A research centre in subarctic Manitoba has been honoured for showing high-performance buildings can operate in particularly harsh conditions.
A Prairie Architects project, with mechanical/electrical design by Enermodal Engineering, the Churchill Northern Studies Centre (CNSC) has won an Award of Excellence from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC) Manitoba Chapter.
The 2583-m2 (27,800-sf) facility can accommodate 88 visiting scientists and the 12 staff working year-round on research and education. The remote site does not contain any piped municipal services for water, sewer, or gas. A 1-km (0.6-mi) power line connects the facility to a Manitoba Hydro electrical service often interrupted by winter weather.
“The arctic presents many unique challenges from a design standpoint, but also allows for excellent financial payback for energy and water efficiency measures given the high cost of living off-grid,” said Enermodal’s Richard Lay.
The building envelope is designed to be airtight and well-insulated since there is no access to daylight and normal conditions are –40 C (–40 F) with 140-km/h (87-mph) winds. The building also contains R-40 freezer panel construction and low-emissivity (low-e), argon-filled, triple-glazed windows. The entire structure is raised above-grade for snow drift control, providing a space for building ventilation openings underneath that are protected from snow.
The CNSC structure also contains high-efficiency lighting fixtures and the average building-wide lighting power density is 7.7 W/m2, which is 30 per cent below American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 90.1-2007, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-rise Residential Buildings, levels.
