The Project Spotlight for T5M Connect wouldn’t be complete without due mention to it’s project collaborators and their role in this project.

Collaborators on an GBTN team are sub-consultants or a product/service provider with a strong business connection to the design, construction, and clean technology sector. Collaborators mutually benefit from the business development, learning opportunity and relationships made that continue on to leverage new business after the project is complete.

T5M project Collaborators include: Alterna, ReNü Engineering and Flechas Architecture

How did the T5M Connect North Glenora Project team come to fruition?

This team developed through a combination of networking introductions and direct requests for collaboration by the project lead. In the case of Flechas architecture, T5M Connect reached out because they wanted to ensure that extensive experience in passive house building within small multifamily residential developments was focal in their projects design; with ReNü Engineering, it was for their expertise in mechanical design and energy modelling services again with specialization within the passive house realm.

SSRIA connects members on projects with the intent of bringing together the strengths of industry. Check out our members listing to see who you could network with by joining SSRIA, including members like Flechas Architecture, Alterna and ReNü  Engineering featured on this months collaborator spotlight.

 

What does it mean to you be a project collaborator and what value do you add?

Alterna: For our firm it is about working with the owners, the consultants, and other trades prior to finalizing any design strategy to understand the benefits and impact of the inter-relationship of building structures, mechanical and electrical systems.   Typically, you can spend more on building structure to reduce mechanical and electrical systems, we simply want to be able to provide good quantitative data to make better informed decisions for installation, operational, and maintenance costs on a 1, 5, 25 yr analysis.  This allows the owner of the project to make decisions not just on initial cost but more importantly the life cycle costs of owning and managing a building or community. – Thomas Barr

Flechas Architecture: It has been crucial to be part of a team that contributes a lot of combined knowledge.  These types of projects require an integrated design approach to be successful. We provide the team, and client, value as we need to deliver a project based on the owner, end-user and market requirements while providing a creative solution given some of the planning and technical requirements. As an architectural practice, we design high-performance buildings that align with the values of our forward-thinking clients, and T5M Connect is a great match. – Oscar Flechas

ReNü  Engineering:  We are excited to see continued development of high performance multi-family residential buildings in Edmonton. At ReNü we are building engineers who value passive energy efficiency strategies and are passionate about creating cost effective, low impact buildings with healthy and comfortable indoor environments. – Stuart Fix

It is exciting to be a part of a passive house and missing middle project that is pushing the envelope of energy efficient design in the City of Edmonton. I have a background in civil engineering and building science and have been working on energy efficient building design and mechanical design for several years. My education and work experience are being used to collaborate on the project and with industry partners to ensure the building meets energy targets and has a healthy, comfortable, and energy efficient mechanical design. -Kelly Fordice

What do you think you will gain from your participation in the project?

Alterna: Every project has new learning’s; our goal is to learn more about how we can be better participants not just on the construction side but on the planning and design stages so that we can develop an efficient way not to just build but to also design and plan. – Thomas Barr

Flechas Architecture: The multifamily typology usually has a very different dynamic when deciding the implementation of high-performance technologies. Therefore, it has been essential to do additional research and make an informed decision regarding the best approach for implementation. In addition, technology is changing dramatically, and our cold climate makes some of those implementations a challenge. Increasing our knowledge as a firm will continue helping us to develop strong working relationships with top construction industry consultants, developers, and builders. – Oscar Flechas

ReNü  Engineering: We look to gain continued optimization of cost effective, high performance construction. -Stuart Fix

I am hoping to further my knowledge and experience in passive building design and collaboration with clients and architects on how to navigate the different trade offs of achieving reductions in building energy consumption. – Kelly Fordice

What do you hope the greatest project outcome will be?

Alterna: Our hope is that we can help strengthen the modelling side with a good understanding of how the building will consume the energy post construction and during occupancy.  It is one thing to hypothesize energy use, it is another thing to validate and evaluate it.  – Thomas Barr

Flechas Architecture: I hope we can have more developers building these types of low-energy buildings and buyers/renters asking for this type of performance and quality. I believe the project will provide important information to other people interested in this approach. The team will share the process and experiences, and I trust that will simplify replication. – Oscar Flechas

ReNü Engineering: I believe the greatest outcome will be the creation of an energy efficient, cost effective, healthy development. -Stuart Fix

The greatest project outcome will be bringing awareness to energy efficient design and building practices so that future projects in Edmonton can also aim to achieve reduced energy consumption targets such as passive house. – Kelly Fordice

How will you continue to use the experience and learning’s from this project to further reduce GHG emissions in the built environment?

Alterna: The outcome will provide our team an on-going understanding of how to improve the operational performance of the existing building and further understand how we can do better on the next project, either as individuals or as a collective. – Thomas Barr

Flechas Architecture:  We’ll be presenting our existing and future clients with the findings of this project to evaluate the feasibility of their projects. We will continue transitioning our practice in this direction as part of our mission and vision. We will ensure more low-energy buildings are designed and build based on an “efficiency first” approach as the first step to actual GHG emissions reduction. – Oscar Flechas

ReNü  Engineering: Each new project is undertaken with the culmination of our lessons learned to date. -Stuart Fix

This experience has taught me the importance of collaborating as a team to determine energy efficiency targets and strategies for achieving these targets early in the design process so that changes can be made to support the design details required to meet energy efficiency targets. – Kelly Fordice