The full potential and reality of a building does not occur in isolation. By implication, truly sustainable and resilient buildings are those that not only thrive on their own, but that, more importantly, also achieve a level of symbiosis and adaptability between their occupants and the outside world. In this way the mutual benefits among these entities far outweighs what each can achieve in isolation. The design and integration of the technologies that can enable such a vision requires a deep understanding of the interrelationships between – an ecology of – building components, occupants, and the outside world. This talk examines progress towards this ecology and discusses prospects for the future. A conceptual framework, dubbed the sustainability-resiliency web, is introduced to establish the means by which the ecology can be used to design and integrate advanced technologies in order to realize sustainable and resilient buildings and cities.

Dr. David N. Bristow is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for Resilience of Critical Infrastructure in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Toronto where he leads the infrastructure resilience thrust. David holds Doctorate and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto. His research concerns the sustainability and resiliency of buildings and cities. David has developed ecological, network, control system and thermodynamic methodologies for studying topics in these areas and for creating novel design solutions.