Are you aware that you vote with your wallet, voting for what you empower by what you chose to buy? Do you think before you shop, as citizens of Victoria, do you think local and eco first? Attach your brain to your wallet. What if we built environmentally as if we planned to stay here,… read more
Because most of the exclusive residential design work from my studio is for private homes and vacation homes, with a capital ‘P’ for private, most people including my friends rarely have a chance to see what I consider to be some of my best design work and only the owners and their friends get to experience these… read more
There is no more important place in the home for you to think carefully about the materials that surround you and your general indoor environment than in your bed. This is because of two things: the first is the amount of time you spend in this one place, your bed, each day, and second, beause… read more
eco HOUSE ~ Concept Brief This is a concept paper for a proposed eco House, a “living sustainability lab” in a renovated Victoria building. The eco House will showcase sustainable systems and features that can be afforded and implemented by a local family of average income. Features of the program would include the ecological renovations… read more
Report on research into the area of natural light and its interaction on the human brain & body Appropriate exposure to natural light has positive effects on our circadian rhythm and in turn promotes many aspects of our health. If you stay in touch with natural light you will have benefits for your own natural biological rhythm. … read more
10. We all deserve health and happiness, well don’t we, now? It was a strangely lucky day for me, I was drinking in Paris with a group of people who included a very senior civil servant, a person who worked at the very top level of government. As the conversation progressed, the government’s relation to the… read more
9. Support a fair trade local economy, where your Main Street trumps that Wall Street every day. How we shop, may be as important as how we vote today. With every purchase we make, with every financial transaction we enter into, we are effectively voting within the current version of democracy which today gives… read more
8. Community & Culture do matter, think history class, Europe, art, music & your favourite dinner parties. Few aspects of any society are more important than community & culture. What began at the dawn of civilization as necessary personal security through group association eventually evolved into tribes, cities & nation states. The basic principles… read more
7. Birds, bees and even bears are your friends. Although as a society we seem to feel that we are masters of the world, that we are in control of materials and resources, and able to chart our own destiny, the reality is that we are simply bumbling students of a vast and complex ecosystem we understand… read more
6. Wherever you are on the earth, you are in a watershed, and you are more than 90% water, so do the math. We are mainly water, take away a few % points of biological compounds & minerals and we would all be puddles on the floor. In Canada, particularly on the West coast of… read more
What the minimum wage shift moving toward (but still a long way from) a living wage means for the hospitality industry is radical and timely evolution. It signals the end of an anachronistic, patriarchal system, which is only one step ahead of farm labour, which remains medieval, except for the robots. Books like Kitchen Confidential… read more
JC ScottQ. Why would a designer select and specify Vancouver Island Marble Quarries products for their projects?A 1. Much of Western and Northern Vancouver Island is comprised of limestone with large marble deposits. The material is both abundant and local.2. Only some of the marble is of good quality in large enough seams without cracks and… read more