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St. Anne College's Campus
By : Atelier Pierre Thibault + Architecture49
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Public Building / School & Preschool Education Building : Gold Certification
To support the continued growth of Collège Sainte-Anne located in Montreal’s west end, the Atelier Pierre Thibault and Architecture49 consortium was commissioned in early 2020 to develop a new high school. While design work began quickly to meet a tight schedule, the global pandemic coupled with a devastating fire in the adjacent elementary school disrupted the project’s planning and forced rapid changes. While initially only the high school was planned, the project evolved into the development of a campus consisting of an elementary and high school, both carbon neutral, offering a completely new approach to education. The development of this state-of-the-art campus had to be completed on the same schedule as originally planned, to accommodate the school calendar. The project also included the renovation of the portion of the elementary school that was spared by the fire. Representing an investment of more than $55 million, the new 12,000-square-meter campus now houses more than 1,450 students, 800 at the elementary level and 650 at the secondary level.
Inspired during trips to Europe, the architectural design was developed with an innovative and more human vision of education through bright, open environments that promote collaboration, wellness, creativity, and quality teaching. The new schools include open collaborative spaces, learning spaces, creative labs, a simple gymnasium and concentration spaces. The building also features exterior perimeter walkways on all levels, extending the learning spaces outside. The goal of this approach was to make the new facility a comfortable living environment that promotes student educational success through unique interior space diversity and typologies, an abundance of natural light throughout the buildings, and the integration of wood, among other things.
This new campus aims to achieve BCZ (Zero Carbon Building) certification, both through specific design interventions and the energy performance itself of each building. A reflection process was initiated in order to develop a simple volumetry, well implanted and allowing the installation of large windows with triple glazing in strategic locations, especially in the south to allow the production of passive heating in winter and natural ventilation with the openings to the north. The addition of overhangs provides passive shading to reduce the use of an artificial cooling system. The air redistribution systems are the most efficient in terms of air quality, but also energy and acoustics. The facilities are heated and tempered by radiant floor heating and cooling and highly efficient air source heat pumps, with the various spaces heated by exhausting the building’s air to recover maximum heat. These sustainable measures were complemented by the implementation of a high-performance envelope, electromechanical systems providing optimal energy efficiency, photovoltaic solar collectors, and LED lighting.
Collaboration
Architect : Atelier Pierre Thibault
Engineering : Martin Roy et associés
