R-Hauz Blog
Tag: Sustainability
By: Aaron Mariash | July 10, 2023
BIM Chat: Vol. 1, Issue 1
Welcome to the first issue of BIM Chat! At R-Hauz, we toss around the word BIM often! BIM Chat will be our new blog series serving to demystify exactly what we mean when we say BIM, and how we leverage it to make our building process more effective. BIM stands for Building Information Modeling. Our design team primarily uses a software called Revit to model 3D versions of R-Suite and R-Town products for our projects. BIM is not only used to help us create our drawing sets, but the softwares contain a wealth of other information to help us build better,...
Read MoreBy: Molly White-Williams | September 30, 2022
Multiple Generations, One Property: The Rise in Multigenerational Living
A well-established way of life in many countries and cultures, multigenerational living is becoming an increasingly popular choice for Canadians, challenging the way we think of the traditional household. Whether attractive for financial reasons, or the ability to facilitate caregiving for family members in a world shaken by a global pandemic, multigenerational living shows no indication of peaking in popularity. According to findings from the 2021 Census, the multigenerational household has increased in growth more than any other Census household type. Why are so many Canadians opting for multigenerational living? Financial Reasons Urban hubs such as Toronto and Vancouver have...
Read MoreBy: Molly Giroux | July 9, 2021
Sustainable Construction: Why Mass Timber?
Embodied Carbon and the Opportunity to Lead Sustainability in the real estate industry is most often referred to when trying to improve the operational efficiency of buildings. Recently, reducing energy use and overall energy consumption has become a primary focus on the path towards more sustainable construction. However, operational emissions only account for a small percentage of the overall carbon emissions of the industry as a whole. The carbon emissions attributed to the extraction, manufacturing, transport and the construction process are what is known as Embodied Carbon. Buildings and their construction account for 39% of global carbon emissions,...
Read MoreBy: Salman Khalili | July 23, 2020
Beyond Software: Building With BIM
In our last blog, we went into detail about our construction methods. In the spirit of explaining how and why our building process varies from the traditional, we interviewed our resident BIM expert, Salman Kahlili. Our collective experience as a team is what enables us to create our products in new and more effective ways than those currently on the market. With a Ph.D. and Postdoctoral research experience Salman is specialized in building information modelling (BIM) and digital technologies in the building industry. Currently, on top of working at R-Hauz, he teaches BIM and digital technologies at the University of Toronto....
Read MoreBy: Michael Barker | June 23, 2020
Methods of Construction: How We Build Better
We talk about our way of building often, but what processes make it so special really? If you are like me (a newbie in construction), you may be a bit lost.. CLT, Mass Timber, BIM… huh – google – help?! While it may sound complex, the way we build actually adds great value to our products in terms of quality, sustainability, comfort and speed. So we set out to simplify it for you. We sat down with one of founders and head builder, Michael Barker, to give you the lay of the land as it pertains to construction at R-Hauz....
Read MoreBy: Will Baigent | May 1, 2020
A Research Series: Switching Lanes
The aim of R-Hauz is to create products that contribute to developing a healthier and more sustainable city. We believe that a consistent lack of research in the building industry has created barriers to innovation in construction. More specifically, academic literature linking laneway housing, or other secondary suites, to sustainable development also appears to be widely missing. Will Baigent, Sustainability and Value Engineering Coordinator at Footprint Engineering , completed his Master Thesis in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science at Lund University (Sweden). In sharing findings from his thesis titled, “Switching lanes: The Potential of laneway housing in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Toronto,...
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