When University of Auckland graduate architect, Andrea Duncan (BArch 2006) arrived in Vancouver two years ago looking for a job all she had was the name of a friend’s uncle who was a quantity surveyor in the city. “He suggested a few architecture firms he’d worked with,” remembers Andrea.
One of those was McFarland Marceau Architects – a small office specializing in institutional buildings and sustainable design.
“I contacted the firm and I guess the timing was right: they had a new project on designing an environmental learning centre in Paradise Valley and a staff member was about to take a year of maternity leave.”
Before she knew it Andrea had a job and was working on the design team for the North Vancouver Outdoor School situated on 420 acres of designated ecological reserve – home to the largest recorded concentration of wintering bald eagles in North America, as well as the Dave Marshall Salmon Reserve, the centre of federally designated habitat and spawning channel for five species of Pacific salmon.
“It is exciting to work on a project that is at the leading edge of sustainable design,” she tells Ingenio in an email from Vancouver. “We have completed the Master Plan for the renewal of the site’s facilities and are currently preparing the working drawings for the first building to be constructed: the Environmental Learning Centre. The vision for the project is to create a living building with net-zero carbon emissions and net-zero energy use. The building itself will be a learning tool to educate students and visitors about renewable energy and environmentally friendly construction.”
Andrea is also working on an “Energy House”, a centre for the demonstration and education of renewable energy technologies for Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. “It will be a net producer of energy with a functioning wind turbine, photovoltaic array and ground source geo-exchange system” she explains.
Andrea, 28, lives in Vancouver with her husband alumnus Richard Davison (BArch 2006), and says the west coast Canadian city is a very environmentally-conscious place.
“The Green Building Councils are active nationally and regionally, LEED-rated (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) buildings are now commonplace, and local and provincial governments are committing to LEED-rated buildings in all future projects. The office I am working for achieved the first LEED platinum rating in Canada.”
Andrea says she hopes to be able to use her experience when she returns to Auckland (in a few years) to help New Zealand move forward to a more sustainable future.
“I may even return to The University of Auckland to do a Master of Architecture in sustainable design,” she muses. “Seeing books on sustainable design written by professors from the University’s School of Architecture on the shelves of the Vancouver Public Library has reinforced for me that it truly is a world-class degree.”
‘What I love about my life here is that living ‘green’ has started to permeate into all aspects of my life. I don’t own a car, instead walking 15 minute through the tree-lined streets to work and taking public transport to get around the city. I buy locally grown fruit and vegetables form the Granville Island Public Market – an icon in Vancouver – and local organic and free-run meats from the local butcher two blocks away, and I work out at my gym, also two blocks walk ffrom home. Vancouver is a great place for outdoor activities, with three ski slopes only 20 minutes from downtown, Stanley Park – a huge 400-hectare forest located directly adjacent to the downtown area – and many kilometers of scenic seawall to walk and run along.
“I look forward to returning home with an environmental conscience, and living with the challenges that Auckland faces in becoming a more sustainable city – and hopefully making a difference in some way.”