Serving eastern Canada's wall and ceiling industry

By: Heather Seftel-Kirk

For many the change of seasons means a shift in projects and perhaps more time to look to the coming year at changes and trends that may impact development, contracting, and installation.

Across the board, experts recognize the strength of growing trends in green building – in design, product lines, and delivery methods.  Those who have not yet grasped the concept of “green” will soon have to or fall behind.  This growing movement encompasses everything from the use of natural light and space within structures to the materials chosen for a project, and how waste is handled.

Jessica Wooliams, an urban planner with the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, has a solid handle on current and future trends.  She says everyone on some level knows the value of products with lower VOCs, but many find it hard to source objective, reliable data.  The Pharos Project, still in development, is set to be the most comprehensive rating system ever, comparatively rating 200 building materials and products by examining manufacturing processes, source materials, delivery, and end-use. By the time of its implementation in 2009, it will map a 360 degree view of green materials attributes, giving trades, builders, and consumers a real picture of what is “green” in the truest sense of the word.

In terms of design, Wooliams says one of the biggest small things impacting individual space is factoring the use of lighting and insulation into concerns about the environment and energy. Helen Goodland, executive director with Light House Sustainable Building Centre, agrees.

“There is a growing awareness of the advantages of free energy and harnessing natural daylight.  The trend toward white ceilings is not only because paler paint colours are lower in VOCs, but because the bright ceilings reflect light and bounce more daylight throughout.

Other tricks such as secondary ceilings hung below the main allow light to bounce about and reflect more widely. She says increased awareness among landlords and building tenants of the tangible link between green building and employee health and well-being will further drive such development.

Use of the Integrated Design Process (IDP) is another trend gaining momentum for 2009.

“This process of building brings everyone together right from the beginning – the client, designers, engineers, builder; even the contractors are part of the original consultation and design process,” says Goodland. “For contractors this presents a unique opportunity to head off changes and additional work from the start.  With their unique perspective and as masters of their specific art, they are most in the know about how things handle and what can and can’t be done.”

Though this process is primarily used in commercial projects now, it won’t be long before its value is adapted for residential use as well.

Stephen Pope, sustainable building design specialist with Natural Resources Canada in the CanMet Technology Centre, predicts a few design trends that will impact materials and practices.

“People should expect to see things like higher ceilings and the use of radiant heating and cooling.  There will be more specialty work in acoustical control because with less tile lay-in, there is a problem to be resolved.  We’ll see window shelves used to bounce light, and taller shelves so there will certainly be a niche for developing this specialty.”

He hints at a growing demand for easier design modification and deconstruction.  For contractors this means learning to avoid glues and screw downs that make remodelling difficult.  He also notes the excellent new materials being developed including those made from natural ingredients such as wheat straw.

“People are always looking for new alternatives and these can be good for both the end user and crews.  Contractors have to reconcile time spent researching products, and it is a job to know what’s out there, with the benefit to the client, the crew, and ultimately themselves when they’re paying lower insurance premiums.”

Teresa Coady, CEO of Bunting Coady Architects, sees interesting trends on the horizon through a style she calls biomimicry.

“You’re going to see buildings copy or blend into nature with elements like trees and plants incorporated into designs – things like rooftops covered with sod flowing into the surrounding landscape or built right into it.”

With recent concerns about the economy she believes this is an opportune time to grab onto sustainable building practices, not walk away from them, but believes people need to be reminded.  She is dismayed there is still a misconception that recycling waste material is a burden to contractors when in fact it provides an income per tonnage.

“We have to understand sustainable buildings cost less to run and less to build.  There is a belief better has to cost more but that is simply not the case when it comes to green building.”

Coady likes the Passivhaus design model where LEED principles are applied and suited to a climate-based setting.  In a neutral climate such as Vancouver, larger and longer panels of the right kind of glass can effectively provide more natural lighting to a home, whereas a home in northern Ontario may require smaller windows and higher levels of insulation to be most effective.

Coady says a lot of the success and failure in new standards will depend on ceiling and wall work. “Contractors will have to look at doing things around the way they patch walls and consider sealing around outlets and duct work in order to make these homes as energy efficient as they can be.”

Both commercial and residential project design will call for more exposed finishes in everything from concrete and brick to flooring, and a need for more refined finishing skills. “ People are beginning to realize they don’t have to have carpet everywhere and they don’t have to drywall everything,” says Coady. “If trades can leave us with a look that is beautiful, we won’t want to cover it up and that will become a huge niche.”

Lou Ampas is an architect with Cool Earth Architecture.  He predicts one of the biggest changes will be to the insulating values in residential projects.

“We’re going to see a demand for values of R30 and R40.  In the past this would have meant walls three times the size they traditionally are, but with new products on the market this can be achieved with standard construction, just different materials.

He says we must also look at the potential problems of an air-tight environment like mould and airflow, meaning HRVs to temper air and breathable vapour barriers in for moisture release should be considered. For everyone, there is a learning curve involved.

“There was a time you could learn a trade and it was fairly stagnant.  From the point of learning on you knew what you were doing.  With technology and the R&D going on now, that is no longer the case.”

One prediction he makes is that contractors will have to rethink the way they look at walls.

“We all know about the push toward passive systems, but there is little understanding about how systems come together.  In the future we may see walls as sources for thermal storage.  Gypsum board in the right thickness can be a source for thermal storage, as can concrete, but we have to start thinking in those terms and incorporating those elements in.”