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photos: infrastructure development-project services-UBC Photos: UBC���s Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility features cross-laminated timber throughout the building. Burning syngas in the oxidizer ensure complete combustion. Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility ��� UBC by Corey Van���t Haaff he Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility may have been borne as an experiment but the idea of experimentation continued throughout its growth stage to such an extent, the facility truly embodies the concept of a living lab. The University���s academic and research departments, in partnership with Building Operations and Nexterra Corporation came together to build and operate a biomass gasification facility that would produce both heat and electric power for the campus. The question for UBC was how to put a gasification power plant right in the middle of a neighbourhood surrounded by UBC student residences and bordering a natural forested setting on the edge of campus. The answer came in the form of a building which was mandatory to control noise and provide researchers a place to continue their research. ���The project was subject to strict development guidelines regarding air quality and noise emissions. The building location was set amongst adjacent residences in a prominent, centrally located spot,��� says Dianna Foldi, UBC project manager. The resulting steam and electricity created by the gasification process would be used, she says, to distribute heat to all buildings on campus and send power into the local distribution infrastructure. UBC had to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent by 2015 and this project, says Foldi, was one way to meet that target. The process was made more difficult ��� if site constraints weren���t enough ��� by the fact there were two general contractors working simultaneously; one for the building and one for the system equipment. The site had little lay-down space for equipment and materials, and close coordination between the two contractors was required. Integration was needed to meet competing schedules so while one contractor was completing a slab, another was receiving equipment to place on the slab. The building was intended to be a quiet, low-impact architectural response set in a very eco-sensitive location. There T 100/��� ��� February 2013 p100-101BioEnergy_EngServ.indd 100 was a grove of trees to be preserved, residential neighbours in the immediate vicinity and UBC���s desire to showcase the technology inside. The challenge that McFarland Marceau Architects worked with was to build a container for potentially noisy, hot equipment on a site containing first-growth forest and an existing landscape operations works yard. ���We found an existing retaining wall within five metres from the trees and, as the trees had survived the construction of this wall, it became the edge of our new building,��� says Larry McFarland. The decision was made to use cross laminated timber (CLT) for the structure, as opposed to steel or conventional material for demonstration and research reasons, and that gasifying wood waste in the middle of a forest in a building made of wood made a ���nice story,��� says Foldi, adding the pattern of the CLT columns inside the building mimicked the trees in the forest outside. McFarland says the biggest hurdle was the availability of CLT. Commonly used in Europe, CLT was only available from a handful of manufacturers in North America but the selected manufacturer���s plant equipment only allowed a maximum panel size of 2.4 by 3.6 metres. Structural engineer Robert Malczyk of Equilibrium Consultants says there was no room above or beside the structure to have any supports protrude beyond the building envelope. The building was filled with mechanical equipment so there was no room for bracing or structures, so Equilibrium came up with a moment frame. Typically this would be very costly but the foundation and concrete already existed to support the industrial processes in the building, so glulam columns were set into place. The CLT panels are so dimensionally stable that they form building diaphragms strong enough to transfer horizontal forces at one-sixth the weight of concrete. They are, says Malczyk, as attractive as they are rigid. ���CLT did not produce a challenge; it is another solution in our tool box,��� says Malczyk, adding that the UBC facility was the perfect place to begin using CLT. ���I love this material.��� There was a secondary issue. McFarland says there were no North American guidelines governing the use of CLT so the team, along with other experts, developed protocols for documentation and testing, and ultimately green-lighted the manufacturing of the panels. The architectural response, says McFarland, took many of its cues from the site itself. ���The roof slopes up from east to west, the east end low enough to be pedestrian scale. The rising roof plane acts as an air foil, creating a lowpressure zone in the lee of the ridge, drawing predominant breezes from the east to be drawn naturally through the building via low level openings placed around the edges of the building,��� says McFarland. A glass wall on the south side affords views to the technology while maintaining the visual connection to the forest from within. Michael Patterson, landscape architect with Perry & Associates, says an important aspect of the project was to have the building fit into the site as if it had always been there. He designed a heavy timber boardwalk that runs along the edge of the forest just outside the south side glass wall, and used all native plantings at the entry and elsewhere so the building would appear to grow out of the landscape. Because the plantings had to be both droughtand shade-tolerant, Patterson selected sword fern, Oregon grape and salal. Passersby can see the technology at work and recognize its impact on their lives through the delivery of clean power. The forest, says Patterson, does not seem to have been impacted at all. ��� Location 2337 Lower Mall, UBC Vancouver, B.C. Owner UBC ��� Building Operations ��� Utilities Project Manager UBC Project Services Architect McFarland Marceau Architects General Contractor Ledcor Construction Limited Structural Engineer Equilibrium Consultants Mechanical/ Electrical Engineer Stantec Consulting Landscape Architect Perry & Associates Total Area 20,500 square feet Total Cost $8 million (building only) Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility ��� UBC 13-01-22 4:07 PM E a b

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