Altius Featured in Construction In Focus Magazine
A Unique Architectural Firm Incorporating New Technologies
“The transition to green housing has been happening rapidly. In the 1990s and 2000s, many renovations in Toronto were more cosmetic. Now consumers are more concerned about the quality of the building envelope and its mechanical systems. “There has definitely been a change in consumer awareness of being energy efficient. It is seen as healthy living and more luxurious to not be in a house that has drafts and is cold, damp and dry. There is a switch in consumer awareness across the board,” says Graham. In the city, natural gas heating is still relatively inexpensive. The big push for energy efficiency is coming from cottage and chalet country, where, for the most part, people still heat homes and water with propane or electricity. Those bills can be staggeringly expensive. In Germany a building standard called Passivhaus–which translates as ‘passive house’–was developed to create building envelopes that are as airtight and well-insulated as possible to use very little energy for heating and cooling. Staff at Altius have taken up passive house training, and…”