Located on a dense site at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, CIRS was designed to be the most sustainable building in North America. The facility houses 200 researchers from private, public, and non-government organization sectors, who work together under a common mission: to accelerate sustainability. The 61,000-square-foot ‘living lab’ is organized into two four-storey wings, linked by an atrium that serves as a building lobby, entry to a daylit 450-seat auditorium, and ‘social condenser’ space.
CIRS maximizes passive environmental strategies and demand reduction, and puts sustainable systems on display. A pre-existing ‘desire line’ that cuts through the site was retained, used as an urban strategy to highlight the reclaimed water system and engage pedestrians with the project’s sustainability goals. The building massing contributes to the goal of 100% natural daylight and ventilation for all inhabitants; a living roof on the auditorium roof provides a courtyard amenity for upper-level office users; building-integrated photovoltaics shade operable windows; and the expressed wood structure is constructed of FSC-certified and pine-beetle-killed wood. The western façade’s living solar screen is planted with deciduous vines—once grown in, it will act as a dynamic shading device that responds to seasonal change. In addition to assisting natural ventilation, the publicly accessible atrium is an educational space where all of these strategies are visible.
Exceeding LEED Platinum status, CIRS was designed to be ‘net positive’ in seven different ways—net-positive energy; structural carbon neutrality; operational carbon; net-zero water; turning passive occupants into active inhabitants; promoting health and productivity; and promoting happiness. This ‘living building’ harvests sunlight, captures waste heat from a nearby building, and exchanges heating and cooling with the ground—and returns 600-megawatt-hours of surplus energy back to campus while removing 170 tonnes of GHG emissions annually. Supplying 100% of the facility’s water needs, CIRS collects rainwater for potable use and purifies wastewater in an on-site solar aquatics biofiltration system at a rate of 608 gallons per day. CIRS’s wood structure sequesters 600 tonnes of carbon, helping the project achieve net-zero carbon in construction and operations.
More than a building, CIRS is a research tool that demonstrates the possibilities in sustainable design and construction, serving as a catalyst for change. A Technical Manual and website (cirs.ubc.ca) further disseminate information with lesson learned, on-going updates, and actual performance data from the project. The process of creating CIRS has reshaped UBC’s vision for its campus and its role as an institution; the results from CIRS are helping move the world toward a more sustainable future.
