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The 125,000 square foot Beaty Biodiversity Centre comprises a natural history museum, a large natural history collection, research laboratories and offices with related meeting and support spaces. It is organized around three sides of the courtyard space, with the Beaty Biodiversity Museum occupying the west side along Main Mall. The principal exhibition space of the museum is a glass “lantern” within which an enormous skeleton of a Blue Whale is displayed, creating a public face for the complex towards the Mall. The extensive natural history collections, located beneath the central courtyard, are accessible directly from this exhibition space. Research laboratories and offices occupy the south and east sides of the project. The laboratories are organized in regular bays along the east outer edge of the project, while the offices and meeting spaces are organized more casually around the courtyard to foster a sense of academic community. An open stair, located on the courtyard edge of the office and meeting spaces, threads through the project to interconnect informal social spaces.
Beaty Biodiversity Centre
Description in progress.
UBC School of Biomedical Engineering
The ARTlab is the first phase of a Music, Art, and Theatre facility that combines new construction with a repurposed and renovated 1914 student residence, Tache Hall. The ARTlab was designed and constructed in an expedited manner, separately from the overall project, to avail of federal stimulus funding arising from the 2009 recession. The 70,000 sq ft ARTlab program consists of large art spaces that complement the small art spaces within Tache Hall. It includes a national-standard gallery, a lecture hall, a soundstage, administration, and a variety of new and traditional media studios. ​ The volume of the ARTlab interlocks with the volume of Tache Hall, reinforcing that the two buildings are an integrated arts facility. Together they form an intimately scaled courtyard between old and new, and provide the ARTlab with a presence on Duckworth Quadrangle, the principal outdoor space within the university campus. To facilitate critical urban connections to south of the project, the north side of the building is raised one storey above grade. The plaza below forms the entrance to the ARTlab, and creates a generous covered outdoor space for school and gallery events. ​ The School of Art Gallery, the main public facility in the project, is on the main floor. The lecture hall and soundstage are below grade. To take advantage of daylight, the studios and administration are on the upper two floors. An intimately scaled atrium dynamically links the upper floors to below grade spaces as well as the campus tunnel network, a key pedestrian route during the bitterly cold Winnipeg winter months. This atrium is animated by south daylight, and forms the central circulation space and social heart of the building. ​ The exterior juxtaposes modern construction methods with the historic masonry construction of Tache Hall. The east and south elevations are reticent: large-scale screen walls that support Virginia Creeper. Constructed from aluminum grilles suspended a meter from the face of the building envelope, these screen walls modulate sunlight while providing privacy from the nearby school of business. The creeper is growing at about 8 ft per year, and over time will form a seasonably variable vertical xeriscape. The north elevation is fully glazed so that the studios within benefit from diffuse daylight and provide an active expression of the School of Art on Duckworth Quadrangle beyond.
ARTLab
The Academic Wood Tower is a proposed 74.5m high, fifteen storey tower for the University of Toronto at Bloor St & Devonshire Place. Typical floor plates are 850sm, and floor-to-floor heights are 4.2m for office levels and 4.9m for classrooms. ​ The foundations, basement and first floors have already been constructed in concrete and steel as part of the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, along with the elevator core to level four. At the University’s request in 2016 we undertook a study to explore the feasibility of a Mass Timber Structure. A number of timber wall and floor systems were investigated, including the use of CLT panels and hybrid concrete-timber systems. Overall, the use of Mass Timber was found to be feasible, and the project is moving forward with Engineered Timber as the primary structural system. The core, beams and perimeter bracing are glulam members (ranging from 315 x 380 mm to 515 x 494 mm). Floor decks are 175mm thick glulam slabs to maximise clear spans and provide inherent two hour fire resistance. ​ The project contains a variety of program types for multiple faculties and user groups, including the Rotman Executive Education Group, Munk School of Global Affairs, Arts & Sciences and the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. Functions include flat-floor Active Learning Classrooms, Executive Learning, Catering and Dining facilities, and administrative office suites.
Academic Wood Tower
Located on a tightly constrained infill site next to Varsity Stadium on the downtown University of Toronto St George campus, the Goldring Centre is a 140,000 sq ft facility forming a new and vital hub for sports, research and therapy, serving both high performance varsity athletes and the wider campus community. ​ The core of the program is a pair of very large rooms: the Fieldhouse and the Strength and Conditioning Centre. The larger of these rooms is the Fieldhouse, which contains competition standard basketball and volleyball courts with seating for 2,000 spectators. The site is compact and the Fieldhouse is too large to fit within the permissible zoning envelope. The solution was to excavate and place the courts below grade, where they could occupy the full width of the site. To preserve the clear span required by the Fieldhouse, the Strength and Conditioning Centre and upper floors are suspended above from 180 ft long trusses. In overcoming the challenges posed by a constrained urban infill site, the project was rewarded with a singular public expression on the street: a heroic steel frame vaulting over a cavernous excavation. ​ At grade, the project builds on an existing net of small-scale pedestrian passages on campus. Through the north lobby an interior walk extends through the building from west to east connecting the existing landscape link between Woodsworth College and Woodsworth College Residence to Devonshire Place. On its western edge a new laneway between the project and Woodsworth College creates a quiet passage connecting the campus from Hoskin Ave in the south to Bloor Street. Trees are a mediating screen between the College and the Goldring Centre on the lower floors, continuing the campus language of linked, landscaped passages. ​ The project further proposes that Devonshire Place can be closed to vehicular traffic during major athletic and student events. Significant spaces within the Goldring Centre overlook both Varsity Stadium and events along Devonshire Place, constructing synergies between stadium, street and building. Overlook from the street to the basketball and volleyball courts in the Fieldhouse below connects events deep within the building to the street above. The street landscape is designed as a plaza to host large-scale events that support both important sports gatherings and special student activities. ​ The main entrance is located at the south end of the site, accessible from both Devonshire Place and the laneway to the west. The Fieldhouse ‘Sports Bowl’, dug 30 ft into the earth, is approached from the lobby above and surrounded by venue seating. During daily use the courts are overlooked by both street and lane, becoming part of the experience of campus life, a recognizable ‘place’ on campus. A linear gallery space off the entrance lobby provides for casual meetings or events and receptions, the gallery affording a fantastic overlook of Sports Bowl events below. During televised major events, motorized black-out blinds can block all daylight and overview. ​ Floating above, and open to Devonshire place behind frameless cable-net glazing, is the Strength and Conditioning Centre. This space is highly visible to the U of T campus and to the passing public on Bloor Street. It produces a distinctive sports identity fixing the precinct of Varsity Stadium and the Goldring Centre in the public imagination, day and night. The SCC starts with a flat platform for general exercise and conditioning programs and then steps down a series of interior terraces towards Varsity Stadium. Platform and terraces project visually out over Varsity Field, completing themselves in the city, and providing a commanding view of the stadium beyond. The diagonal of the terraces produces a kind of stadium seating overlooking the activities on the street and field below. ​ The project uses the campus and the space over Varsity Field as a form of borrowed landscape. Interior spaces complete themselves in exterior spaces, binding activities together, contributing to a coherent development of the campus as a whole. The bowl of competition courts opens at grade to passersby and daylight, and reduces by 10 ft the depth of excavation needed. The stepped tiers of the Strength and Conditioning Centre visually complete the raked seating of Varsity Stadium opposite, a direct connection between training and performance. The lobbies and public spaces connect to streets, lanes and passages, stitching this new addition into the fabric of the St George campus.
Goldring Centre
The Beaty Biodiversity Centre and the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory are located on Main Mall, the central north/south spine of the University of British Columbia. Together they form a complex of related environmental science functions; a new campus precinct organized around a generous exterior courtyard space, bisected by new cross-campus pedestrian and bicycle connections. ​ The Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory is located on the northern side of the courtyard. This 55,000 square foot building consolidates interdisciplinary research groups around an atrium that interconnects the four floors of the building. Social spaces are located adjacent to this atrium to reinforce a sense of academic community and to encourage serendipitous interaction between faculty, students and the various research units. Faculty offices, loft spaces / digital laboratories for the student community and a variety of meeting spaces are located on the upper floors, while the large public rooms are located on the ground floor where they participate in the urban life of the campus. ​ The atrium plays a key role in the sustainable design strategies employed in the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory. Glazed at the top to bring day-light deep into the interior it combines with generous glazing on the north side of the building and photo sensor controls to minimize dependency on artificial lighting. The atrium also acts as a natural ventilation stack that pulls air into the building, eliminating the need for a conventional mechanical ventilation system. On summer nights the building is naturally ventilated to cool the concrete structure, which acts as a radiant cooling surface during the day, eliminating the need for air conditioning for the three upper floors. The Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory is certified LEED Gold.
Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory
The Nursing and Biomedical Sciences Building is located in Houston, within the Texas Medical Center. The functional program includes 250,000 square feet of classroom, seminar, office, continuing education, and student support facilities. ​ The area of the site necessarily implies a high-rise building. To counteract the tendency of high-rise buildings to isolate people, the floors are interconnected by multi-story spaces. Social areas such as the bookstore, food services, auditorium, and various lounges are located within or adjacent to these spaces to reinforce their role in supporting academic community. The remaining areas between these multistorey spaces are designed to be easily changed. This is facilitated by a clear span structure, a modular partition system, and an accessible floor plenum. Because of the orientation of the site, the primary facades of the building face directly east and west, resulting in extreme solar conditions. To prevent solar heat gain, the east and west sides of the building are shaded by louvers. These louvers also act as reflective light shelves, directing natural light into the centre of the building. The roof of the building is protected from the sun by a large parasol. Constructed of photovoltaic cells, this parasol produces electricity to operate the fans associated with the mechanical systems. In addition, the rooftop system is also designed to collect rainwater, which is stored in a large cistern.
Nursing and Biomedical Services Building
The Strawberry Vale School is located in a semi-rural community. The program includes 16 classrooms, a gymnasium, a library, and other spaces typical of an elementary school. ​ An important feature of the site is a Garry Oak woodland, a rare and threatened species of tree. The classrooms are arranged alongside the woodland, so that the woodland is preserved and its importance emphasized through visual connection. The classrooms are grouped in pods, which creates a series of in-between spaces, both interior and exterior, that support a wide variety of activities. In addition to responding to conventional programmatic requirements, the school gives architectural form to environmental forces. The hydrology of the site is carefully developed. Rainwater from the building is collected and discharged into a linear watercourse, where it is carried to a shallow marsh and naturally cleansed by the water plants. ​ Heating and lighting systems are designed, using computer modeling techniques, to optimize the use of solar energy: through passive heat gain, and, through the controlled placement of windows, clerestories, and skylights combined with reflective interior surfaces to distribute sunlight evenly throughout the interior spaces. Materials for the building are selected to maximize environmental quality and minimize the amount of embodied energy. For this reason cladding’s have been kept to a minimum leaving much of the primary construction exposed.
Strawberry Vale Elementary School
The school was sited along the open northern edge of an existing green space around which a variety of community buildings are located. By making the school a part of the village common space, interaction between the school and the community is encouraged. At the same time, the extreme winter winds which are funneled between the mountains down the river valley from the north are now mediated by the large mass of the school. ​ In mediating between the extreme winter winds from the north and the favourable exposure toward the south, the mass and scale of the school undergo a transformation. On the north, large sculptural volumes are closed diverting the winds much like the mountains which surround the site. To the south the scale is small, the building open under generous eaves. A complex, more tectonic quality not present in the sculptural forms of the north is introduced here through the use of a variety of struts, beams and trellises. ​ Walls and roofs are clad, generally, in cedar shingles. As they weather, these shingles will shade from a soft silver-grey to a deep red-brown depending upon orientation and exposure. In this way the sculptural volumes of the north will be enriched and subtly exaggerated. Under the broad eaves of the south walls are clad in translucent white plywood panels to increase luminosity and provide a contrast to the weathered character of the north.
Sq'éwqel Community School
A building is not an object. A building is a network—a system that is itself made of interdependent systems. To consider a building as a network, and part of a network, is to better understand what it does and the scale of its significance. The Arbour is a network that supports multiple interwoven flows. It affords an optimized flow knowledge, a measured flow of energy, and a generous flow of community. Each part of a network must have integrity, bearing its own weight and lending strength to the whole. Reciprocally, the network supports each part. The more connections within a network, the more valuable it becomes. The most important connections in a network arise between people. The Arbour supports these connections by integrating four basic subsystems, the Spatial System, The Information System, The Energy System, and the Structural System. Experienced simply as comfort, each system fits together in a mutually supporting complex of performative relationships that are both visibly evident and accessible as raw data. The success of these relationships comes as a transmission, through The Arbour’s many occupants, to the greater community. Over time, The Arbour becomes an anchor, a seed, a generative node in a growing network of evermore intelligent construction. Spatial System The Spatial System is the most immediately experienced aspect of The Arbour. It is where you go, how you get there, what you do there, and how it feels. It begins with the form of the building, which announces the intrinsic values of The Arbour. Glazed facades tilt to expose a signature pattern of photovoltaics to the sun, while blocking a minimum of sky. Through the skin, two wooden masses and wooden trusses are visible, revealing a deep material identity. The two masses organize primary learning spaces in linear arrays, and contain vertical circulation and building services. Between these masses, a vertical Learning Landscape, the social heart of The Arbour, connects every aspect of the building to an energetic, light-filled urbanity. It is less like an atrium than it is like a synaptic gap, or the space within a capacitor, where potential is released as a charge. Reaching from the entry, on Sherbourne Common, all the way up to the Canopy, where the Tall Wood Institute resides, the heart of The Arbour is large yet articulated with a fine grain of sub-spaces that afford intimate connections. Within the bridges linking the two wooden masses, small alcoves bring the public space down to the scale of the individual and small groups. Here, nodes of community are made, in personal connection. In the Arbour, each person is a center of the network. Information System The information system is the self-awareness of the Arbour, how it teaches, and maintains future-proof vitality as it ages. Throughout the various systems, sensors record the demands and loads put upon the building and how it performs. These Smart Building sensors include strain gauges, moisture and temperature sensors, and occupancy monitors. Their data stream is accessible throughout the Spatial System on large-format screens. More than an interpretive gallery, the Learning Landscape emerges through multi-directional interactivity—an information landscape. IT students and researchers of the Tall Wood Institute can hack the data stream to present their own projects and analyses, enabling deeper understanding, broader communication, and further innovation. The Arbour is an open book. Energy System The Energy System is akin to the vascular and respiratory systems of living bodies. The comfort we experience in a building is determined by how various energies flow through the space. Light, heat, sound, electricity, and the kinetic energy of fresh air, are the province of the Energy System. Beyond comfort, the Energy System balances electrical load with electrical production, approaching Net Zero equilibrium. The most prominent feature of the Energy System is the double skin façade. This façade is the environmental interface, regulating exchange with the surrounding environment. While permitting a maximum of daylight, it creates an extra barrier of insulation against solar gain, releasing excess heat through automated apertures. The Façade features an integrated array of high efficiency monocrystalline photovoltaics, supporting electrical demand. Patterning of PV modifies sunlight penetration, creating the dappled shade of a leafy bough, while presenting the building’s energetic commitments to the public. Geothermal piles exchange heat with the Earth’s crust, stabilizing the seasonal temperature of interiors. Heat is pumped through wooden ceiling batons that absorb or radiate depending on the season. The batons also diffuse sound and screen acoustic absorbers, providing a more conversant atmosphere. During mild seasons, the entire façade is openable allowing maximal flow of fresh air. In more severe seasons, air flow is automated through select apertures with heat recovery systems to maintain a stable, comfortable, thermal experience. Structural System The root of the Arbour is the Structural System. An innovative hybridization of heavy timber and concrete, the Tall Wood structure is designed to consume a minimum of material while assembling quickly. This dual efficiency reduces construction costs, making room in the budget for the other systems. Prefabricated wooden components arrive on site and are assembled as a kit of parts. A carefully integrated construction sequence allows all concrete floors to be poured at once, after enclosure. A strategic matrix of cavities cast into the slabs, permits minimal concrete use, reducing overall weight and cost. The Structural System initiates the Energy System with low-carbon, locally sourced building materials. Sensors integrated into structural members during construction, are the foundation of the Information System. Future proofing the Spatial System, structural trusses span alternating floors, making 40% of classroom space fully adaptable. Every system in the Arbour is mutually dependent upon and integrated with the Tall Wood structure. Integrity The Arbour is an integrated network. It is a network that builds a network. It is the seed of a growing idea. With its carefully integrated systems, it affords each person the space to develop their own integrity in contribution to the growth of intelligent building.
The Arbour
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