Recently in social media the #missingmiddle has become more popular. I must be old because this missing middle was just called “poor planning” when I was in university. What it means is that Toronto and likely many other locations have lots of high rise residential buildings and right behind them single family homes. The missing middle represents the mid density multifamily residential lining our transit routes. These are 5-7 storey buildings with retail at the bottom. T

When buildings are considered more speculative investments than human right … the choices of materials are made based solely on upfront cost, not long term durability (or occupant comfort, or environmental impact). . Buildings are not being built to last. It is a fool’s game. Our buildings should be designed to function for several generations not just one. The building envelope should be made up of materials that last a similar length of time so that the overall durabilit

Image from : 2017 ,Chris Magwood , How I Got Run Over by the Carbon Elephant…or Buildings as This chart shows total carbon emissions created when building a 100m2 homes. Amounts of carbon are taken from The ICE2 database and the ECN Phyllis 2 database. The first bar graph shows code minimum building using common materials: concrete foundation - xps foam insulation –vinyl siding -asphalt shingles The second graph also shows a code minimum building that uses lower carbon mater

Carbon sequestration in existing buildings could save the world