Bio
Andy Ross Thomson, M.Arch | Born: Burlington, ON. 1971
Andy was born to an engineer-entrepreneur and an opera-singing dental hygienist. This combination produced a doctor out of his sister and with some goading, led Andy to follow in the footsteps of his architect grandfather. Andy was nurtured by exposure to his family’s DIY brand of marine, aviation and mechanical engineering and related family businesses (The Thomson-Gordon Group), and by the magnificent wilderness of Muskoka, Ontario. Andy was raised in part on the Wanda III, a historic steam yacht – built for the Eaton family in 1915 – to ply the pristine waters of the Muskoka Northlands – which fostered a childhood introduction to systems design (steam) and restoration grunt-work.
As an intentionally automobile-free teenager (Thomson tore up his license at 17 after reading James Lovelock) and avid professional skateboarder/snowboarder/windsurfer/cyclist, Andy developed a profound concern about the rampant pattern of suburban sprawl he witnessed firsthand in his hometown (Burlington) that sharply conflicted with his deep respect for the unspoiled landscape of Muskoka. This ultimately resulted in a lifelong passion for ‘reducing entropy’ in residential design by making smarter, more ‘eco-physiological’ architecture and infrastructure design. This was best expressed in Andy’s ‘rebel-thesis’ project titled: A Year In A Tent – An Experiment in Minimal Living in Downtown Toronto, in 1996, which later developed into the radical MINIHOME concept for sustainable housing & community design.
Andy subsequently worked in residential construction and with the R2000 Program before obtaining his graduate degree (UBC, M.Arch, 2003), completing over 1500 inspections (door fan testing), heat loss analyses and HRV design and installations, as well as working as a framing and finish carpenter in Toronto, Vancouver and while on scholarship in Stuttgart, Germany.
For a brief historical backgrounder delineating Thomson’s design philosophy, please see the post from THIS Magazine, dated from 2002.
Chronology
2010 | Earthstream, Ltd. was founded as a land development initiative, dedicated to revitalizing existing trailer parks, based on stringent environmental and site planning guidelines. The first Earthstream Park is slated for opening in 2011.
2009 | OHOME.ORG was founded to design higher quality, lower-cost, sustainable kit-homes designed to be competitive with conventional new construction in the California market.
2002 | Sustain Design Studio was founded as Andy Thomson’s experimental projects firm and portfolio website, and was subsequently incorporated in 2005 as Sustain Design Studio, Ltd. The MINIHOME SOLO was the first full-scale prototype of the company’s goals, to produce an affordable, sustainable, 100% off-grid trailer built on R2000 design principles.
Andy founded Sustain Design Studio in 2003 based on his decade-long ‘experiment in efficient living’ – an active research into various forms of low cost, extremely low environmental impact housing alternatives. Sustain Design Studio dveloped the MINIHOME as its flagship product – embodying all of these principles of efficient living in a single, tiny dwelling:
“the MINIHOME was based on autonomous design principles – but not an insular autonomy – low-entropy systems require an intelligent, organized integration with their larger, host systems”
2002 | VeZaMx, The next generation of the VanZilla project, featured on CBC’s The National News, ‘Unplugged’. (PDF Archive from CBC Website) While it wouldn’t win any contest for style, this renovated 1971 GMC/Corsair Motorhome featured the solar system from Vanzilla, an added a hardwood floor, Velux skylight, Platinum-Catalytic furnace, and LED lighting, plus added tons of storage (Ikea), and a new bathroom in cedar shiplap panel. VeZaMx had a chevy 350 engine, propane fridge, DHW, furnace, and running water! We used 120litre freshwater and greywater tanks – and a porta-potti, always wishing we could afford a composting toilet. VeZaMx uses well under 1/10th the resources and energy of a conventional residence. Also, CBC Morning Show Radio MP3 here. Several disastrous trailer renovations followed from 2003 to 2006, all proving that the way trailers are not built to last. We decided this is an awesome way to live, but that the technology and building science had simply not made it into RV’s yet, and so we set out to radically change this.
2001 | Vanzilla, a 1971 GMC stepvan was purchased in the Summer of 2001 in Calgary. After subsequent engine and electrical repair, roller-paint-job, interior renovation and installation of onboard solar systems and controls, Vanzilla was ready to house the Western branch of the Thomson family near the UBC campus. Vanzilla runs on propane, gasoline and the sun. The engine and a 50W pv panel charges our battery bank, while propane and the 350 engine give us heat and motion. For more on Vanzilla and Urban Vehicle Dwelling, please link to THIS Magazine’s cover story, The-Green-Machine (PDF Excerpt from Utne Reader)
2000 | This marriage of technologies using the latest in building science methods, together with an immersion in travel trailers and mobile home renbovation and construction while a stdent at UBC’s Department of Architecture, has resulted in an architecture that is at once lightweight, low cost, small in size and performance oriented – which reduces net energy consumption, as well as generation system costs, operating energy and expense. The miniHomes are a direct result of over 15 years of research into developing a ‘factor 10′ home that embodies the spirit of living within our means, both economically and environmentally.
1998 | On his return to Canada, the German experience started to influence the design and demanding selection of his Canadian work, which introduced nontoxic, durable materials and the integration of complete energy and water/wastewater systems into the R2000 Standard for advanced, low energy Canadian residential design.
1997 | From the Minimalhaus near Stuttgart project (left), Thomson discovered what Germany could learn from advanced Canadian housing research – and vice versa – (such as the Canadian ‘4-barrier’ approach to building envelope science, lightweight advanced framing and heat-recovery-ventilation systems. Das Minimalhaus – represented not only an aesthetic gesture, but an effort to reduce the materials and cost of the project by reducing the size and the impact of its floorplate. A smaller building contains less useless stuff, is easy to heat, and leaves more room for the neighbors, flora and fauna. All systems are closed loops, collecting, filtering and storing water from the roof. It treats its own waste and heats water and making electricity from solar thermal and pv panels. Das minimalhaus was designed for disassembly and its materials can be easily reused at the end of its life as a house (mechanical fasterners!). It also features a gasketed, airtight envelope, and is ventilated by two ductless, through-the-wall, Swedish hrv units (Rylk Air). All wood was sourced locally. Construction time was 6 months and Cost then was 80k DEM, with 30k DEM coming from the region as an incentive for the solar hot water and electrical systems. 800sf.
1996 | A lifelong environmentalist and traveller, Thomson moved to Germany in 1994 on scholarship to complete his undergraduate degree in Architecture at the University of Stuttgart. Stuttgart was chosen because of its already advanced research into renewable energy systems, lightweight construction methods (IL) and the integration of these systems into a domestic architecture that strives to use natural materials and consume minimal energy. During this period, Andy lived ‘outside’, in improvised shelters, geodesic structures, tents, trailers, in and among Intentional Communities – putting into practice his new-found theoretical knowledge of Baubiologie and Biodynamic Agriculture.The Kubushaus was an experimental prototype design that emerged from the micronautics designs (little ‘non-buildings’ or ‘hard-tents’. It was featured at ‘Econautica’, an event which took place at the DeLeon/White Gallery in Toronto – in 1996. This project led to the construction of ‘das minimalhaus’ in Kircheim, Germany, in 1997, which subsequently evolved into the MINIHOME in 2002.
“At some point, everyone has wanted to escape to some kind of wilderness retreat and return to a simpler life – closer to nature. This project started with yearning for that kind of simplicity. The miniHome emerged from this idea – plugged into nature – a kind of in-between place that allows a relationship and mediates between our own nature or physiology and the biosphere.” ~ ART, 1997
While in Germany (1994-1997), Thomson lived in a variety of temporary structures (tents and domes) adjacent to a solar-hydrogen generating station (Hysolar) and on a small dairy farm in Pleidelsheim. He was exposed to the advanced approach to transportation infrastructure and policy in Freiburg, to the extreme solar architecture and ‘Null Energie’ houses of the Frauenhofer Institute, and during free time, Thomson volunteered at a Biodynamic Farm and commuted by recumbent bicycle through six distinct villages (very much unlike the suburban sprawl back at home) to work at Archi Nova GmbH – a renowned ecological architecture firm in Bietigheim. Thomson studied under the Department of Building Economics at Stuttgart – optimizing the relationships between various house systems to arrive at a carefully balanced design of solar architecture using energy modeling software.
