Terms of Use

Effective Date: April 11, 2022 

Intro: What’s this Gigantic Amount of Text About?

First of all, welcome to the website of Hygge Architecture Ltd. (also referred to as “Hygge Architecture”, “we”, “us”, “our”, “ourselves”). Due to both Ontario and Canada being litigious environments as well as in other countries of the world, it’s both best practices and very common business practice to establish a binding agreement for any and every user of a company’s website to protect its legal interests, manage how the website is used, and protect ourselves from possible legal claims against us from someone or some business entity using our website.

A website is a great tool to help promote our business but there may be any number of possibilities of unanticipated issues and risks that we would be otherwise be exposed to without a binding agreement that defines the terms of use of our Website and defines the limitations of its usage.

We hope that you would appreciate that an architecture firm minimizing our exposure to risk in our website is a probably a really good thing. Details matter. 

We’ve done our best to make these Terms of Use easy to understand as the best agreements and contracts are easy to understand and aim to minimize misunderstandings or misinterpretations between parties. But sometimes legal language is not easy to digest. As such, we encourage you to conduct your own investigations of the definitions and meanings of any word or phrase that you are unfamiliar with. We are living in the Information Age after all. You are also, of course, advised to seek legal advice when reviewing legal agreements such as this one.

Our website will be referred to as “the Website” in these Terms of Use. Sorry in advance for whenever we use ALL CAPS, we’re not trying to be impolite and we’re not necessarily yelling at you. 


Your Acceptance of these Terms of Use

Please read the following terms and conditions of use with the utmost care so you fully understand them. These terms of use will be referred to as either the “Terms of Use” or “Agreement” and represent a binding agreement between each user (also referred to as “you” or “your”) of our website. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ACCESS AND USE THE WEBSITE, YOUR USE SIGNIFIES YOUR AGREEMENT AND CONSENT TO BE LEGALLY BOUND BY THE TERMS OF USE. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use, then simply do not use the Website. This fundamental “take it or leave it” concept to the Website’s Terms of Use is embedded in the vast majority of other websites that you likely use every day.

By using the Website, you confirm that you are legally permitted to use this Website and are at least 19 years of age, the reasons for this age restriction includes, but is not limited to, the fact that the Website Content includes images depicting alcohol consumption that may not be appropriate for younger audiences. If you are using the Website on behalf of a company, an organization, or an entity, you confirm and warrant that you have the authority to bind such company/organization/entity to these Terms of Use and you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use on behalf of such company/organization/entity.

Contents of this Agreement

To help navigate this large volume of text, we’ve provided a list of the main sections below:

  • Intro: What’s this Gigantic Amount of Text About?

  • Your Acceptance of these Terms of Use

  • Contents of this Agreement

  • Jurisdiction, Applicable Legislation, and Dispute Resolution

  • Disclaimer on Email Communications

  • Language

  • Intellectual Property

  • Weblinks to Third-Party Websites

  • Accessibility

  • Disclaimer of Warranties

  • Limitation of Liability

  • Unsolicited Feedback or Submissions

  • Revisions or Updates to our Terms of Use


Jurisdiction, Applicable Legislation, and Dispute Resolution

This website is only intended for access and use by users located within the province of Ontario in Canada. You acknowledge and agree that this Website and its Terms of Use shall be evaluated and understood and governed according to the laws of the Province of Ontario as well as Canadian federal laws therein. Furthermore, you agree and confirm that your use of the Website and all communications associated with the Website shall be deemed to occur in the Province of Ontario. In the event of any dispute originating from your use of the Website, you irrevocably agree that the courts of the Province of Ontario are the most appropriate jurisdiction for any legal claim and that any proceeding must and only be commenced in the City of Toronto, Ontario … regardless where you are located in the world or where in the world you accessed and used the Website. If you are using the Website from outside the Province of Ontario, you agree that you are also responsible for adhering to the laws and legislation of your local jurisdiction. If you are using the Website in Ontario, you agree to adhere to the laws and legislation of the Province of Ontario in your usage of the Website.

The failure of Hygge Architecture Ltd. to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. You also agree that if any part of these Terms of Use is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that best matches the intent of the original provision or term and that the remainder of the Terms of Use shall continue in full force and effect.


Disclaimer on Email Communications

Emails, including any attachments, are intended for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named as addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient of the email or responsible for delivering the message to an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized use, copying of such an email or emails and/or any attachment files, review or disclosure is strictly prohibited. If you have received an email from us in error, please immediately notify us and arrange for the return of any and all copies and the permanent deletion of this message in all possible storage media, computers, or networks; this deletion includes any attachments. You also agree to delete permanently such emails without reading it or making a copy.


Language

By using the Website, you agree that English shall be the language of this Website and waive any right to use or rely upon any other language. 

Il est de la volonté express des parties que le présent app/website et tous les affairs qui s'y rapportent soient rédigés en langue anglaise, exception faite des documents pour lesquels la loi exige l'usage exclusif du français.


Intellectual Property

Our website contains content (referred to as the “Content”) including, but not limited to, all text, images, animations, and other elements and components that is protected by the copyright laws of Canada as well as internationally around the world in other countries. You acknowledge and agree that any of the Content, including but not limited to any logo, trademark, image, image compositions, text, etc. of the Website Content is owned and licensed by us and that none of it may be used in any way and for any purpose without our prior written approval.  You also confirm your understanding that we reserve the right to enforce our intellectual property rights to the fullest extent of the law. By using the Website, you confirm that you understand that any unauthorized reproduction or use of any or all the Website’s Content could be subject to penalties and damages, including but not limited to those related to our copyright and trademark rights. 

The Website Content describing our Principal Architect’s prior experience in other architecture firms includes photographs and images of buildings whose credit of authorship for the building and landscape architecture designs belong to architectural firms other than Hygge Architecture Ltd. Those architectural firms have been credited appropriately and conspicuously for authorship of the building designs themselves as our Website design follows the guidelines described and illustrated in OAA Regulatory Notice R.5, Version 1.0, Credit for Authorship – Misrepresentation of a Practice. That said, our Principal Architect worked on those projects when he was an employee of those other architectural firms and he is allowed to display and describe the work that he performed while in the architectural practice that he has since left; this allowance to describe prior work in other firms is in the same aforementioned OAA Regulatory Notice R.5, Version 1.0.

By using the Website, you also acknowledge that you and, if applicable, the company/organization/entity that you have accepted the Terms of Use on their behalf, understand and agree that Hygge Architecture Ltd. is not claiming credit for authorship for other buildings that you and/or your (or another) company/organization/entity or architectural practice was engaged by a client to provide architectural services to.

After the founding of our firm, we drove all across Ontario to take photographs of those buildings that were worked on while the Principal Architect was employed at other firms; these photos were taken specifically for marketing purposes to use as part of the Website’s Content and thus we retain all copyright of the photographs themselves. By accessing and using this Website, you acknowledge that those building images and photographs are our intellectual property.  You further agree that any modification or reproduction or use on any of the Website’s Content violates our copyright and intellectual property rights.


Weblinks to Third-Party Websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites; we’ve included them because maybe you might have an interest in that third-party. That said, providing a link to a third-party does not mean that we are endorsing them. We do not accept any responsibility whatsoever for the content, reliability accuracy, virus-free of third-party websites as those websites are not controlled or maintained by us in any way.


Accessibility

As of January 2021, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) requires that all public websites be accessible if a business is either a designated public sector organization or a business or non-profit organization with 50 or more employees and whose website was or is published after January 1, 2012. Per AODA, the two aforementioned types or sizes of businesses or organizations are required to include accessibility into its website design involves generally following the internationally accepted standard of WCAG 2.0 Guidelines for web accessibility developed by the World Wide Web Consortium.

Hygge Architecture Ltd. has less than 50 employees. By using this Website, you acknowledge that you understand the size of the business.


Disclaimer of Warranties

Please don’t skip this section in your review of the Terms of Use!

An architecture firm’s reputation is often spoken of as its most valuable asset. As such, we have made reasonable efforts to look to the accuracy, appropriateness, and currency of the Website’s information. That said, Hygge Architecture Ltd. does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the Content, including information that we gathered from published third-party news and information sources, and you hereby agree that under no circumstances will Hygge Architecture Ltd.  be liable in any way for any of the Website’s Content, including but not limited to, any errors and omissions, or any damage or loss of any kind that may be incurred as a result of the Website Content and/or a user usage of the Website. You are advised to not rely on any content published or linked to this Website without first verifying any information as accurate, current, and complete by making your own enquires. We also make no commitment to update the information of this Website.

ACCESSING AND USING THIS WEBSITE AND ITS CONTENT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING ITS CONTENT, IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS-IS”, “WITH ALL FAULTS”, AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS AND WE HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, APPROPRIATENESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT OR MISAPPROPRIATION OF INTELLECTUAL RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES, OR AUTHENTICITY. FURTHER, WE NEITHER WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE, ITS CONTENT, OR ITS SERVER ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR DEFECTS OR OTHER POSSIBLY HARMFUL ELEMENTS OR COMPONENTS NOR THAT DEFECTS ON THE WEBSITE WILL BE CORRECTED. BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO ASSUME ALL RISK OF RELYING ON THE WEBSITE’S CONTENTS AND/OR INFORMATION.

Furthermore, by using this Website, you acknowledge that you understand that the built spaces, landscape design, and buildings shown on the Website have not been specifically designed by Hygge Architecture Ltd. and that you understand that Hygge Architecture Ltd. makes no claim or warranties of authorship of any of the built spaces, furniture, building products, landscape architecture, etc. depicted in the Website’s Content. By using the Website and agreeing to its Terms of Use, you hereby acknowledge that you understand that the images and animations of the Website are meant to demonstrate aspirational possibilities or symbolic lifestyle representations only; these aspirational possibilities are ones that Hygge Architecture Ltd. neither can guarantee nor promise can come to reality in each current or future project while symbolic representational images may not be depicting of any current or previous or specific design by our company or worked on by its Principal Architect when he was employed in other firms . For example, a photo of a fireplace may not be possible to be feasibly designed into an apartment building or necessarily being a standard design feature of our past, current or future building designs. Another example is that an image meant as a symbolic image, such as a skylight meant to represent Commercial projects as a sector, or a stair meant to represent Justice buildings as a sector, or an ice surface meant to represent the category of Sports arenas, etc., is meant to symbolically represent the category of the Principal Architect’s prior sector work experience in other architecture firms but do not represent the actual photos of the projects worked on by the Principal Architect; these images have been symbolically placed to establish a mood or tone of the Website webpage. While it may be common assumption when accessing and using other architectural firm websites that all photos are of built spaces design or possibly even the furniture design by the architecture firm, you acknowledge that this common assumption is not to be exercised for this Website and that you understand that Hygge Architecture Ltd. is neither claiming nor making any warranties, in any way or of any kind, on design credit or authorship or authenticity of any built spaces depicted in the Website’s Content.


Limitation of Liability

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL HYGGE ARCHITECTURE LTD. OR ANY OF ITS  PARENTS, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, CONSULTANTS, LICENSORS, AND OTHER PARTNERS OF EACH BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGES WHATSOVER (including without limitation direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, special, consequential, exemplary or other damages, and including without limitation to any loss of profit, costs, expenses, harm to business, business interruption, reputation, loss of information or programs or data, loss of revenue, loss of savings, loss of goodwill, libel, slander, loss of tangible or intangible property, legal fee or legal costs, wasted management or office time or damages of any kind whatsoever), whether based in contract, tort, negligence or any other legal basis, arising out of or in connection with the Website, any linked website, or linked social media platform, or any of the services or content of the foregoing), even if Hygge Architecture Ltd. has been specifically advised of the possibility of such damage or loss, or if damage or loss was foreseeable. If you are not satisfied with the Website in any way, your sole remedy is to stop using the Website. 


Unsolicited Feedback or Submissions

If you transmit any suggestions, ideas, comments, drawings, or similar information to Hygge Architecture Ltd., including but not limited to the Website design, a building design, etc. (“Feedback”) whether through our Website or otherwise, you agree that we can treat any such feedback as non-confidential and that you agree that you have no expectation of any proprietary interest in the content of your submissions. 

You agree that you hereby grant Hygge Architecture Ltd. an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid up, sub-licensable, non-exclusive right and license that may use or develop your Feedback by or on behalf of Hygge Architecture Ltd. or its affiliates without any obligation to you.


Revisions or Updates to our Terms of Use

Hygge Architecture Ltd. reserves the right to update, revise, or modify or these Terms of Use at any time and/or periodically from time to time without any notice whatsoever. Your only solution to monitor changes of the Terms of Use is to check this Website regularly. If Hygge Architecture Ltd. has posted any revision to these Terms of Use, the revisions will be effectively immediately. Essentially, if the Terms of Use has changed at any time and you continue to use this Website, you will be deemed to have accepted the changes to the Terms of Use.


Copyright April 11, 2022. All rights reserved.