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DECEMBER 2018 | 49 Brookes Westshore Private School PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY BROOKES EDUCATION GROUP Brookes Westshore Private School by ZUZIA WODZYNSKA LOCATION 1945 Sooke Road, Victoria, B.C. OWNER/DEVELOPER Brookes Education Group ARCHITECT Christine Lintott Architects GENERAL CONTRACTOR Kinetic Construction Ltd. STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT Herold Engineering Limited MECHANICAL CONSULTANT Integral Group ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT AES Engineering Ltd. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT LADR Landscape Architects TOTAL SIZE 69,200 square feet TOTAL COST $25 million T he City of Colwood, just 10-kilome- tres west of downtown Victoria, B.C., has a brand new International Baccalaureate (IB) academy. Brookes Westshore private school opened its doors to students from grades six to 12 this fall and is now proudly offering both day programs and boarding. "The benefit of building a brand new school is to take full advan- tage of the design by considering the principal goal to create spaces that facilitate learning," says Jerry Salvador, head of the new school. "By providing natural lighting, views of nature and spaces that exhibit our value of collaboration and intrinsi- cally encourage the natural gathering of groups, we have created spaces that are ideal learning environments." Arriving at the school, visitors heading to the administration offices use a pedestrian bridge to cross the creek that meanders along the edge of the property. "We chose this site because of its proximity to nature," notes Christina Salvador, Brookes Education Group's architectural advi- sor on the project. The act of entering over a bridge through the forest into a room full of windows continues and celebrates that connection indoors. "Structurally, the bridge was designed using precast composite deck panels and steel girders to allow for efficient and economic construction, while respecting the environmental sensi- tivities of the site," comments Mike Herold, engineer of record for the bridge design at Herold Engineering. "Despite ultimately being an urban project, the whole experience of the campus is about being in nature," says Christine Lintott, principal at Christine Lintott Architects. "The sur- rounding riparian area with forest and wetlands is overseen by the science class windows, so the design is con- tinually and naturally enhancing and guiding the students' connection with the environment." The campus consists of classrooms and administration offices, a dining hall, gymnasium, and a six-storey res- idence tower. Each bedroom in the tower accommodates two students and includes an en-suite bathroom, while a common room on each floor provides a shared social space for boarders. The residential area is sepa- rated from the remainder of the school by an airy courtyard. "I wanted the kids to have to think about their space, which is why I chose to design the staircase as a con- nected piece of the front entryway desk and the courtyard as a geomet- ric design that can be seen from the upper walkway," explains Salvador. "I wanted things to function on multiple levels, for example as a piece of art and also as functional seating or as a desk and a stairway, to challenge the notion of space." The mild winter climate provided some unique design opportunities for the school, including the second floor hallways which are open-air. In the summer, however, daytime outdoor temperatures can exceed 30-degrees Celsius but drop to around 10 degrees at night. "Active cooling systems are uncommon for school buildings in this climate and though we did consider air conditioning, these options were ulti- mately ruled out," notes Andy Chong from Integral Group. Instead, ther- mal comfort is achieved using a hybrid active/passive approach. Each classroom was provided with a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) and automatic natural ventilation open- ings. "Through energy modelling, we determined that the introduction of a concrete topping slab in the class- rooms could provide enough thermal mass to keep them cool if used in con- junction with night cooling," continues Chong. Cooler nighttime air is drawn in overnight, lowering the temperature of the thermal mass of the concrete floor. During the day, the floor mass slowly absorbs heat from occupants and internal loads, such as light- ing and computers. In conjunction with generous operable windows, the classrooms were designed to maintain comfort through summer afternoons without active air con- ditioning systems. "During winter heating conditions, the natural ven- tilation openings are closed, and the system we designed also operates the HRV and dampers in each classroom according to a CO2 sensor."

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