This school design was all about achieving excellence through efficiency. In fact, post-occupancy analysis has demonstrated this to be the Vancouver School District’s most energy efficient school by a wide margin. Achieving peak energy performance began with passive design fundamentals, including: an east-west orientation and carefully designed windows that bring natural light deep into the floorplate while limiting heat transfer. Performance was enhanced with an innovative air intake tunnel under the building, which tempers outdoor air with the earth’s latent heat before it reaches the HVAC system. Finally, an air-to-air heat pump and heat exchanger were optimal for efficient heating and free cooling suited to the local climate.

The efficiency and comfort of the interior environment are matched by an efficient and functional approach to providing a flexible, multi-faceted 21st century learning environment. Classrooms are clustered in pods with pairs opening onto shared commons, enabling independent study and team teaching. Art counters make these into well-used ‘maker spaces’ with generous connections to the outdoors. At the heart of the school, a double-height main entry hall organizes the most public features of the school around a community commons.

The new hybrid structure also pursues efficiency, mixing mass timber floors and roofs with light-framed wood walls. The mass timber is exposed throughout the circulation areas and public spaces. This is a replacement school built under the provincial seismic mitigation program; 75% of the existing building was replaced, while an existing classroom block (constructed in 2000) was able to be retained. On the exterior, the massing is broken down into a series of pods, strung east to west along the treed edge of the site, to better harmonize with the scale of the residential neighborhood. Clad in robust fibre-cement panels, the facades are carefully proportioned with a rhythmic jointing pattern. Splashes of colour add life, culminating at the main entry hall in a crescendo of coloured glass.

Related work: Featured greenbuilding Schools Wood Innovation