Andy Thomson Design

Lead Paint: Striking a Balance Between Hysterical Hypochondria and Cavalier Ignorance

I have done a lot of stupid things in my life, but as a father now of three children, I now take time to consider my actions the health and well being of my kids. The case in point is the renovation of the house we just bought. For the past twenty-odd years, I have [...]
Ottawa River Triplex

Geothermal-powered R2000 Triplex near the Ottawa river in old Aylmer, QC.
St. John Cathedral, Napa

This dynamic, modern cathedral (built in the mid 1960′s) had a serious problem with heat gain. We proposed to use passive means to help dump this heat build-up at night, so that the church could be basically ‘reset’ to normal temperatures by morning services. Cool air inlets were proposed at floor level, which would run [...]
OHOME Classic

The Classic model puts a modern twist on the traditional gable-style roof. With it’s clean, contemporary detailing, state of the art fixture and appointments and thermally efficient OHOME structure, the Classic is poised for living well with the realities and uncertainties of the 21st Century.
OHOME Wing

The Wing is easy to ship and build, and is characterized by broad overhangs on all roof edges and clean comtemporary styling. Access to an optional roofgarden is also featured. The roofgarden helps with cooling in Summer months – and is ideally suited to temperate climates. With 12′ ceilings, the Wing offers generous, airy living spaces that are well suited for a wide range of climates.
Vineyard Oaks Of The Napa Valley

One of the first design projects I took over on arrival to Napa was a small subdivision of 14, fairly conventional residential homes. Healthy Buildings wanted to make these oustanding, high-end wine country getaways, and so a rethink of the floorplans to a more contemporary, resort-style open concept design began. What we ended up with [...]
Lakeside Cottage

A project I designed for Linda Chapman Architect. Design & Renderings by Andy Thomson for Linda Chapman Architect. Copyright Linda Chapman Architect 2011 – All Rights Reserved.
Cumberland House

Another house designed by Linda Chapman of Linda Chapman Architect in Ottawa. LCA requested a complete energy analysis using Hot2000, and the results were surprising. Using some tried-and-true techniques suggested by the builder, Paul Justice, such as ‘wrap and strap’ interior 2×3 insulation, some great economies were achieved that also resulted in a [...]
OHOME Wave

The OHOME™ ships flat-packed inside of a standard shipping container, and all coded and sequenced construction components unload and install easily using our patents-pending SIPFS and SIPFS Assembly Technology, (Structural Insulated Panel & Finish System). Think of the OHOME™ like a giant Ikea™ home in a box. The OHOME™ arrives complete with all the tools [...]
Ottawa MEC Store Expansion

On returning from Napa, California by way of Toronto after trying to get the OHOME projects underway, I took up a contract position with Linda Chapman Architect. Linda Chapman stood out from most of the other postings on the OAA job boards as her website featured some serious eco-cred and a long history with [...]
Balmoral House

One of my first projects with Linda Chapman was to take a schematic design created in AutoCad and generate Construction Documents from the BIM model as quickly as possible. Copyright Linda Chapman Architect 2011 – All Rights Reserved.
Tumbleweed Tiny House Company Workshops, Toronto July 17-18th (2010)

Back when the miniHOME SOLO launched in 2006, I was in communication with Jay Shafer, founder of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company because of our shared passion for tiny, efficient home design. Over the months and years following, our paths crossed online a few times, and just when Oprah’s O at Home featured the miniHOME [...]
Youth Treatment Centre, Ottawa

Proposal designed by Linda Chapman Architect of Ottawa, for Youth Treatment Cottages. Modelled by Andy (images shown by Andy), and rendered by my good friend and mentor Jon Worden (final images not shown here yet). Copyright Linda Chapman Architect 2011 – All Rights Reserved.
Is America Ready for Passivhaus?

I have lived and practiced green design in Germany, and I witnessed the changes in the WSVO (Waermeshutzverordnung) firsthand. These were mandated changes to the levels of insulation required to be placed in the walls, roofs and floors of new buildings. At the time (1997), I felt that the Germans were only getting half of [...]
ACE Electrigon

ELECTRIGON-2.0 DOWNLOAD HERE This version was designed in ArchiCad11, but works fine in AC12 & 13. For installation, see page 2 of this post. Electrigon was an attempt to consolidate a wide range of redundant and/or regionally inappropriate series of 2D objects and replace them with a highly-configurable parametric symbol that could be easily manipulated [...]
The Eco Trailer Park

While smart growth and eco-developments have become part of the mainstream planning dialogue, trailer parks demonstrate a form of sustainable infrastructure and development patterns that already exist. The oft-snubbed trailer park is probably the most overlooked form of sustainable and affordable housing, a true diamond in the rough. With a little help from green design, [...]
Reinventing the Trailer Park

Last March (2009), Lisa Selin Davis wrote for Grist.org about my vision for a greener trailer park – which I see as the future of suburban development for a number of reasons; the footprint is lighter on the earth, there is no disruption of landforms, infrastructure is inexpensive, and the resulting end users are significantly [...]
George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

I have taken this essay not only in its original sense, but as a kind of design manifesto. We cannot continue to do what we have always done. The formal expressions of architecture must tie back to meaning, and this meaning must connect architecture to the earth. The source of all metaphor is our experience [...]
London Granny Flat

Designed for a UK-based prefab manufacturer, the London Granny Flat was designed to take advantage of the UK’s relaxed requirements around granny flats no longer requiring planning approval. This fact alone has recently caused an upsurge of interest in backyard offices, guest suites and granny flats. This model was designed for a range of [...]
Solarc

One of the projects that first inspired me to consider more efficient/mass-produced methods for ecological housing. I was asked to bring R2000 (Canada) technology to this next generation, off-grid and carbon-neutral tract housing form – only in Germany! And in 1997 no less! Design & Photos by by Juergen Kaerstens, Architekt, MEP/HVAC concept [...]
MICRO

The MICRO was designed as a low-cost travel trailer for use in a typical trailer park infrastructure as a weekend home. This standard form features contemporary detailing and is available with either shed or gable roofed options on an 8′ x 30′ travel trailer chassis. A basic galley kitchen by IKEA and a 3 pc. [...]
Iota Travel Trailer

While the miniHome was sensationally popular in the media, but despite all the excitement and kudos, I still could not afford one myself, So I set out to create a travel trailer that used the excellent eco-materials and thermally-efficient techniques used on the miniHOME SOLO, that was a mere fraction of the size (8′ x [...]
Plan China Student Residences

Plan Canada (in collaboration with Plan China) asked me to design a low-cost solution for Chinese elementary school children. The idea with these models was to design a single lumber-framed prefab unit that used materials sponsored by the Home Depot, that could house up to 8 children. In rural areas, children are sent as far [...]
Extreme Climate Edition

Based on a 12′ wide chassis system, the ECE is an ultra-simple design that optimizes structure by using short spans, and reducing the surface-area to interior volume ratio even further than most 12 wides, limiting heatloss in cold climates. Andy designed this model for a customer in Bethel Alaska, so shipping logistics, quick assembly and [...]
Retail Unit

A contemporary furniture store in downtown Toronto required some additional retail floor space, and so Andy designed the Retail Unit for SDS based on the 12WIDE chassis system. The Retail Unit was basically deployed overnight, in downtown Toronto, without requiring a building permit. The unique features of this design were the large areas of glass [...]
ArchiCad Alpha & Beta Testing

Andy (together with a select group of ‘power-users’) was invited to Budapest, Hungary to participate in Graphisoft’s roadmap planning sessions for ArchiCad 12, 13, 14 based on his outstanding and enduring participation as a product beta-tester for ArchiCad10. Andy was instrumental in revising ArchiCad’s Materials Library (including shaders by Arroway.de). After chairing [...]
ArchiCad East University

Based on Nottingham University’s popular Annual ArchiCad University, ACEU was created as an attempt to create a user-community that fostered regional best practices in a collaborative event in downtown Toronto. This successful event was held for two consecutive years at swanky The Drake Hotel and attracted ArchiCad over 50 participants from as far away [...]
ACE ArchiCad Templates

ArchiCad ships with out-of-the box templates that do not address the full functionality of a well-coordinated BIM solution. The purpose of the ACE templates was to create a coordinated GDL library, Master Layer and publisher templates, together with Model View Options, Materials, Fills, Custom Profiles, Pentables and myriad other custom Attributes that synchronized with [...]
Non-Photorealistic Rendering

This was a workflow developed for a range of clients where we wanted them to focus initially on the quality of the spaces and the architecture, and only later on the materials. In collaboration with work on the archicad.ca blog, Andy documented the process to obtain good quality NPR renderings using ArchiCad’s Lightworks and [...]
Regent Park Block 14 Competition

Photos by Terrence Torangeau. Architecture by architectsAlliance. Competition team: Andy Thomson, Adrian DiCastri, Adam Feldman, Emerich Kaspar
Purespirit Condominiums

Photos by Andy Thomson, Renderings by Monika Jaroszonek. Architecture by architectsAlliance with Andy Thomson.
4S Residences & Hotel

Architecture by architectsAlliance. Renderings by Monika Jaroszonek. Preliminary massing & program interpretation by Andy Thomson
King & Ontario Condominium

Design & Renderings by Andy Thomson for architectsAlliance
San Francisco Zoning Prototype Building

Design & Renderings by Andy Thomson
Engineering Office HQ

Design & Renderings by Andy Thomson