Building a green future: Nick Gazo fuses science and architecture

Posted on Monday, July 9th, 2018

So what do you do when your Algonquin College program inspires interests that your program doesn’t quite cover? You graduate and enroll in the Algonquin program that does.

When Nick Gazo enrolled in the college’s three-year Architectural Technology program a few years back, it seemed like a perfect fit. Passionate about architecture since he was a kid, Gazo saw the Architectural Technology diploma program as a foot in the door of construction and architectural fields.

The program focuses on document preparation and computer-aided drafting for construction, but also touches on building science, construction methods and materials.

It was the building science component that particularly piqued Gazo’s interest. In his childhood fascination with architecture, he had gradually moved away from the aesthetics of building design towards the science behind those designs. He wanted to know the physics of making strong, stable and sustainable buildings.

“I have a few family members who do physics-related things so I wanted to do more that side of it.

“When I went through the architecture (technology) program, a lot of the questions I wanted answered … were not within the scope of the program.”

The Architectural Technology Program teaches students which materials and building methods are stronger and more sustainable in various conditions, but not necessarily what makes them that way.

If Gazo wanted to concentrate on the physics behind the architectural basics, his instructors told him, maybe he should consider Algonquin’s Bachelor of Building Science honours program.

Gazo followed their advice. His Architectural Technology diploma allowed him to snip two years off the degree program’s usual four years of study. Gazo will graduate this year with his Bachelor of Building Science.

“In the architecture (technology) program, it’s a lot of basing your decisions on code standards, so it’s stuff that has already been decided and measured, whereas in Building Science you’re seeing why the things were set out as the standards.”

After graduation, Gazo has a job with the Ottawa engineering consulting firm that gave him co-op placement last summer. The recommendations of his professors helped to secure the position, he says.

Gazo says he chose Algonquin in part because of the good reviews of family members who had previously attended the college and an grandfather who had once taught microbiology here. The college experience lived up to his expectations.

Algonquin “opened my eyes to a number of different avenues that building science and architecture technicians and technologists can work towards which I wouldn’t have thought of before.”

Those avenues include building energy conservation and sustainability, which is one of the focuses of the Building Sciences program.

Gazo’s environmental consciousness is nothing new. Before coming to Algonquin, he founded a green landscaping firm whose designs emphasized sustainability, easy maintenance and care for the environment. The innovative company won a Young Entrepreneurs Award in 2011.

Gazo may tap his entrepreneurial spirit again someday. He says that in the long term, he would like to open an environmentally conscious renovation company, performing energy audits on homes or small commercial buildings.

Algonquin has given him the foundations on which to build that dream.


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