Jul 8, 2019 | Embodied Carbon
Carbon drawdown now! Endeavour’s Chris Magwood began researching the embodied carbon of building materials while working on the book Making Better Buildings in 2013. It has become something of an obsession ever since! Chris published his Master’s...
Jul 7, 2019 | Construction Blogs, Featured, Sustainable Building & Design program, Urban Renovation accessory dwelling unit
In 2018, we undertook an urban renovation project in downtown Peterborough, Ontario. The city had just adjusted its by-laws to allow for secondary suites on residential properties. Our client had an empty, 100 year old garage attached to her home and wanted to...
Jan 2, 2018 | Material Videos, Natural building materials and techniques, Straw bale building
Round straw bale columns Many people use small, square straw bales to make buildings, but we used the big round bales as load-bearing columns in a building! The big rounds are incredibly dense and uniform, and we lab tested them to 120,000 pounds of load! They are...
Sep 11, 2017 | Construction Blogs, Sustainable Building & Design program, Zero House prefab
The toxicity of buildings is a subject that is not much discussed, but it is definitely one worth thinking about. Most homeowners seem to assume that some form of government regulation is at work to make sure the building products in their homes are not toxic, but...
Aug 21, 2017 | Building Product Reviews, Construction Blogs, Embodied Carbon, Sustainable Building & Design program, Zero House prefab
This is one in a series of blog posts about the materials we’ve chosen to build our Zero House project… What is Applegate Cellulose Insulation? Cellulose insulation is a high performance blown-in insulation for wall, roof and floor cavities that is...
