PAGE OCR 4 – November 2009 – The Ontario Construction Report
Learning to construct sustainable buildings: A student’s story
SARA LOW – Special to The OCR Construction Report
presentation.
After finishing my first
Natural building is still on building experience.
year of college, I dropped
on the fringes of the con-
out and did what every per-
struction industry. Using During the fifth Annual
son with no direction
sustainable, local materials Green Building Festival, I
does…I went to university. I
such as straw, earthen plas- met Chase from the Con-
started McMaster University
ters, and hempcrete, the stu- struction News and Report
the following September. I
dents of Fleming College’s Group. I exuberantly started
studied Fine Art and English,
Sustainable Building Design blabbing on about the Camp
ensuring a bright future in
and Construction program Kawartha Environment Cen-
the hamburger-flipping arts.
built the Camp Kawartha tre, which opens November
The time I spent at Mac was
Environment Centre in Pe- 2nd in Peterborough. It is
difficult, but enjoyable. The
terborough, Ontario. Ex- one of Canada’s most sus- in my life is about as big an wanted. I decided to enroll in
School of the Arts was (and fered from a leaking roof. At
plore the winding path that tainable buildings, that my- adventure as my first experi- the Interior Design program
still is) painfully under one point the school flirted
one student took to become a self and 25 other students of ence building. at Sheridan College. A few
funded - the arts quad was with canceling the art pro-
builder of one of Canada’s Fleming College’s Sustain- During high school I re- months in, I realized it was-
barely up to code. During gram, and there was also a
most sustainable buildings. able Building Design and ally didn’t have a clue what I n’t for me. My eyes glazed
my second year, raw sewage lock-down due to Health and
She is currently pursuing a Construction program wanted to do. I was a over every time the terms
from a ceiling pipe burst and Safety concerns. Oh, the
career in natural building (SBDC) built last summer. straight-A student and could “ergonomic” and “high-end”
leaked into several rooms. joys of being an art student!
and looking for more hands- How I even got to this point have gone to any school I appeared in a PowerPoint
The ground floor studio suf- Amazingly, I survived all
of this and graduated from
university with an Honours
B.A. in Fine Art and English.
I still had no idea what to do
with my life. I lived in Mon-
treal for a while studying
French, then I applied to a
cruise ship recruiting agency
just for the fun of it. Within a
few weeks I was flown to
Michigan for training, and
immediately sent to Naples,
Italy to meet my new float-
ing home for 6 months. My
luggage didn’t make it with
me, however, and my first 3
weeks on the ship were hor-
rendous. I had nothing but
the clothes on my back, and
auctioneers who had a
grudge against associates.
Their contract was up in a
month – why should they
care if I knew how to run the
program, or if I had my be-
longings?
Once I got my luggage
back and the new auction-
eers arrived, things started to
get a lot better. I traveled
around the Mediterranean,
met many famous artists,
www.Order
and laughed along with the
musicians onboard. I man-
Construction
aged the art auctions while
trying to sell as much as I
Documents
could. The recession hit hard
then, making it very difficult
Here.ca
to sell anything. We left the
Med and crossed the Atlantic
to sail around the Caribbean.
Our new online store can be your When my contract ended, I
Tree planting is a simple, immediate and effective way to
counter the effects of greenhouse gas production. one stop shop:
stayed in Vancouver for a
while before finally ventur-
It also makes Canada a healthier place to live, work and play.
Order the CCA/CCDC documents
ing back home. By that
Contact TREE Canada to learn about greening your street
you need and pay on line.
point, I only had two weeks
and local schoolyard.
before the SBDC program
Order today at:
started. I moved to Peterbor-
www.OrderConstructionDocumentsHere.ca
ough and began building by
the end of April. I found con-
struction very rewarding,
A Service Provided By
and I’m now pursuing a ca-
A winner of the Canadian Environmental Award (2007), Tree Canada
reer in sustainable building.
engages Canadians to support the planting of trees, the greening of
schoolyards, and the maintenance of our urban forests. To date, more
than 76 million trees have been planted, more than 450 schoolyards have The story continues next issue.
been greened, and Tree Canada has organized 8 national urban forest
NOTICE: Any previous problems connecting to the domain name have been corrected.
conferences.
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16