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Two teams of Ryerson architectural science students placed first and second in an international competition for their creative ideas on sustainable city infrastructure.

Their projects reinvented the traditional notion of green living by transforming a suburban strip mall into a pedestrian-friendly community and building a composting system on roofs in Chinatown to reduce landfill and pesticide use.

The competition, Transforming the Face of Buildings, is part of the inaugural sustainability conference CitiesAlive: World Green Roof Infrastructure Congress, taking place Oct. 19 to 21 in Toronto. The contest challenged faculty-led student teams to reduce the impact of climate change by conceiving of sustainable ways of designing, building and living in communities using environmentally friendly infrastructure such as green roofs, green walls, wetlands and urban forestry. 

The team led by associate professor June Komisar captured first place while the team of assistant professor Vincent Hui was second. Ryerson went up against universities from all over the world. A team from Cornell finished third, while the University of Toronto and a university in Hamburg each received honorable mentions. Vice-President, Research and Innovation Anastasios Venetsanopoulos will present the awards Oct. 20th at a ceremony hosted by CitiesAlive co-chair Joe Pantalone, deputy mayor of Toronto.

First-place students Dov Feinmesser, Yekaterina Mityuryayeva, Tommy Tso and Aaron Hendershott designed the strip mall reinvention, Cliffside Village. They integrated urban farming, solar-powered lighting, green walls and a water management system to create an environmentally friendly community that reduces the mall's carbon footprint and promotes bicycle use.

"We wanted to take a place designed for the car and transform it into a place designed for the people who inhabit it," Feinmesser said. "Working on this competition taught us about teamwork, thinking creatively about existing resources, sustainable technologies and the importance of learning to know your client."

The second-place team, Calvin Fung, Maria Ng, Regina Shing, Sarah Wendland and Bernard Wun, went beyond the idea of a conventional green roof to create a sky-high compost alternative in their project Organic Waste, ComPods. Much like a regular compost, ComPods accomplish the same goal except it includes a heat conduit that uses the excess heat from the green roof to turn organic waste into biodegradable material. This decreases the amount of methane gas that is usually produced by landfills, not to mention the reduction in transport costs. The organic matter can also be used as soil conditioner, lowering the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

The conference was particularly important for Ryerson because of the University's commitment to city building and sustainability, and because the themes align with Ryerson's strategic research priorities. The student design challenge was supported by Ryerson's Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation. The office also supported the registration of Ryerson students.