March 23, 2009

IREDALE GROUP ARCHITECTURE

The new Robert Bateman Art and Environmental Education Centre is aiming for a zero net ecological footprint and will use the Cascadia green building rating system, rather than LEED.

Sustainable Building Innovation

Bateman Centre takes green building to a new level

Shannon Moneo

correspondent

It’s fitting that the Robert Bateman Art and Environmental Education Centre will surpass LEED standards, given the famed wildlife artist’s dedication to the environment.

The $20-million, two-storey structure, to be built at Royal Roads University in the Victoria suburb of Colwood, is a “living building,” said project architect Richard Iredale.

“It’s going to have a zero net ecological footprint,” he said from his Mayne Island studio.

Built with heavy timber and situated near the Esquimalt Lagoon, the building will look like a bird and is designed to complement Bateman’s art, said Iredale, who earned an engineering degree at Stanford University followed by his University of Washington architecture degree.

“It’s like another piece of art,” Bateman said from his Saltspring Island home.

“But, I don’t want the building to look like a piece of sculpture. I want it to blend with nature. I don’t want it to look like a modern suburban church.”

Bateman worshippers may show up, but the building won’t resemble a church thanks to its organic style.

While builders across Canada are embracing LEED standards, the Bateman Centre is using Cascadia Green Building Council standards.

The cross-border group’s goal is to design and construct buildings that are environmentally responsible, healthy and profitable.

Cascadia standards prohibit the use of some materials and remove all potentially harmful practices, said Iredale Group’s building designer Denis Gautier.

“LEED is based on a point system and is not always the most environmentally-friendly,” he said.

For example, PVC pipe, which typically runs through LEED platinum structures, is red-listed by Cascadia.

When it comes to the Bateman Centre, one of the biggest green initiatives will be to use area sewage that is currently pumped into the Esquimalt Lagoon, Gautier said.

The sewage will be directed through a heat exchange system and will produce enough heat for Royal Road’s main campus and for new campus condominiums.

The sewage will also run through an anaerobic digester where bacterial action will produce methane. The methane will be directed to a co-generation facility that will create electricity by burning the methane.

Remaining sewage will be treated and safely used for campus irrigation.

Massive solar panels will collect energy, which will be directed to a hydronic system that will evenly distribute heat throughout the structure.

The building’s design will allow a passive ventilator to move the air.

“Air moves out at the highest point relative to the building mass. It’s the natural stack effect,” Gautier explained.

Incoming air will be heated by a passive, in-slab radiant system.

Two high-efficiency, wood-burning fireplaces are also being used for heat.

They’ll burn wood pellets made from pine beetle-damaged wood, Iredale said.

The chimneys will be outfitted with catalytic converters.

Inside, the floors will be made from recaptured mahogany, harvested when the Panama Canal was built.

Wood doesn’t rot underwater because air doesn’t get to it, Iredale pointed out.

The cedar paneling is from trees that fell at Royal Roads and were milled on site.

Carpeting is made from recycled materials.

A roof covered with grass (sedum) will keep the area cool and reduce the need for air conditioning.

Another cutting edge feature is that the building is being modeled as a 3-D object rather than as a series of lines, Iredale said.

A computer model will program robotic machines to mill the structural wood.

“The robots talk to the model,” Iredale said of the fully automated process.

“It allows rather complex cuts. The machine spits the wood out and each piece is perfect. They go together like a Meccano set.”

Another important aspect is that the site once had four rivers running through it, later dammed by beavers that created a wetland brimming with life.

When the Dunsmuir family took the land from the Salish residents, they drained it and planted grass.

Iredale plans to recreate the wetlands, a job that will use about $3 million of the $20-million budget.

One benefit is that the site’s sandy silt will be dried and used as fill.

Bateman wants Salish people, who’ve inhabited the area for about 10,000 years, to be hired to work on the building which he said has a strong Japanese feel.

Expected to draw 100,000 visitors each year, the top floor, with 50,000 square feet of exhibit space, will rotate displays of 50 to 75 Bateman works from his 600-item catalogue.

Other artists will also be featured.

The lower level will house classrooms, conference space, a resource centre and archives.

A big challenge is that the art gallery has very precise temperature, light and humidity requirements, while the remainder of the building can breathe with nature, Gautier said.

Construction was to start late last year, with a 2010 completion date, but Iredale predicted a spring 2010 start and an early 2012 finish.

Full funding for the project, from various sources including private businesspeople and in-kind donations, hasn’t been reached, Bateman said.

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