Evds2702marks’s Weblog

After visiting Red River College Princess campus i was interested in finding out more about the specifics of design and energy efficiency that went into the project.

Corbett Cibinel Architects is the group responsible for the design of RRC. Through a link from their site I found a floor by floor break down of the design and restoration of the site. This allowed me to better understand the buildings involved and see the functions of each space. Prior to reading this document i was not aware of the historic buildings that were preserved or the intigration of the new buildings. This information is found at: http://www.cibinel.com/uploads/rrcoverview.pdf.

All of us in ED2 are aware that RRC has acclaimed energy efficiency and is a state of the art green building, but i didn’t understand what elements directly contributed to this standard. I came accross a list of “GREEN FEATURES” which introduced me to the environmentally friendly design. This list consists of the following:

1. Historic urban area rehabilitation with heritage facades, remodel of existing building plus new construction
2. Strong energy conservation through envelope and equipment design.
3. Materials salvage emphasis.
4. 200m2 vegetated roof.
5. 20 kW PV curtain wall under consideration.
6. Emphasis on water conservation,
7. integration with transit system.
8. Daylight design, visual comfort for IT workplace and high air quality emphasis.
9. Incorporation of 120 year old heritage facades and entire 4,646 m2 of early 20th century brick building pose energy design challenges.
10. Building demonstrates excellent repeatability

Information found at http://www.iisbe.org/iisbe/gbc2k2/teams/canada/red_river/rrc-edu.htm.

GF Shymko & Associates Inc. were the energy consultants for this project. I located a brief summary of the project from their point of view at http://www.gfshymko.com/projects_redriver.html. This document introduced me to the C-2000 Program building standard, HVAC ventilation, and Photovoltaic system in place at RRC.

Though this is still the tip of the iceberg of information about energy efficiency that contributed to RRC, it has aroused my interest. I will be further investigating the systems in place and hopefully find a way to link them into our final assignment: Redesign the U of M campus.