Teresa Coady
Teresa Coady (born July 1956) is a Canadian architect and the former president and founding partner of the Vancouver, British Columbia-based architecture firm B+H BuntingCoady (now part of B+H Architects). She is a member of the Canadian Chapter of the International Initiative for a Sustainabie Built Environment and a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Advisory Board. She is the author of Rebuilding Earth: Designing Ecoconscious Habitats for Humans.
Teresa Coady
- Name
- Teresa Coady
- Born
- 1956 07
- Birthplace
- Toronto, Ontario
- Education
- University of British Columbia
- Awards
- *1999 YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Entrepreneur/Innovator
- Nationality
- Canada
- Occupation
- architect
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Teresa Coady (born July 1956) is a Canadian architect and the former president and founding partner of the Vancouver, British Columbia-based architecture firm B+H BuntingCoady (now part of B+H Architects). She is a member of the Canadian Chapter of the International Initiative for a Sustainabie Built Environment and a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Advisory Board. She is the author of Rebuilding Earth: Designing Ecoconscious Habitats for Humans.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Teresa Coady. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q7702120 · wikipedia · Teresa Coady
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Teresa Coady • Born — 1956 07 • Birthplace — Toronto, Ontario • Education — University of British Columbia • Awards — *1999 YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Entrepreneur/Innovator • 2008 RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Award in the ‘Trailblazer’ Category • 2006 Profit 100; W100 list of Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs
Life and career
Life and career
Coady received her degree in architecture in 1983 from the University of British Columbia. She is best known for her architectural work in the area of sustainability and energy-efficient design. In 1993, Teresa Coady and Tom Bunting founded Bunting Coady Architects; the practice was renamed in 2010 to B+H BuntingCoady Architects Inc. Coady completed two years of engineering and received a bachelor of fine arts prior to pursuing a master's degree in architecture. The statement “We create Living, Breathing Buildings”, which is trademarked by B+H BuntingCoady, developed from Coady's master thesis entitled "The Living Breathing Building". Coady sites her thesis project "The Living Breathing Building" as the mechanism though which her architectural values came to light. While her thesis was initially rejected for being ‘not architectural’, the principles associated with the phrase “Living, Breathing Buildings” became the founding values upon which Bunting Coady Architects was initially created and upon which B+H BuntingCoady operates. Coady believes that architecture is the means through which humans express cultural values and through which humans can prepare themselves for the future. The creation of architecture, for Coady, can have an enormous impact on the planet: In her opinion, the concept of “Living, Breathing Building” is synonymous with a move away from the notion that buildings should be built as machines for inhabitation and towards biomimetics (the art and science of using nature and natural systems as the source of inspiration for creating buildings and building systems). A “Living, Breathing Building”, according to Coady, is a building that imitates nature and enhances the environment.
United Nations Environment Programme
United Nations Environment Programme
In May 2011, Coady was elected to the 2011 UNEP-SBCI Advocacy Committee. She attended the 2011 UNEP-SBCI Annual General Meeting and Symposium on Sustainable Buildings in Leverkusen, Germany, on May 23–24, 2011.
Non-architectural work
Non-architectural work
Coady is actively involved in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. The festival encourages the world to visit and celebrate the phenomenon of the massive cherry tree bloom annually every spring in Vancouver.
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
The B+H BuntingCoady Integrated Design Process
Teresa Coady is also known for her involvement in the creation and development of the building method utilized by B+H BuntingCoady and referred to as the ‘integrated design process’ (IDP). The B+H BuntingCoady Integrated Design Process is composed of a series of steps that, according to Coady: “(work) anywhere, anytime on any kind of building”. The phases of this IDP process include: Orientation and Massing Site Design and Water, Envelope, Ventilation, Lighting and Power, Heating and Cooling, Materials, Life-cycle costing, Quality Assurance.
Reception and standing
The scholarly and documentary record stands as follows.
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Teresa Coady (b.1956), Women in Architecture, 2025
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2025
reference work
- “Teresa Coady”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q7702120: Teresa Coady
General reference · Wikidata
Individual awards and recognition
Coady was selected as winner of the “Bell Trailblazer” category for the 2008 RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Awards (CWEA). Coady was selected for this award (as described by AIArchitect This Week March 13, 2009), “for (her) outstanding leadership within her company and business sector” and because “her work is pioneering new ways of creating mainstream architecture that turns away from mechanistic systems to harnessing the ‘natural intelligence’ of buildings for sustainable and energy-efficient designs". In 1999, Coady was awarded the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award; an award that honours “women whose outstanding achievements contribute to the well-being and future of (the) community.” She was also included in the 10th Annual Profit W100 list of Canada's Top Women Entrepreneurs (Published November 2008).
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Teresa Coady (b.1956), Women in Architecture, 2025Crossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- University of British ColumbiaOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Design
11,558 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Teodoro González de LeónDesigner
- Tep VatthoDesigner
- Terence RileyDesigner
- Terence VerityDesigner
- Teresa Gisbert CarbonellDesigner
- Teresa MollerDesigner
- Teresa TáboasDesigner
- Terje MoeDesigner
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Teresa Coady?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.