Avi Friedman
Housing Guru
Avi Friedman is confidently acclaimed by Wallpaper magazine "one of the top 10 style setters who will most influence the way we live in the next quarter century." His international award-winning work in home design, community development and sustainability has earned him his keep as Canada's housing guru and style setter. A passionate speaker, he projects an articulate vision of our future in home design, and will change the way you think about our priorities as a society.
Avi Friedman holds degrees in Architecture and Town Planning from the Israel Institute of Technology, McGill University and the University of Montreal. In 1988 he co-founded the Affordable Homes Program at the McGill School of Architecture, where he currently teaches. He is known nationally and internationally for his housing innovations and in particular for the Grow Home and Next Home designs.
His work has been published in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Popular Science, among others, and has been featured on the ABC, BBC, CNN and HGTV networks. He is the author of numerous books, including Peeking Through the Key Hole, Sustainable Residential Development, and A Place in Mind: The Search for Authenticity. Friedman is also a syndicated columnist for the Canwest chain.
Friedman is the recipient of numerous awards including the Progressive Architecture Research Award, the J.-Armand-Bombardier Prize for Technological Innovation, the Manning Innovation Award of Distinction and the United Nations World Habitat Award. In the year 2000 he was selected by Wallpaper magazine as one of 10 people from around the world "most likely to change the way we live."
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1. Sustainable Residential Development
If planning and design for green neighborhoods you need to understand the principles of green building and how to apply them to residential development. These principles create communities that balance social, economic, and environmental needs. -
4. The Grow Homes and the Next Homes: Thinking Innovation
The past half century saw urban sprawl and dependence on cars governing most decision in planning homes and communities. In this presentation Dr. Friedman will describe his alternative called the Common Sense Community. -
3. Planning Homes and Communities for Healthy Living
Recent studies demonstrate that there is a correlation between the design of our homes and communities and their occupants' health. In this lecture, Dr. Friedman will draw the line and will illustrate how homes and communities can be designed for healthy living. -
2. Future of Homes and Communities
As a result of fundamental socio-economic changes in society, our homes and communities are also changing. The effect of these changes on our living patterns and dwellings will be described in this lecture.
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Friedman is a whirlwind of energy, ebullience and no-nonsense arguments
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April 2010A Place in Mind
A Place in Mind is the result of Avi Friedman’s worldwide quest for successful environments where people congregate and feel comfortable. Searching for good places—authentic places—and wondering about the disappearance of others, are at the heart of A Place in Mind, as the author reflects on the design of markets, the evolution of building methods, the need for historic preservation, the relationship between cities and suburbs and the unraveling of human relations in North America. In each instance, the question is asked: why do these places work?
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June 2007Sustainable Residential Development: Planning and Design for Green Neighborhoods
Written by internationally renowned architect Avi Friedman, Sustainable Residential Development equips you with a much-needed process and examples for planning and designing green communities. This landmark resource explains the principles of green building and how to apply them to residential development, presenting guidelines for creating communities that balance social, economic, and environmental needs.
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November 2005Homes Within Reach: A Guide to Planning, Design, and Construction of Affordable Homes and Communities
Homes Within Reach provides the first systematic guide for planning, designing, and constructing modest, yet high-quality, homes. From siting and foundations to systems, layouts, and interior and exterior finishes, it covers dozens of design and construction techniques that promote housing quality with sensitivity to lowering costs.
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June 2005Peeking Through the Keyhole: The Evolution of North American Homes
Since the Second World War, rapid developments in the economy, family structure, technology, employment, and lifestyle have transformed the home. Avi Friedman and David Krawitz guide the reader through the trends and changes, many of them ill-conceived and wasteful, that have influenced residential design and construction over the last fifty years. Offering pragmatic suggestions for many problems, including the damages caused by suburban sprawl, the limits of standard single-family dwellings, and the widening gap between rich and poor, "Peeking Through the Keyhole" unravels the effects of technology and consumerism on the way we perceive and use domestic space.
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January 2005Room for Thought: Rethinking Home and Community Design
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