The way we design, construct, and manage our buildings has profound impacts on health, equity, climate resilience, and community well-being. As Canada faces urgent challenges—housing affordability, climate change, infrastructure resilience, and social inclusion—building systems can no longer be considered in isolation. Instead, they must be approached as interconnected, adaptive systems that shape how people live, work, and thrive together. BPiBS explores how building systems can become catalysts for resilient, regenerative, and inclusive communities.
Overarching Research Questions
The overarching questions guiding our work include:
- How can building systems foster adaptable, resilient, and regenerative communities while ensuring inclusivity and equity for all generations?
- What strategies integrate health, sustainability, and operational efficiency across the building lifecycle?
- How can building systems mitigate and adapt to climate change, supporting regenerative practices?
- What frameworks embed Indigenous and culturally informed principles, enhancing reconciliation and social cohesion?
- How can metrics ensure building systems contribute to community well-being, resilience, and adaptability?
- What governance models encourage equitable resource distribution and environmental resilience?
- How can participatory design and community feedback create a living, evolving roadmap?
These guiding questions set the stage for Thematic Research Areas on Building Systems and Interdynamics, where human, technical, and ecological systems converge.
Thematic Research Areas on Building Systems and Interdynamics
Health and Lifestyle Systems
- Wellness and Inclusivity: Promote mental, sensory, and physical health through environmental and biophilic design, adaptable spaces, and universal accessibility.
- Air Quality and Pollutant Management: Explore advanced filtration, ventilation systems, wildfire smoke mitigation, site layout, and building management.
- Inclusive Design: Support aging-in-place, in-home healthcare, and adaptable layouts for multigenerational and culturally appropriate living.
- Community Connectivity: Foster social interaction through shared spaces and transit-friendly designs.
Building Exteriors and Grounds
- Climate Resilience: Use durable, environmentally friendly systems for extreme weather conditions.
- Cultural Identity: Reflect local heritage and Indigenous practices in site and exterior designs.
- Sustainability: Enhance food security with urban agriculture and manage urban heat islands with vegetation and reflective materials.
- Green Infrastructure: Incorporate green roofs, permeable pavement, and biodiversity-supportive landscaping and architecture.
Building Forms and Structures
- Affordability and Flexibility: Enable cost-effective, modular structures adaptable to diverse contexts.
- Passive Design: Reduce energy reliance and enhance human comfort through optimized building forms, natural light, ventilation, and radiation.
- Resilience and Sustainability: Integrate renewable energy systems and reduce embodied carbon through innovative materials and circular practices.
- Community-Centric Design: Prioritize mixed-use, transit-oriented developments supporting social and economic activities.
Water and Waste Systems
- Efficiency and Circularity: Implement systems for water reuse, resource recovery, and stormwater management.
- Drought Resilience: Promote rainwater harvesting and greywater systems in urban and rural settings.
- Reliability and Safety: Leverage smart technologies to ensure system adaptability and real-time optimization.
Energy and Thermal Systems
- Carbon Management: Integrate renewable energy solutions and optimize and modularize system sizing.
- Smart Technologies: Utilize building automation for real-time energy efficiency.
- Adaptability: Enable seasonal optimization, waste heat recovery, vehicle-to-grid energy sharing, and vehicle-to-building for emergency backup power.
- Occupant Engagement: Foster behavioral change through education and interactive technologies.
Project Dimensions
The research approach combines systems thinking, participatory design, and evidence-based research. Building systems do not exist in isolation; they are deeply interconnected with social, cultural, economic, and ecological dynamics. The dimensions below reflect our commitment to bridging technical innovation with human-centered values, ensuring solutions are both practical and transformative.
- Iterative Framework: Develop a living roadmap through ongoing community engagement, pathfinding, and pilot projects.
- Design Thinking and Change Management: Ensure human-centered, adaptable solutions responsive to evolving needs.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Leverage insights from engineering, economics, sociology, and environmental sciences.
- Machine Learning: Use predictive analytics to optimize system performance and inform decision-making.
- Capacity Building: Foster skills development and education in emerging and sustainable building practices.
Anticipated Outcomes
- Affordability and Accessibility: Scalable, cost-effective designs ensuring equitable and timely access to healthy and sustainable housing.
- Enhanced Productivity: Improved building systems efficiency, reducing costs and environmental impacts.
- Health and Well-being: Healthier indoor and outdoor environments promoting physical, mental, and social well-being.
- Climate Resilience: Buildings and communities better equipped to withstand environmental challenges.
- Knowledge Mobilization: A practical, adaptable roadmap serving as a platform for policymakers, industry, and educators.
Together, these research areas and outcomes lay the groundwork for a living roadmap that aligns technical innovation with human-centered values, advancing healthier, more resilient, and equitable building systems.
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Research and Knowledge Initiative (RKI), delivered and supported by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada to advance housing and infrastructure projects across the country.
Our team works across the unceded territories of many Indigenous Peoples, including the Algonquin Anishinaabe (Ottawa), Mississaugas of the Credit, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat (Toronto), Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh (Vancouver), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Coquitlam), lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples (Victoria), and the Tla-o-qui-aht and Nuu-chah-nulth Nations (Tofino).
We recognize that land acknowledgment is not the work itself, but a reminder of our ongoing responsibilities—relational, material, and ethical—to the peoples and places that continue to steward these lands.
We commit to unsettling extractive habits in our work and to walking, with humility, toward deeper accountability.