tial landscape of the area as well. Lévis is a
city that sits right across the St. Lawrence
River from Quebec City. There is a ferry
that connects the oldest portions of both
cities, so that tourists and Quebecois alike
can take in the beauty of the region from
the water. The biggest project Tergos has
completed so far involved the erection of
the entire wooden structure of the ferry
station, including a CLT roof.
THE PILLARS OF GREEN
ARCHITECTURE
“The construction industry is a dog-eat-
dog industry. It's a tough industry to work
in, because it’s easy to get fleeced,” Mon-
tero said, which is why Tergos firmly be-
lieves that even construction can be done
in an ethical and environmentally friendly
way. To do this, the company developed
seven strategies for ecological building
that focus on quality, design, topography,
materials and energy efficiency.
The first pillar is quality in everything from
the design process to materials and con-
struction. “We have to design quality. We
have to build quality. Essentially, when you
build something better it will last longer,”
Montero said. Lasting structures indubita-
bly result in less waste and resource ex-
penditure in the long run.
The second strategy ensures that the de-
sign is bioclimatic in nature. The location
of the building and its orientation and posi-
tion are used to construct structures that
warm up during the winter and cool down
during the summer. The third pillar inte-
grates topography and geography into the
design, whether it be a highly urbanized
street, a mountainous region or an area
with an abundance of forest.
Following this is materials procurement.
“The choice of materials is really impor-
tant. We choose local materials,” Mon-
tero said. “We want to stimulate the local
economy as much as we can. With the
global economy that we have today every-
body does business with everybody else,
Sebastien Gaudreault
FEBRUARY 2017
H
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