The University of Waterloo's Engineering Five building marks the first phase of a major expansion to the Faculty of Engineering and a dramatic new showcase for the innovative work being carried out by the engineering faculty. The new structure, one of the largest on campus, consolidates previously dispersed departments, transforms an underused part of the east campus into a vibrant academic community and creates a striking new entry portal to the university.
Several goals guided our planning and design efforts including creating an environment that supports team-based and project-based learning, providing generous public and social spaces for collaboration and informal gathering, ensuring adaptability for multiple disciplines and team design and flexibility to accommodate change over the long term.
The heart of this building is the 20,000 square foot Student Design Centre (SDC), a world-class facility for undergraduate research, experimentation and innovation. Occupying the first and the majority of the second floor, it includes numerous work bays, design studios, meeting rooms, the WEEF student machine shop, three engine test labs and a large computer commons.
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Department of Mechanical and Megatronics Engineering (MME) and the Department of Systems Design Engineering are located on the building's upper levels. These floors include administrative offices; dry labs, classrooms and common rooms; workshops and studios. Tying into the SDC is an anechoic testing chamber housing the Centre for Intelligent Antenna and Radio Systems, the most advanced laboratory for next generation wireless research in Canada. The interior of the chamber is lined with a complex array of isolating pyramids, which provided inspiration for the building's expressive fritted glass façade.
Students and faculty gather in a number of informal collaborative spaces organized around the central atrium, a green roof terrace above the anechoic chamber and a 2-story hanging garden that dominates the west facade and signifies the building entry. These are the kinds of rich, collaborative environments in which research and learning thrive.
While the lower two floor of Engineering Five are largely transparent to showcase the Student Design Centre, the upper four floors feature glazing with an array of graduated dots patterned to create the illusion of a series of protruding pyramids. The frit pattern marks the major circulation corridor that continues as a flying bridge over the campus ring road and regional rail line linking Engineering Five to the main campus.
