UPEI UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

In collaboration with BSN Architects.

UPEI’s Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation is a living laboratory and educational destination that enables world-class sustainability focused research, immersive experiential learning for graduate and undergraduate students, and serves as a local hub for community engagement.

Envisioned as a gathering space through consultation with local Indigenous and settler communities, the building provides a multi-purpose community space with commanding views to Saint Peters Bay and village. Sited along the crest of a hill overlooking the village, the building inflects to form a wind sheltered, south-facing outdoor activity space that includes an outdoor classroom and social gathering area, as well as a launch pad for drones. Active-learning spaces extend across the ground floor, which include flexible classrooms and laboratories, faculty offices, collaborative meeting areas and a ‘drone port’/maker space that supports a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring and data collection related to the Centre’s climate change research. Active-living spaces extend across the upper levels of the building, which consist of 38 two-bedroom suites, student study areas, and a communal lounge and accessible terrace.

Its all electric system design approach includes ground source heating and cooling for the building’s thermal loads, heat recovery ventilation, and on-site renewable energy production (100Kw solar array). While on-site renewable energy is currently capped due to regulatory considerations, UPEI plans to increase onsite renewable energy at a later date. The project’s carbon sequestering design approach includes the extensive use of wood, prefabricated thermally broken wood wall panels, and locally harvested wood cladding. Triple-glazed and operable Passivhaus-certified windows provide daylighting/ views and passive ventilation for regularly occupied spaces within the building.