Dr Straube is a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Enviromental Engineering and the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo where he teaches courses in building science, material science, and structural design to both disciplines. He has been deeply involved in the areas of building enclosure design, moisture physics, and whole building performance as a researcher, educator, and consultant. Energy-efficient, healthy, durable and sustainable building designs (high performance buildings) are a general goal of his research which is often supported by advanced computer simulation, full-scale natural exposure performance monitoring and forensic investigations. Past projects have included driving rain measurement and control, pressure moderation, ventilation drying, insulation strategies, alternative building materials, vapor barriers, mold growth, and crawlspace performance. He has continued to be involved in engineering design projects as a professional, and has studied how architects and engineers use design thinking to solve problems.
He has broad experience in the building industry, having been involved in the design, construction, foresnic investigation, repair and restoration of buildings in Europe, Asia, the Carribean, United States and Canada. His specialist knowledge is related to building enclosures ("envelopes" "skins"), moisture problems, energy performance and other building science or building physics in general. As a structural engineer he has designed with wood, hot-rolled and cold-formed steel, concrete, masonry (brick, concrete, aerated autoclaved concrete, natural stone), aluminum, polymer concrete, carbon and glass FRP, fibre-reinforced concrete and structural plastics (PVC, nylon).
He has consulted to many building product manufacturers (e.g. BASF, Dow, Dupont, 3M, Honeywell, Johns Manville, Owens Corning, Roxul) government agencies (e.g., NRCC/IRC, NRCan, CMHC, US DOE, US GSA, US DOD), and trade associations (CPCI, CWC,CUFCA) and is familiar with building-related codes and standards as well as the measurement and testing procedures of the performance of buildings and their components.
