T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R C A P TA I N S O F I N D U S T R YARCHITECTURE LEADERS TODAYwww.architectureleaderstoday.com

Perkins+WillENGINEERING EDUTheir new Toronto studio designed the kind of university classrooms that would have inspired them as students: the green, cutting-edge Engineering 5 Building.

FOR ENGINEERS, BY ENGINEERS

When the Perkins+Will’s Toronto stu-dio took on the design of the new Engineering 5 building at the Uni-

versity of Waterloo, they faced the rigorous expectations of the 5,000-plus students and faculty at Canada’s premier engineering school. According to lead designer, Andrew Frontini, the highly innovative, 150,000 sq. ft. building has exceeded expectations and is being celebrated as a campus-wide inspiration to students for its groundbreaking approach to sustainability and collaborative design.

Perkins+Will recruited graduates of Waterloo’s engineering program when composing their multidisciplinary design team with the intent that the graduates would draw from their university experience to create the “ideal environment” – one that they would have enjoyed studying in.

“We wanted this building to celebrate the spirit of innovation and foster a collaborative spirit from the outset of the design process,” Frontini said. “And assembling a highly committed and integrated design team was the first step.”

Engineering 5 marks the first phase of a major expansion for Waterloo’s engineering faculty and initiates the master plan for a new engineering precinct on the campus. Since the building’s completion in the fall of 2010, the building has generated keen interest and has become the center of gravity for Waterloo’s engineering faculty.

“The client clearly stated that Engineering 5 would put the energy and creativity of its student population front and center,” Frontini said. “That has been realized in the creation of the 40,000 sq. ft. student design center on the first and second levels of the building.”

Perkins+Will’s Toronto studio creates a groundbreaking incubator for student creativity by Paige L. Hill

Daylight lit lounge spaces on each floor provide a place for faculty and students to interact and provide a sense of address for each of the three engineering departments in the building

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“The most sustainable building is the one you don’t have to build, and so adaptability is key.”

This world-class facility for undergraduate research, experimentation and innovation provides work bays, design studios, meeting spaces, student machine shops, engine test labs and a 100-seat computer commons. The building’s most techni-cally sophisticated space is an anechoic testing chamber where researchers can test electronic devices without interference from outside elec-tromagnetic frequencies. In addition, Engineer-ing 5 accommodates four floors of research labs, classrooms and faculty offices for the mechanical, electrical and systems engineering departments.

The university expressed a desire for each depart-ment to have an address and identity within the new building; and, that all of the functions share in a vibrant common area that would foster com-munity and interaction.

These objectives have been skillfully translated into a bold architectural aesthetic that clearly delineates the building’s various uses and celebrates its public realm. At the heart of the architec-tural strategy is the articulation of the building’s transparent envelope or “skin” as the design team called it. The six story building was covered using a unitized curtain wall system to create a highly abstract and illuminated geometry. The skin of the upper floors appear to be a series of 3-D pyramids, but it is actually a flat surface printed with a large scale graphic making the entire building a trompe l’oeil from the ground level.

“We wanted to create the illusion of a volumetric - one that would maximize the surface of informa-

tion exchange,” Frontini said. “We wanted it to look as if the creative intelligence within can’t be contained and is radiating out through the skin of the building.”

The illusion was created using a silkscreen process and a baked-on ceramic ink applied as a series of dot patterns with varying densities. Individual glazing units were prefabricated off-site and clipped together on the building frame to create a precisely coordinated and seamless surface.

“The seamlessness of the graphic abstracts the scale of the building in the daytime and as the sun sets, the building slowly transforms,” Frontini said.

Transparency is an ongoing theme throughout Engineering 5. The factory-inspired student design center can be seen throughout much of the building and is a dominant feature from the exterior. Through this openness, program spaces are meant to feel cohesive and showcase students at work as an ongoing active exhibit.

MAIN: A third-story bridge links the Engineering 5 Building to the main campus.

TOP RIGHT: Research and teaching labs are highly flexible environments with abundant natural light.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Tracing Public Movement; the atrium and feature stair provide a panorama of the building’s varied program. Photos by Lisa Logan Architectural Photography.

FLYNN CANADAFlynn Canada is proud to have taken part in the construction of

the Engineering 5 building at the University of Waterloo, one of the largest and most dynamic buildings on campus. Their team fabricated and installed 26,500 sq. ft. of FibreC reinforced cement wall panels, which added a dramatic contrast to the balance of the clear glazed exterior walls.

“It was a great experience working on this project and helping to realize the vision of Perkins+Will Architects,” said Tony Baita, project manager. “The project ran extremely well—smooth from start to finish—and we would be honoured to work with their firm again.”

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“People passing by the building can observe students at work on alternative fuel vehicles or robotics projects,” Frontini said. “This is the incubator for students to cultivate their creativ-ity – a flexible and robust armature where they can bring their imaginations to life.”

Before the completion of Engineering 5, stu-dents were using improvised spaces dispersed throughout the campus. The university expressed the need for a centralized space and the result is a highly adaptable industrial space with state-of-

the-art capabilities. This “daylight factory” is one part of a daylight harvesting strategy employed throughout the building. Corridors on all floors terminate in sunny lounge spaces, offices feature glazed screens that transmit borrowed light to corridors and a central atrium telegraphs light deep into the building.

Engineering 5’s central atrium is the heart of its public space system, connecting the vari-ous departments and functional areas around a dramatic architectural space. The main staircase zigzags strikingly through the social heart of the building. The staircase is a cranked tubular truss clad in black metal acoustic panels interspersed with graphic LED strips. Perkins+Will treated the staircase as a kind of research project to which all of their engineers contributed. The result is a striking sculptural presence that simultaneously functions as circulation, social mixer, light fixture and acoustic baffle for the space.

“We wanted people to take the stairs and be inspired by its innovation while they climbing it,” Frontini said. “The benefits are manifold. The staircase attracts people, fostering interaction while promoting a more active lifestyle and reducing elevator congestion.”

A significant social space is highlighted by the two story hanging garden where three birch trees grow on a terrace above the building’s main entrance. As the garden matures, this displaced natural element will tie into the lush vegetation in the foreground of the building’s storm water pond and read in sharp contrast to the abstract, geometric order of the building’s façade. The hanging garden and other landscaped areas were conceived as an extension of the surrounding natural landscape and features indigenous, drought-resistant plants requiring no irrigation and minimal maintenance.

In response to the design challenge of connect-ing Engineering 5 to the existing campus and the

ABOVE, TOP: The six story atrium is animated by the sculptural presence of the LED feature stair.

ABOVE, BOTTOM: Widened halls outside the larger teaching spaces provide places for students to interact between classes.

OPPOSITE: The work bays of the student design center are overlooked by classrooms and design studios.

Photos by Lisa Logan Architectural Photography.

built infrastructure, the design team created a glazed pedestrian link, which crosses over a regional rail line and the campus’ ring road. This transparent ribbon of space ties into the third floor where lighting and the dramatic use of color traces the main public routes.

The building is designed to lend itself to maxi-mum adaptation with minimum of cost and disruption for future students. The building is highly modular and rational in its planning. A central service spine brings power, data, gas and water to every floor of the building. Lab partitions are easily moved with just a screwdriver and can be reconfigured along the spine to accommodate changes in class size.

“We took the approach that it was our job to make the building as sustainable as possible in its construction and its future adaptation,” Frontini said. “The most sustainable building is the one you don’t have to build, and so adaptability is key.”

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In the 1960’s, when the firm was known as Shore, Moffat and Partners, they collaborated with Waterloo to create the campus’s master plan and design many of its early structures. Over the next few decades, the firm has contributed to the evolution of the campus on an ongoing basis, authoring many key teaching and research spaces.

“We have a long and successful relationship with the University of Waterloo, and designing the Engineering 5 project was like coming full

circle to the firm’s roots,” Frontini said.When it came to the initial design process

Frontini said that a lot of the team’s inspiration came from simply responding to the university’s needs for innovation, image and sustainability. The dean of engineering, Adel Sedra, asked the team for an iconic building that would speak to the school’s innovative programs.

“The dean is a very dynamic leader. He and his team engaged us at every stage of the project,” Frontini said.

The $48 million project was delivered under a tight timeline tied to Canada’s federal infra-structure spending and academic space needs. A highly collaborative design approach that featured all of the key stakeholders and a highly rational and flexible planning strategy were required to stay on schedule.

For the University of Waterloo, the Engineering 5 building has provided a powerful marketing and recruiting tool for its ever growing and highly competitive population of prospective engineering students and faculty. For Perkins+Will it garnered some unexpected press, as well.

“The building has been attracting a lot of atten-tion, even while under construction,” Frontini said. “The staircase and the façade are appearing in blogs and on the Flickr sites of amateur photographers before we’ve even begun to promote it.”

Engineering 5 is an example of the firm’s com-mitment to an innovative architectural approach that seeks inspiration from client needs. Projects of this caliber are what attracted Perkins+Will to the Canadian market in 2009. Perkins+Will will form a Canada-wide practice over the coming decade. ALT

ABOVE: The student design center and the building’s public space system are clearly visible in contrast to the geometric frit pattern that covers the glazing of the upper floors.

OPPOSITE: The student design center showcases the creative output of the undergraduate student teams.

Photos by Lisa Logan Architectural Photography.

BONDFIELD CONSTRUCTION, INC.As an active leader in the construction industry throughout Ontario, Canada, Bondfield Construction,

Inc. has been manufacturing buildings of the highest quality since the early 1970’s. The company was founded in Concord, Ontario with the intention of keeping their level of service and quality a step above the rest at all times — a goal at which the company has yet to fail. As a full service design/build general contracting firm, Bondfield has maintained the ability to specialize in a vast range of building types, from theatres, libraries and recreational centers to hospitals, correctional facilities and long-term care facilities. While many builders stand out in the field of educational buildings or institutional buildings, Bondfield Construction, Inc. manages to specialize in all of the above, granting them exclusive access to new, burgeoning sectors and unique projects of all sorts.

“It was a conscious decision we made in the late 1980’s before the economic recession of the 1990’s,” said vice president of operations Steve Aquino. “If there was ever a time when projects stopped coming in from one sector or another, we would always have other work to fall back on.

“At first, we realized that increasing the range of our projects might mean losing some of our specialized knowledge concerning the finer details of schools or hospitals or libraries. We’ve bridged that gap through retaining specialists who have worked within one sector or another for many years. This leaves them able to perform any kind of project, in addition to being able to serve as a special advisor on any project within their specialty that we may take on.”

In having a long-standing partnership with Perkins+Will, Bondfield Construction, Inc. has held true to their lofty goal of maintaining the highest quality that a design/build firm can offer. See ad on page 19.

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When the celebrated FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa needed a renovation in order to host the 2010

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When Hans Rieder founded Rieder in 1959, the scope of work consisted mainly of traditional precast concrete, concrete pavers and other various types of highway and railway sound abatement products throughout Austria and into Germany and Italy. The company grew and evolved, but

always emphasized cutting-edge products and techniques at the forefront of their business model.

In 2003, Hans retired and his son Wolfgang gained control, aiming to take the company into a new era of technology, sustainability and effi-ciency. Wolfgang focused on developing products idealized for export, involving simple and envi-ronmentally friendly production and installation methods. That year, an astounding product was developed — fibreC.

The miracle product, fibreC, is created through a natural extrusion process which incorporates layers of fiberglass into a concrete matrix. The omission of any steel reinforcement allows for the construction of slim, yet highly stressable concrete elements. The end result is a lightweight material, 13 millimeters thick, with high flexural strength.

No chemicals or colors are added to alter appear-ances or to increase durability. Only natural aggre-gates are used to achieve the desired color, and the concrete is composed only sand, cement and water. FibreC is cured naturally, requiring no heat. The final product is 100 percent recyclable.

Sound Solutions is an exclusive distributor of fibreC in North America.

“Many of our institutional clients needed flexible concrete building materials with a life cycle longer than 50 years,” said Sound Solutions principal Andrew Rogers. “We found exactly that and more in fibreC. More and more architects are looking to use better design tools that can create more shapes, as opposed to simple, square boxes. FibreC is and will be a leader in all aspects of material design to carry us through the future.” ALT

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Alumicor’s commitment to sustainable design through the exclusive use of recycled aluminum complies with LEED’s materials and resources credit 4 for recycled content. Fully dedicated to support green building projects, Alumicor only provides architectural aluminum profiles that are extruded from recycled aluminum billet.

Alumicor offers a comprehensive product line of aluminum curtain walls, windows, vents, storefront and entrance doors, all of which complement any building design. Specialty ventilators which deliver maximum security can be installed into any of their fixed window products or curtain wall systems; and styles which are engineered to meet high performance and energy efficient specifications are also available. Alumicor offers zero sight line vents for maximum security, discreet operable windows for use in curtain walls and fixed window systems and storefronts.

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