Designed to meet a net-zero carbon target
By Esteban Matheus
The University of Victoria (UVic) Engineering Expansion project is providing a new home for the Greenest Civil Engineering Department in Canada. The Department’s students, professors and researchers are addressing the most pressing global environmental challenges through cutting edge science, engineering design, and innovative solutions.
The Engineering Expansion project strives to align with this vision by being at the forefront of climate responsive design. The two new buildings embody the latest climate mitigation and adaptation strategies while also functioning as advanced tools for climate science research and learning.
The project is designed and constructed to meet a net-zero carbon target and features a regionally sourced mass timber structure. The Engineering Expansion project consists of two new buildings: a six-storey Engineering and Computer Science Expansion (ECSE) building and a two-storey High Bay Research and Structures Lab (HBRSL). As living laboratories, the buildings themselves act as research tools, with hundreds of sensors installed in the foundations, building envelope, labs and structural systems. These sensors will allow students and professors to collect data for hands-on learning and research.
Gathering building performance data in real time
The project provides new teaching and research laboratories, classrooms and office spaces to meet the growing demands of UVic’s Engineering Departments. The ECSE building features a common atrium shared with the existing Engineering and Computer Science building, undergraduate design studios, graduate student workstations, specialized labs for environmental and hydraulics engineering, building science, computational research, geotechnical and biomedical engineering. It also includes faculty collaboration spaces and offices.
The HBRSL is equipped with two 10-ton gantry cranes, a seismic testing strong floor, a reaction wall, a structural shake table, and other supporting facilities. In addition to research on dynamic loading and structural testing, the lab also accommodates large-scale geotechnical and environmental experiments.
Altogether, the facility accommodates 500 additional students and exemplifies the latest in sustainable building design.
Reducing embodied carbon with mass timber
With a significant focus on emissions reduction, the project uses a mass timber structure and low-carbon concrete to lower its overall embodied carbon emissions.
The ECSE building features a hybrid mass timber system, including CLT floor panels and steel columns and beams. This approach reduces the need for secondary steel elements compared to steel deck construction and eliminates the shoring typically required for concrete floors.
The lighter mass timber components result in lower seismic demand, reducing the overall quantity of structural steel, foundation materials and soil anchors—further cutting its carbon footprint.
The building’s CLT floor assemblies also offer better fire performance than traditional steel decks, achieving a 2-hour fire rating without encapsulation. Exposed CLT decking eliminates the need for drop ceilings commonly required in conventional steel deck construction.
The HBRSL building features glulam beams and columns and CLT floor panels. Pad and combined footings, along with a raft slab for seismic testing of the strong floor, support the glulam columns. The building’s lateral system uses buckling restrained braces (BRBs), optimizing seismic performance. Beyond the BRB system and concrete foundations, the rest of the structure is wood, further reducing the project’s embodied emissions. Mass timber’s natural fire resistance allows it to remain exposed throughout the HBRSL building, enhancing its biophilic benefits.
Project Credits
- Client University of Victoria
- Architect DIALOG
- Structural and Mechanical Engineering DIALOG
- Electrical Engineering AES
- Communications DIALOG
- Planning & Engagement DIALOG
- Landscape DIALOG
- SUSTAINABILITY + BUILDING PERFORMANCE DIALOG
- Civil KWL
- Acoustics BKL Consultants Ltd
- Building Envelope Stantec
- General Contractor Bird Construction Inc.
- Structural Steel Niik Steel
- Mass Timber Kalesnikoff Mass Timber
- Mechanical CONTRACTOR PML Professional Mechanical Ltd
- Electrical CONTRACTOR Canem Systems Ltd.
- Envelope Parker Johnston Industries inc.
- Glazing Visionary Glass Inc.
ESTEBAN MATHEUS, ARCHITECT AIBC IS AN ASSOCIATE AT DIALOG IN VANCOUVER.
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