Chris Straka
Fresh out of high school, Chris Straka moved from Southern Ontario to Thunder Bay for university. His extracurricular interests, summer jobs, and co-op placement naturally pointed him to the Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism program at Lakehead University.
Chris lived in residence for three years and enjoyed the instant sense of community he experienced at Lakehead. It was this shared feeling of being in a similar stage in life, having moved out, and wanting to explore new opportunities that put him at ease and allowed him to connect with new people at Lakehead. Chris reached out to others in a bigger way by becoming involved in student government and taking on the role of LUSU President for a year.
He graduated with his Honours Bachelor Outdoor Recreation, and Urban Geography degree in 1998 and then returned to complete an Education degree. After graduation, Chris landed a job as a Program Director at the YMCA Camp in Greater Vancouver. In the spring, summer and fall of 1999, Chris developed a curriculum based outdoor experiential education program.
However, after completing this project, Chris realized that one interest was unsatisfied yet, academically. "I realized that I was interested in learning more about the design of spaces for educational and recreational purposes. I spent the winter traveling around Mexico, completing graduate school applications, and supply teaching in Peterborough, Ontario".
In September of 2000, Chris applied and was accepted into the Masters of Environmental Design degree in urban planning and design at the University of Calgary. It was at this time that he unexpectedly reconnected with his friend and Lakehead alumni, Patric Langevin. On the first day of class, Chris was standing in line, waiting to register for classes and receive his student ID when he saw Patric. They hadn’t spoken for five years, but their educational and career paths converged and down the road, they formed Vert Design.
Before Vert design, Patric and Chris had lost touch with each other. When they both ended up in Ottawa for work, they respectively left their positions and embarked on starting this environmental design collective. Today, Vert design focuses on working with the client to create energy efficient buildings, lands, and communities.
Currently, Chris is living in Ottawa. As the builder and designer of Canada’s first certified Passive House, his three-storey, 1,650 sq. ft. per side duplex was carefully designed from the top down. Initially, he didn’t set out to meet the Passive House standards; rather Chris wanted to build something he was proud of. Using conventional building materials from North America and drawing from his consulting work experience, he designed an energy efficient building which met the Passive House standard -- it is six to eight times more airtight than new conventional residence and overall uses 90% less energy for heating and cooling than conventionally built houses. The building has a green roof with 12 inches of soil for a vegetable garden, radiant heat floors, a geo-thermal heating system, a high efficiency heat recovery ventilation system, and a cistern for rainwater collection. It is an impressive accomplishment given the skepticism Straka faced; it is the first Passive House building in Canada used as a residential unit.
Chris Straka’s Lakehead experience gave him foundations to build upon. He has carved his own career path and established roots in different cities. Rather than following trends, his design principles are based on his unique perspective on sustainability. Chris has an appreciation and value for outdoor spaces and today he has a wealth of practical expertise and growing knowledge to share.
