Award

J UNE 2018 | 49 STEM Building – University of Ottawa RENDERING COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA STEM Building – University of Ottawa by JESSICA KIRBY T he STEM Building at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) was designed and constructed with the same innovation, purposefulness, and pas- sion that drives the disciplines it houses. Science, technology, engi- neering and mathematics students, and faculty will build, study, and cre- ate in this interdisciplinary research and teaching facility designed to foster connections between different facul- ties, encourage new ways of thinking, enable experiential learning, and pro- mote entrepreneurship. Enclosed in the space are The Brunsfield Centre, which allows students to build and test complex pro- totypes; discovery labs that expand on the latest digital infrastructure and uOttawa's Richard L'Abbé Makerspace to encourage the "invent-build-play" movement; and an open-concept Entrepreneurship Hub, ideally suited for those who wish to "Defy the Conventional," while developing multi- disciplinary start-ups and seeking expertise on regulatory issues, patent- ing, and venture capital access. Claudio Brun del Re, chief architect, campus development, for uOttawa, says the vision for the site was estab- lished by the University's 2015 Master Plan to achieve the highest and best use of its limited land assets and create new, open spaces to enhance the stu- dent experience. The project's main parameter – and challenge – was the schedule required to comply with the federal and provin- cial funding program, says Brun del Re. Site preparation began in the summer of 2016, with construction beginning in the fall. To satisfy the federal fund- ing requirements, the building was substantially complete by April 2018. "The accelerated schedule meant there was little time for options anal- ysis or to consider alternatives," says Brun del Re. "We overcame this by assembling an A-team of internal and external resources and establishing a collaborative process from the start." The main items on the University's design wish list were provision of an innovative, generic space design that will increase the long-term flexibility for adaptive reuse, and a high-perfor- mance exterior envelope. Jason Smith, project manager for PCL, says the team started with the demolition of the building's predeces- sor, the MacDonald Hall building. "We took the building down in roughly two months," he says. "We started in December with excavation and it is a large, shored excavation down three storeys. In March 2017 we poured the first raft slab footing for the concrete, and from the start of that foundation we built the building in 14 months." From the foundation, the concrete structure rises from the basement to a two-storey podium clad in brick from which four storeys called "the towers" step up. On the towers' exterior is a tra- ditional steel stud framed wall with sheathing and a girt system, insulation and cladding. One of the exterior's unique features is the recreation of a painted mural on the west facade of the building. The original work "Les yeux" (The Eyes) was created by famed Canadian artist James Boyd in 1973. "Les yeux had a strong presence on the Rideau Canal, which is a designated World Heritage Site," says Brun del Re. "Using photogrammetry to record the original very precisely, our architects reproduced the work using fritted glass, which has enhanced the wonder- ful effect of abstraction when you see the work close up and then it resolves into the figurative image at a progres- sive distance." Recreating the art meant the west elevation was constructed with punched windows, which are then flush with the adjacent glass clad- ding and infilled to create a single pane of glass where you see Les yeux, says Smith. "It looks like a glass wall, but underneath it is a grid of punched windows. On the windows is factory- applied frit where the digital scan of the original art was recreated and applied to the glass," he says. The work became the inspiration for the facade design, which has a series of round apertures of different sizes sym- bolizing how we see the world through different apertures from the micro- scope to the telescope, and how those instruments condition our under- standing of the universe. The pattern features circles with gradation of frit to create the aper- ture look. In the original concept, the infill between the punched windows was meant to blend with the frit on the windows so the building appears as though the apertures were on a white background. The rest of the towers are clad in a super flat honeycomb alumi- num panel with custom painted colour and gloss matched to the white frit of the glass.

• Cover