With an outstanding reputation for teaching innovation and numerous awards to prove it, the University of Alberta found the perfect partner for the design of a new health sciences building in architectural and engineering firm HOK.
Using the principles of sustainable design, the Edmonton North Clinic (ECN) represents a new species of academic and health care architecture. ECN will house seven faculties and accommodate 1000 students. Building completion is scheduled for 2012.
The building represents the future of campus design: Teaching rooms are smaller and more intimate, with interactive, team-based learning delivered in a variety of media. The University of Alberta made interdisciplinary health education a priority nearly 20 years ago, and the new edifice is designed to support innovative learning pathways.
Factors Driving the Transformation of Academic Building Design
1. Changing Instructional Formats and Learning Preferences
The trend to digital learning has been accelerating for some time. Generation Y students or Millennials would rather listen to a recorded lecture on their iPods than be subjected to a dissertation in a 400 seat lecture hall. This generation of students is accustomed to finding information independently and working cooperatively.
Millennials seek out opportunities for networking with peers and sharing information and ideas informally, an orientation that fits well with the university's focus on team-based teaching for health care providers.
2. Interdisciplinary Focus
The President of the University of Alberta, Dr. Indira Samarasekera, is encouraging faculty members to spend more time collaborating across disciplines. Interdisciplinary work is not new, but the decision to design buildings to foster interdisciplinarity and break down barriers is an emerging phenomenon.
In ECN, none of the seven faculties will have a proprietary lease on its space. In the future, given changing needs, the size and layout of faculties may change. To promote interaction and improve utilization ratios, faculties will share spaces which in the past would have been specific to each faculty. These spaces include eating and lounge facilities and informal areas for meeting.
3. Sustainable Design Considerations
ECN will be targeting LEED® Silver certification to demonstrate its worthiness as a green building and a healthy environment for students, faculty and administration staff. Considerations being given top priority include access to natural light and views out for as many building occupants as possible.
The building’s layout permits a variety of different configurations. Teaching spaces and dry labs may co-exist in the near term but be replaced by offices and innovative teaching pods in the future. This flexibility also brings reductions in floor area, an economic benefit for cash-strapped university administrations.
Connectivity between Faculties
HOK has adopted the theme of a stair culture to address many of the criteria the client has for the building. On the interior of the eastern side of the edifice, facing 114 St., stairs run through the building and enhance connectivity from one floor to the next.
This stair culture also results in numerous informal seating and meeting places, so-called third spaces that have no specific designated use. These are for staff and students of all seven faculties.
The west side of the building is where the administrative offices are located. Given the size of this area (equivalent to three office buildings), the architects have introduced two light wells and two atriums. These ensure employees enjoy a healthy and pleasant work environment.
Academic learning is not dead; it has changed to meet the preferences of a new breed of students who value collaboration, innovation and sustainable design. The University of Alberta is ready for the challenge.
Andree Iffrig - Andrée Iffrig LEED AP is a writer and award-winning graduate architect. She uses her broad background in environmental design and ...
