Downtown buildings will feature energy conservation Le Quartier Concordia will change the way the university is viewed in the city, say the architects BY ROB ERT S CALIA "These buildings will actually With sleek designs, three-floor atri­ mizing daylight exposure as panels like they are in Europe now. "If you change the way Concordia is viewed ums and glazed indoor walkways that drive sunlight deep within the build­ could construct the building you arianne McKenna and Mark in the city," said McKenna, referring run parallel to the streets, each build­ ing - these are all weapons of have for the same cost and have it MMitchell want their buildings to the Integrated Engineering, Com­ ing will have its unique character: an choice. Combined, these features will operate at 50 per cent the energy cost to breathe, to communicate with puter Science and Visual Arts Com­ executive feel for business, and a satisfy Concordia's primary goal: cut­ in the first year, who wouldn't buy their physical surroundings and mir­ plex and the John Molson School of more robust, loft feel for visual arts. ting energy consumption. According that?" ror the character of their occupants. Business. Both buildings are slated But looks aren't everything. "When to Mitchell's latest projections, these Still, each client must find his or The architect-engineer duo for construction on or near the cor­ we're trying to implement green buildings should consume roughly her own "green zone," a compromise explained their vision to a packed ner of Guy and Ste. Catherine Sts. design," Mitchell explained, "it's sort 70 per cent the energy required by between environmental awareness room of architects at McGill Univer­ (Pictured above, an aerial view look­ of like a sports analogy used when today's standard Canadian building. and budget restraints. In order for sity last Tuesday and emphasized the ing north.) going out to beat the other team: The goal is to "touch the earth these projects to be successful, the importance of aesthetics and green Le Quartier Concordia, as McKen­ How can I beat these guys? What are lightly," Mitchell said. Long gone are clients have to be supportive from design in revitalizing Concordia's na dubbed it, will "capture the spirit the soft areas that we can attack?" the days of huge smokestacks, gener­ the beginning and follow through. downtown campus. A groundbreak­ of Montreal" and finally unify a cam­ Direct Metro connections, opera­ ators and hermetically sealed build­ ing ceremony is scheduled for May pus that is presently nothing but a ble windows for natural ventilation ings. Green buildings will become ■ Building of Le Quartier Concordia 13 on the site. couple of streets. and a southwest orientation for maxi- the standard in North America, just continued on page 11 Canada sets an example of dealing with differences peacefully Sociologist Meir Amor praises Canadian brand of tolerant pragmatism, a lesson for the Middle East BY FRANK KUIN innovative methods to deal with These claims, such as that over the diversity," Amor said. place of Quebec in Canada, the status anada has made more progress "We are engaging diversity in a of native people and the emancipa­ Cin embracing cultural diversity way that is quite unique." He sum­ tion of ethnic minorities, have nur­ than any other country in the world, marized the components of the Cana­ tured "a need to make room and and stands as a unique example dian way as moderation, share," he said. "And making room internationally for the peaceful way non-violence and recognition of the and sharing is not an easy thing to in which its internal differences are rights of others. do." dealt with, says Meir Amor, a new Amor dismissed suggestions that assistant professor of sociology at Accommodating difference the differences Canadians face are Concordia. Indeed, the great lesson that can be somehow less intractable than those Looking at Canada as an expert on learned from studying Canada's bedevilling more conflict-prone ethnic and race relations, Amor finds achievements is that there are ways to regions of the world. In fact, Canada that this country has made great deal with differences non-violently. has "all the ingredients" for conflicts strides in "breaking open new pat­ Amor grew up in Israel and has stud­ that might have erupted into vio­ terns" to debate the rights and claims ied several historical cases of geno­ lence, he said. of cultural, linguistic and ethnic cide and mass expulsion in his PhD For instance, the Irish example minorities. Often, such issues "are research at the University of Toronto. shows what differences between not so much debated in many other "You can compare the path that Protestants and Catholics can lead to, societies." Canada is going with different paths while contrasts of languages have In comparison to other nations, that other societies went," he said. brought violence to many other even similar ones such as the United "The huge difference is that they places. And demands for land, such States and Australia, Canada has in opted in some cases for violence and as native claims in Canada, have else­ the last 50 years or so fostered "a seri­ extermination. And in Canada we are where led to shooting wars. ous effort," both formally and within still juggling and trying to accommo- society at large, "to come up with date the different claims." Meir Amor teaches a course on ethnic and race relations. ■ Lessons continued on page 10 Future of computer science may lie in 'emergente' Researchers are rethinking software design and returning to a bottom-up approach, says Peter Grogono BY JAMES M ARTIN like computer science, you absorb all software design. the ideas in that field . In one sense, "E mergence is a 'bottom-up' n cases of emergence, break rules. that's obviously a good thing, but it approach," Grogono explained. IThat was the unofficial mantra of can also hold you up because you "Modem software is written to handle Biological Framings of Problems in can't escape those boundaries. So if the global situation, which is often Computing, a recent meeting of the you start giving up the key assump­ why it's so complicated: it has to take minds at the Santa Fe Institute. tions, you may get nowhere, but you into account so many possibilities. "Much of what we were doing was may see things that people haven't ''Whereas if you can get the local con­ taking a central idea in computer sci­ seen before. trol correct, the emergent phenome­ ence and just throwing it out the "That's why you often find that non is that globally, things will work window," said Peter Grogono, an people coming from another field out all right. At least that's the idea ." associate professor of computer sci­ make contributions, because they In other words, although your ence at Concordia who participated don't have all the baggage. You find average ant is, well , a one-track sim­ by invitation in the thinkgroup. this particularly in computer science, pleton, ant colonies are collectively The mid-April workshop was the where often the advances are made capable of creating and maintaining first major meeting of the Feyerabend by physicists, doctors, biologists, and extremely complex systems. Project, named for the late Austrian people like that. They may make mis- A snooker enthusiast, Grogono has philosopher who speculated that new ~ takes, but they can also bring impor- written a popular online simulation scientific theories do not, as is con­ "'~ tant insights ." as an example of a complex system ventionally believed, necessarily g Grogono noted that biology has with emergent properties. He noted improve upon previous theories. I been particularly useful in rethinking that other computer games, particu­ By entertaining the "quite radical" "' computer science, and researchers larly the wildly addictive The Sims, notion that certain supposedly inar­ 3 are currently looking into possible show emergence theory in action. guable points (e.g. the idea that all Professor Peter Grogono indulges in a little snooker at Shane pool room . "A links between virology and computer He's currently writing system sim­ computer data must have an address computer simulation of snooker is an interesting example of a complex virus protection. Even the lowly ant ulations in order to better study in order to be accessed) are incorrect, system with emergent properties: the positions of the balls on the table has proved a source of inspiration emergent behaviour, and says there the Feyerabend Project hopes to reflect the simulated 'skill' of the player, just as in a real game." with regard to "emergence" theory, are close similarities between his sim­ shrink the huge developmental gap which is widely tipped to take soft­ ulations and The Sims - "but my between computer hardware (which, ing turned to all forms of complex fessor of ele'ctrical engineering ware development to the next level. simulations don't look as exciting." due mainly to manufacturing innova­ systems (namely, any system with Nawwaf Kharma) coming from a A hot topic at the Santa Fe work­ Nevertheless, Grogono has made an tions, keeps getting smaller, lighter many interacting parts) for possible wide range of disciplines. shop, and certain to be much dis­ effort not to become overly familiar and faster) and software (largely insight. Grogono was one of 15 com­ "There were biologists, economists, cussed at the upcoming Feyerabend with his kindred pop-culture spirits. unchanged since the 1970s). puter scientists invited to the work­ and people who look into weather Project meeting in Oregon, emer­ "I'm scared that if I got hooked on Although the problem is specific to shop, with the other 10 participants forecasting," Grogono explained.