Helping Build a Better Ontario

Mass timber buildings are often discussed in terms of carbon, architectural expression, and structural innovation. But successful delivery also depends on something more practical: understanding moisture risk early and carrying a robust management plan through estimating, procurement, construction, and enclosure sequencing.

This presentation explores moisture management and enclosure design for mass timber buildings from a contractor’s perspective, drawing on EllisDon’s successful track record delivering some of Canada’s most notable timber structures. Through project examples, field observations, and lessons learned, it will show how moisture-related risks can be identified early, priced appropriately, planned for, and managed proactively before they become construction issues.

Topics will include early design input, estimating-stage risk review, temporary and permanent protection strategies, envelope design and sequencing, construction-phase exposure, detailing considerations, trade coordination, monitoring, and decision-making under real site conditions. The presentation will also highlight how EllisDon’s contractor-led research, mockups, field testing, and lessons from previous projects are helping inform better design decisions and stronger outcomes for owners, designers, and builders.

Mohammed is the Director of Ennovation Lab at Ennova Facades, the company's dedicated research and development division focused on advancing unitized curtain wall and building envelope systems. He is passionate about facade and high-performance building envelope design, grounding every solution in sound building science fundamentals while ensuring designs remain practical to fabricate and install in the field. Mohammed is an active contributor to Canada's building envelope community through association volunteering and applied research initiatives.

Session Outline: 
Prefabricated wall panel systems are increasingly being used to improve the performance, predictability, and efficiency of building enclosures through a shift toward more industrialized delivery methods. This presentation examines the application of medium- and large-format prefabricated wall assemblies from a building science perspective, and introduces key considerations at interfaces such as panel-to-panel joints, transitions to glazing and other envelope systems.  Particular focus is placed on best practices for adoption, including early integration of enclosure design with structural and architectural coordination for tolerance management and joint concealment.  Several case studies will be presented to illustrate how design intent, limitations, and installation strategies interact to influence overall enclosure performance outcomes.

Prudence Ferreira is an experienced sustainability consultant with a specialization in passive house standards. She has overseen numerous PHIUS and PHI certification projects, including many large residential and commercial properties and is a certified passive house educator.

Session Outline:
Phius and PHI share the same passive-building roots, but they no longer ask the same questions in the same way. This presentation will show how building science helped drive that divergence: away from universal targets alone and toward climate-specific, building-specific, and cost-optimized performance criteria that better reflect North American practice. The session will compare PHI and Phius through the lens of enclosure physics, thermal bridging, airtightness, ventilation, moisture control, source energy, electrification, and renewables, with particular attention to why Phius is often more feasible and more defensible for Ontario project teams trying to balance performance, affordability, and constructability. 

The presentation will also show how Phius compares to and can function as a practical framework for broader sustainability and emissions goals in Ontario, including its relationship to the Toronto Green Standard, Ottawa High Performance Development Standard, LEED v5, CaGBC Zero Carbon Building, and ENERGY STAR Multifamily New Construction. It will highlight where these systems overlap, where they measure different things, and how Phius can help organize enclosure performance, operational energy, emissions, health, and verification requirements into a coherent delivery pathway. Finally, the session will ground the discussion in Ontario affordable housing delivery through a comparative look at Ottawa Community Housing work: OCH Geyser Place, designed to Phius CORE 2024 while exceeding NEBC by more than 35 percent and Ottawa’s High Performance Development Standards; OCH Mikinak Redevelopment, a 271-unit net-zero-carbon, Phius+ pre-certified community; and 811 Gladstone, a 108-unit Phius+ 2018 certified benchmark project.

Learning Objectives 

• Explain how building science informed the evolution of Phius from shared passive-house principles toward climate-specific, building-specific, and cost-optimized performance targets. 
• Compare PHI and Phius in terms of assumptions, metrics, and project-delivery implications for Ontario buildings, including their relationship to TGS, Ottawa HPDS, LEED v5, CaGBC Zero Carbon Building, and ENERGY STAR. 
• Identify how Phius aligns with decarbonization, health, and sustainability goals through its co-requisites, source-energy pathways, electrification structure, and overlap with TGS, Ottawa HPDS, LEED v5, CaGBC Zero Carbon Building, and ENERGY STAR. 
• Apply lessons from OCH case studies to the delivery of Phius-informed affordable housing projects in Ontario. 

Jennifer leads Pretium’s Energy and Carbon Reduction team, helping clients achieve energy and carbon goals while bringing over 18 years of building science consulting experience.

An award-winning industry professional, frequent speaker, and lifelong learner, she holds numerous certifications and is passionate about sharing her love of the built environment.

Session Outline:
As whole building air leakage testing becomes increasingly common through building codes, green building programs, and net-zero performance targets, building enclosure professionals are being asked to test larger, taller, and often fully occupied buildings. Successful whole-building air leakage testing depends as much on planning, logistics, and occupant management as it does on blower doors and test procedures. This session will explore those themes. Using real-world examples from recent projects, we will explore how environmental conditions, equipment selection, set-up, and related requirements, and occupants impact testing. We will discuss how to develop a comprehensive testing plan aimed at avoiding common pitfalls and minimizing disruption to occupants. 

Learning Objectives:

• Understand what it takes to plan and execute a successful whole building air leakage test on a large or occupied building.
• Learn how factors like weather, stack effect, building height, and building layout can influence testing and results.
• Explore strategies for coordinating with building occupants to minimize disruption and maintain safety and security.

Steve brings broad experience in new construction, building rehabilitation, and deep energy retrofits, with a focus on high-performance buildings pursuing Passive House and zero-carbon certifications.
He has expertise in prefabricated envelope systems, timber and mass timber buildings, and supporting architects and developers with envelope design, review, and energy enhancement strategies.

Session Outline:
Selecting Glazing, Roofing, and Façade performance combinations is relatively straightforward.  Filtering the short list of near optimum envelope combinations by construction cost provides the design team a preferred combination.

Selecting Heating, Cooling, and Ventilation performance combinations can be more difficult due to the constraints of existing building systems and geometry.

Re-using ductwork and piping may be a big cost saving, but may limit the available options and overall performance of the economic HVAC choice.

Achieving holistic building performance is often an iterative process where HVAC constraints restart the preferred envelope selection process with new performance targets.

The presentation compares three (3) Deep Energy Retrofit designs with different HVAC solutions and envelope approached achieved similar holistic energy performance.