April 2013
| Business World Magazine | 107
to needs when historic architecture has not,”
says Smith. Therefore, he can offer some-
thing of an explanation to homeowners in
Toronto, namely those living within those
expansive, white-columned vestiges of the
Colonial era, who often lament, “Why isn’t
my home more comfortable?” Noting the
variance between Toronto’s -30 degree Cel-
sius dry winter and the hot humid days of
the summer, Smith says, “These homes were
never designed to be in this kind of environ-
ment, Europe is a rather temperate climate.”
Of course, a good architect recog-
nizes that, and further understands the sig-
nificance of solar orientation, designing the
structure in such a way to maximize on solar
lighting in the winter, while diminishing its
impact in the summer. But to be sure, such
thinking doesn’t even constitute a fraction of
the finesse that Altius Architecture fully em-
ploys upon the projects it undertakes. This
is simply a means of imparting the fact that
architects, in general, bring such a depth of
understanding and awareness to the building
process, that when a project is complete, one
can more easily discern their involvement in
the process.
Smith would suggest the indicatives
