 |
| Solar panels craned into place on the Jean Caulfield Building |
The Jean Canfield Building, opening this fall in downtown Charlottetown, is a striking symbol of new ways of thinking about architecture. Here's the question: do we admire a building for the beauty of its lines or for the elegance of its function? The building was designed by the firm of Bergmark Guimond Hammarlund Jones.
Back in the day, David Bergmark was one of the founders and architects of The Ark, at Spry Point, PEI. Bergmark says he learned a lot from The Ark, but a lot of that was what not to do when designing a green building. “At the Ark we relied a lot on expensive systems. It turns out that it's the simple stuff that is really the most cost effective and works the best.”
Here's an example. The middle of the building is an atrium. It begins on the second floor (for security reasons) and goes to the top so that every office benefits from natural sunlight. Around the bottom of the glass ceiling are windows that open because (say it with me) hot air rises. The windows allow the hot air to escape and keep the building cooler. Thus dealing elegantly and simply with the competing demand of more sunlight and less heat.
Here's an interesting fact. Even in Charlottetown, the single greatest energy cost in a building is keeping it cool. So the architects had to spend a lot of time thinking about how to do that. Hence the opening windows in the atrium. Hence a concrete floor with pipes running through it that provides radiant cool air. But not too much cool air. Because when cool air meets warm air, it produces (say it with me) rain. So the architects had to be careful to get the temperature just right. More cooling? The roof of the building is white, so as not to attract and absorb heat. The windows on the south side of the building are all fitted with shades. They also, as you look at the building from Fitzroy or Euston Street, create an interesting effect.
But beyond that, the shades are also photo electric cells which will gather solar energy to provide power to the building. And the solar panels, which have already become a signature part of the building's style, will provide additional renewable electricity.
The roof also features rainwater collectors. The water is piped to a cistern in the basement and that water is used to flush toilets. And, in keeping with the new green esthetic, as many of the products in the building as possible were sourced locally That again created conflicting demands. Architect and BGHJ partner Silva Stojak says that fast growing bamboo, a high renewable material, would have been an excellent choice for the building. But it grows in China and the environmental cost of shipping it to Canada outweighed its renewable benefits.
The Canada Green Building Council has developed a set of guidelines called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). LEED is the gold standard for environmentally friendly building design. Buildings are awarded points based on their ability to meet LEED criteria. The Jean Canfield Building, which followed the LEED guidelines, is just shy of a platinum rating—as good as it gets.
Another one of the LEED criteria points to an interesting way of thinking about architecture and its legacy. In the past, we have admired buildings that were “built to last.” In the Jean Canfield building, it's the materials that are built to last. Under the LEED criteria, points are awarded it building materials can be used again, for some other purpose or building.
Of course, that's not entirely a new idea. Many old buildings in the city are made up of bits of even older buildings. But building a structure deliberately to be re-sued is an new idea.
I ask Silva Stojak what she hopes the legacy of the Jean Canfield Building will be—what she wants people to think about when they look at it in 100 years. Her answer is interesting “I hope there are parts of this building in new buildings, all over the city,” she says.
Close window to return to main page.