Bunting Coady Architects

Living, breathing buildings┬áRe-shaping attitudes of developers and clients toward sustainable architecture requires a paradigm shift, and Gary Toushek discovers that Teresa Coady is up for the challenge.  ÔÇ£My father was an architect, and he said, ÔÇÿWhatever you do, donÔÇÖt study architecture. ItÔÇÖs not practical; itÔÇÖs no career for a talented person.ÔÇÖ ÔÇØ Teresa Coady thought, ÔÇ£Okay, dad, IÔÇÖll be practical.ÔÇØ She took two years of engineering at the University of British Columbia, realized it might not be what she was cut out for, and went traveling. Then back to UBC for pre-med studies. ÔÇ£After a year I felt so uneducated in science,ÔÇØ Coady says, ÔÇ£though I liked math, physics and cosmology. Then I went into fine arts because I had talent as an artist, and I studied art history. I ended up with a degree that was interesting but completely useless for anything except architecture. So by default I ended up in the master of architecture program.ÔÇØ ItÔÇÖs intriguing not because of the irony, but because of what would come next. In the true sense of being a student discovering herself and her place in the world around her, Coady decided to combine all those influences and insights by culminating her ideas into a masterÔÇÖs thesis she called ÔÇ£The Living, Breathing Building.ÔÇØ ÔÇ£It connected the physiology IÔÇÖd learned in medical studies with the engineering in my technical studies and the art and architecture in my art history studiesÔÇöand of course my fatherÔÇÖs work. I realized there was another building form that would be much more like what nature creates, that would work on all levels and would be good for people. I feel that IÔÇÖm barely scratching the surface of that vision today.ÔÇØ ┬áThe real irony came when the application for her thesis was rejected as not being architectural. But she decided to do it anyway, risking not receiving academic recognition, because it was important to her. ÔÇ£But in the end I got the top mark, because I managed to show a whole new sustainable way of looking at buildings and architecture,ÔÇØ says Coady. Her concept? That buildings are the grandest endeavor that humans undertake, and those buildings have a huge impact on the planetÔÇöand through buildings we express our culture and prepare ourselves for the future. ÔÇ£And if we do it well,ÔÇØ she says, ÔÇ£weÔÇÖll succeed as a species. But if we continue to create mechanistic horrors around the planet, weÔÇÖll condemn ourselves to a very constrained future.ÔÇØ Although what she was proposing was in part environmentally green and sustainable, it was years before those words would enter the lexicon of architecture. It has always been clear to her that buildings need to move away from Newtonian mechanicsÔÇöusing equipment to operate themÔÇötoward biomimetics, the art and science of designing and building processes, substances, devices and systems that imitate nature. Once CoadyÔÇÖs ideas had been delineated, she had to test them, apply them and make them work. Frank Musson of VancouverÔÇÖs Musson Cattell Mackey was intrigued by her thesis and hired her to pursue her ideas at his architectural firm. For six years she worked there and learned the ropes before she decided to break out on her own. In 1994 she co-founded Bunting Coady Architects with Tom Bunting. One of the companyÔÇÖs first clients was Bentall LP, CanadaÔÇÖs largest real estate services company.ÔÇ£We got really lucky with the Bentall project,ÔÇØ Coady says. ÔÇ£We were selected for the Canadian governmentÔÇÖs Industry Canada C-2000 Advanced Buildings Award. It was our breakthrough, because the two buildings we designed for BentallÔÇöone in a traditional way and one that was more innovativeÔÇöwere not quite at the living, breathing level, but they were a first step toward a building that did more things well and got us the credibility we needed to attract other clients.ÔÇØ It worked. Today, Bunting Coady Architects employs 50 people who share Teresa CoadyÔÇÖs vision. The firm has won more than 50 awards for innovative design and is the only company to have won the BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) Earth Award on four separate occasions. An innovative, full-service architectural practice, Bunting Coady Architects has a global reputation for creating high-performance buildings and sustainable architecture in the office, commercial, retail, industrial and institutional sectors.┬áThe practice has more square footage of LEED NC Gold certified institutional and commercial projects than any other firm in North America. CoadyÔÇÖs approach to her clientsÔÇÖ needs evolved into the Integrated Design Process (IDP). This formal eight-step procedure produces a superior level of high-performance building construction and sustainable development. The concept has achieved credibility not only within the confines of the architectural industry but also among clients who are keen to be supportive of and conducive to the public good. As Coady explains, the IDP is a comprehensive team approach:ÔÇ£As architects, we canÔÇÖt just sit around and brainstorm; we have to physically take the first step and see what weÔÇÖre working with. It starts with how the building sits on the ground and what the ground and surroundings could do for the building. Then we look at what we need to do to get light and fresh air through the building. Then we examine what needs to be done to support the building with artificial systems. ThereÔÇÖs a clear, natural sequence. ÔÇ£When we visually lay out the procedure for people,ÔÇØ she continues, ÔÇ£we explain that we want everyone involved in the creation of the buildingÔÇöarchitects, consultants, clients and user groupsÔÇöto participate in every step, because the electrical engineer might have to speak with the landscaper whoÔÇÖs putting a tree in front of a window, to see how that tree might affect lighting. The IDP enables each team to find clear and dynamic synergies between what were originally separate disciplines and allows them to work together to create a healthy beautiful building.ÔÇØ Bunting Coady Architects uses building simulation technology developed with Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (managed by the University of California for the US Department of Energy) to create models of its buildings. ÔÇ£The program allows you to position the building as a closed, independent system and assess the energy value of its contribution to its own mitigationÔÇöthe roof, walls, windows and external shading,ÔÇØ Coady says. ÔÇ£Then you can layer on the mechanical systems using modules. So itÔÇÖs quite powerful.ÔÇØ And no, it doesnÔÇÖt cost more to design and construct a good building than a bad one; if you start by doing the right thing and optimizing the buildingÔÇÖs performance, then you keep the cost down, she says. ÔÇ£It has always been my policy to create and share things that others can copy, because IÔÇÖm only one person, and even with the 50 people in this office, we can only do so many buildings in a year, so we need to create leverage. If one of our buildings inspires ten others, it expands exponentially. So the domino effect works in our favor.ÔÇØ ÔÇô Editorial research by Vincent Kielty