wyliepoon
Senior Member
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Everything's Gone Green
Located at the edge of a ravine within the Humber Arboretum on the north campus of the Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, the Centre for Urban Ecology replaces the Nature Centre, a wood structure designed by Jerome Markson almost three decades ago. As a joint venture between Humber College, the City of Toronto and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, the arboretum is characterized by trails and boardwalks that lead visitors through gardens, forests, meadows and wetlands.
Within the arboretum's larger goal of protecting and restoring habitat for native plants and animals, the Centre for Urban Ecology provides educational opportunities in horticulture and environmental stewardship, and promotes the advancement of technology in service of the preservation of the natural world. The impetus for the construction of the new facility was borne from the fact that staff and programming had long outgrown the existing Nature Centre, which was physically being destroyed by the presence of carpenter ants over the years.
Consequently, the contract for the newly named Centre for Urban Ecology was awarded to the joint-venture team of Taylor Hazell Architects and architectsAlliance (aA), both firms with extensive experience in site development, conservation and sustainable building strategies. According to project leads Jill Taylor (of Taylor Hazell) and Pat Hanson (formerly of aA and currently with design firm gh3), the architectural goal of the project was to create a modern building signalling a change in values with respect to sustainable development and energy conservation, using materials and forms that would communicate architectural and engineering ideas to a wide range of visitors--in essence, creating a living laboratory.
User groups include mostly school-age children, but the Centre does provide some adult education programs, as well as a broad range of programs for Humber College students in areas such as horticulture, architecture and environmental science. Public school groups comprise the vast majority of visitors, some as young as three and four years of age. As a facility committed to teaching by example, it was decided that the lessons communicated to this primarily junior audience had to be clear and memorable.
In furtherance of this goal, the design team worked with a joint committee including members of the board and the School of Environmental Science, reviewing various approaches to sustainable construction, heating and cooling prior to determining the primary elements of the design.
As such, the building boasts a number of engineering features that have earned it LEED Gold status. Aside from the use of environmentally friendly and recycled building materials, a high-performance exterior glass wall helps define the building as a transparent pavilion in the arboretum, maximizing natural daylight and reducing the need for artificial lighting. A green roof mitigates the heat island effect while helping to manage storm-water and rain-water harvesting for landscape irrigation. High-efficiency mechanical heating systems complement a radiant floor-heating system, and passive cooling systems (such as the most dominant architectural feature of the projecting thermal chimney) reduce the reliance on air conditioning. An on-site biofilter system treats all waste water and sewage from the building, and water-conserving toilets were specified. Occupancy sensor controls means that energy is not wasted if no one is in the Centre, and a building automation system measures and relays information about energy consumption for study purposes.
Of exceptional importance to both Taylor and Hanson is that the project demonstrates the seamless integration of architecture and landscape--the former should not be achieved at the expense of the latter. While the experience on the top floor of the Centre is akin to floating above the landscape, the building is actually embedded into and enmeshed with its site through the use of backfill to form an earth wall that wraps the building on three sides. Apart from the benefit of providing greater insulation and radiant cooling, this clever manipulation of the landscape creates highly sculptural volumes and spaces, forming a sheltered outdoor classroom adjacent to the building's west elevation.
Planting was also an important consideration in this project. The entire landscape component, including the green roof, utilizes native species in a domesticated fashion. The west-facing courtyard is planted with a grove of river birch, which will grow to eventually shade the west façade, reducing summer heat gain. Planting was also executed on the structural retaining earth walls that protect the ravine edge. And the concrete portions of the engineered landscape earth walls were cast with circular depressions that will eventually be planted, creating a whimsical pattern and texture which also functions as outdoor public art. Together, these gestures create a modern landscape that contrasts with the domestic and demonstration planting of the arboretum.
The approach to the building was carefully considered, and the arrival and program sequence was structured such that visitors would experience the landscape while reaching the building by foot: parking facilities are located some distance away. On the pedestrian path, glimpses of the Centre are apparent along the way, through the tress, and the glass skin permits views right through the building to the landscape beyond. The path rises to the front door--painted a glossy lipstick red to signal an unambiguous entry--located on the upper level of the building, a high point of the site. Once inside, visitors are provided with a privileged perch from which to survey the entirety of the arboretum landscape.
In essence, this is a modestly sized building with a very simple program that is executed with a great deal of sophistication. On the upper entry level, one encounters the main classroom and an administrative office for several employees, while the lower floor accommodates a secondary classroom, washrooms, storage and a small staff kitchen. In the classrooms, teaching occurs against the backdrop of the magnificent landscape, the very subject of the education program. Wildlife such as deer and fox can be seen roaming around the site, as are the squirrels that compete for the feed set out for the many species of birds viewed from the classrooms and offices.
Seasonal change is an exceptionally important aspect of the program, and teaching extends not only visually but physically into the arboretum through the experience of colour, sound, smell and temperature, providing a constantly changing dynamic for visitors to the building. Against these potent natural elements on site, the interior is kept spare and tightly organized, and the materials used in the building's construction are kept deliberately neutral. The simplicity and clarity of polished concrete, glass and steel allow the flora and fauna outside the building to dominate, while on the interior, the artifacts used in the instruction process become the primary focus.
According to the Centre for Urban Ecology staff, the building is a success by all accounts. Staff members enjoy the features thoughtfully designed for their needs, and are learning to appreciate the clean modernist aesthetic of the building. Visiting children happily stream through the interior spaces and into the arboretum lands to learn about their natural environment. With programming occurring year-round, the building is well used. School groups perpetually arrive in busloads throughout the academic year, and summer camps keep the place buzzing through July and August. An intended increase in the number of adult programs means the Centre will stay open later on some evenings. It can't be long before the elegance and beauty of the building and its impressive site stirs interest in those wanting to rent the facility for social functions. CA
Everything's Gone Green
Located at the edge of a ravine within the Humber Arboretum on the north campus of the Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, the Centre for Urban Ecology replaces the Nature Centre, a wood structure designed by Jerome Markson almost three decades ago. As a joint venture between Humber College, the City of Toronto and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, the arboretum is characterized by trails and boardwalks that lead visitors through gardens, forests, meadows and wetlands.
Within the arboretum's larger goal of protecting and restoring habitat for native plants and animals, the Centre for Urban Ecology provides educational opportunities in horticulture and environmental stewardship, and promotes the advancement of technology in service of the preservation of the natural world. The impetus for the construction of the new facility was borne from the fact that staff and programming had long outgrown the existing Nature Centre, which was physically being destroyed by the presence of carpenter ants over the years.
Consequently, the contract for the newly named Centre for Urban Ecology was awarded to the joint-venture team of Taylor Hazell Architects and architectsAlliance (aA), both firms with extensive experience in site development, conservation and sustainable building strategies. According to project leads Jill Taylor (of Taylor Hazell) and Pat Hanson (formerly of aA and currently with design firm gh3), the architectural goal of the project was to create a modern building signalling a change in values with respect to sustainable development and energy conservation, using materials and forms that would communicate architectural and engineering ideas to a wide range of visitors--in essence, creating a living laboratory.
User groups include mostly school-age children, but the Centre does provide some adult education programs, as well as a broad range of programs for Humber College students in areas such as horticulture, architecture and environmental science. Public school groups comprise the vast majority of visitors, some as young as three and four years of age. As a facility committed to teaching by example, it was decided that the lessons communicated to this primarily junior audience had to be clear and memorable.
In furtherance of this goal, the design team worked with a joint committee including members of the board and the School of Environmental Science, reviewing various approaches to sustainable construction, heating and cooling prior to determining the primary elements of the design.
As such, the building boasts a number of engineering features that have earned it LEED Gold status. Aside from the use of environmentally friendly and recycled building materials, a high-performance exterior glass wall helps define the building as a transparent pavilion in the arboretum, maximizing natural daylight and reducing the need for artificial lighting. A green roof mitigates the heat island effect while helping to manage storm-water and rain-water harvesting for landscape irrigation. High-efficiency mechanical heating systems complement a radiant floor-heating system, and passive cooling systems (such as the most dominant architectural feature of the projecting thermal chimney) reduce the reliance on air conditioning. An on-site biofilter system treats all waste water and sewage from the building, and water-conserving toilets were specified. Occupancy sensor controls means that energy is not wasted if no one is in the Centre, and a building automation system measures and relays information about energy consumption for study purposes.
Of exceptional importance to both Taylor and Hanson is that the project demonstrates the seamless integration of architecture and landscape--the former should not be achieved at the expense of the latter. While the experience on the top floor of the Centre is akin to floating above the landscape, the building is actually embedded into and enmeshed with its site through the use of backfill to form an earth wall that wraps the building on three sides. Apart from the benefit of providing greater insulation and radiant cooling, this clever manipulation of the landscape creates highly sculptural volumes and spaces, forming a sheltered outdoor classroom adjacent to the building's west elevation.
Planting was also an important consideration in this project. The entire landscape component, including the green roof, utilizes native species in a domesticated fashion. The west-facing courtyard is planted with a grove of river birch, which will grow to eventually shade the west façade, reducing summer heat gain. Planting was also executed on the structural retaining earth walls that protect the ravine edge. And the concrete portions of the engineered landscape earth walls were cast with circular depressions that will eventually be planted, creating a whimsical pattern and texture which also functions as outdoor public art. Together, these gestures create a modern landscape that contrasts with the domestic and demonstration planting of the arboretum.
The approach to the building was carefully considered, and the arrival and program sequence was structured such that visitors would experience the landscape while reaching the building by foot: parking facilities are located some distance away. On the pedestrian path, glimpses of the Centre are apparent along the way, through the tress, and the glass skin permits views right through the building to the landscape beyond. The path rises to the front door--painted a glossy lipstick red to signal an unambiguous entry--located on the upper level of the building, a high point of the site. Once inside, visitors are provided with a privileged perch from which to survey the entirety of the arboretum landscape.
In essence, this is a modestly sized building with a very simple program that is executed with a great deal of sophistication. On the upper entry level, one encounters the main classroom and an administrative office for several employees, while the lower floor accommodates a secondary classroom, washrooms, storage and a small staff kitchen. In the classrooms, teaching occurs against the backdrop of the magnificent landscape, the very subject of the education program. Wildlife such as deer and fox can be seen roaming around the site, as are the squirrels that compete for the feed set out for the many species of birds viewed from the classrooms and offices.
Seasonal change is an exceptionally important aspect of the program, and teaching extends not only visually but physically into the arboretum through the experience of colour, sound, smell and temperature, providing a constantly changing dynamic for visitors to the building. Against these potent natural elements on site, the interior is kept spare and tightly organized, and the materials used in the building's construction are kept deliberately neutral. The simplicity and clarity of polished concrete, glass and steel allow the flora and fauna outside the building to dominate, while on the interior, the artifacts used in the instruction process become the primary focus.
According to the Centre for Urban Ecology staff, the building is a success by all accounts. Staff members enjoy the features thoughtfully designed for their needs, and are learning to appreciate the clean modernist aesthetic of the building. Visiting children happily stream through the interior spaces and into the arboretum lands to learn about their natural environment. With programming occurring year-round, the building is well used. School groups perpetually arrive in busloads throughout the academic year, and summer camps keep the place buzzing through July and August. An intended increase in the number of adult programs means the Centre will stay open later on some evenings. It can't be long before the elegance and beauty of the building and its impressive site stirs interest in those wanting to rent the facility for social functions. CA