
- Better Transportation & Mobility
- Canadian Urbanism
- Smart Cities & Climate Action
Please help share them, especially with NEW audiences!
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
I love this new UK initiative promoting "optoppen" the Dutch term for “topping up” or adding lightweight, low-carbon additions to the top of existing buildings. I do worry that the optoppen site makes it all sound too easy; I did one in Toronto and it was so traumatic I quit the profession.
Jargon Watch: "Optoppen" or "topping up" buildings with mass timber additions
We have seen this movie before, and called it "Aufstockung"
lloydalter.substack.com
December 2, 2024 at 2:58 PM
I love this new UK initiative promoting "optoppen" the Dutch term for “topping up” or adding lightweight, low-carbon additions to the top of existing buildings. I do worry that the optoppen site makes it all sound too easy; I did one in Toronto and it was so traumatic I quit the profession.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
To truly address climate change, businesses must go beyond individual sustainability efforts and engage in movement-building and political action.
Business Tapped Out of the Climate Fight. Here’s How to Get Back In.
Despite the business community’s potential to be a powerful ally in the climate fight, it has largely been sidelined by free market ideologies that promote voluntary corporate sustainability over…
buff.ly
December 2, 2024 at 1:03 AM
To truly address climate change, businesses must go beyond individual sustainability efforts and engage in movement-building and political action.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
There are many versions of this image out there. The good ones illustrate why “better cars” will never be more than part of the answer, and actually help “lock in” the #CarDependency that’s the REAL problem. They also do a good job showing why status-quo interests want to focus on the vehicles.
December 1, 2024 at 4:47 AM
There are many versions of this image out there. The good ones illustrate why “better cars” will never be more than part of the answer, and actually help “lock in” the #CarDependency that’s the REAL problem. They also do a good job showing why status-quo interests want to focus on the vehicles.
Reposted by Alistair Vaz
Canadian architecture is in rough shape. Our governments can - and must - do better. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
November 22, 2024 at 9:24 PM
Canadian architecture is in rough shape. Our governments can - and must - do better. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...