Nicola Valley Institute
of Technology
Merritt, BC
Busby + Associates Architects
(Vancouver, BC)
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This new post-secondary institute is located on a forested, south-facing slope on the outskirts of Merritt, in the interior of British Columbia. It is shared by the native Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and the non-native University College of the Cariboo. It is the first phase of a 43-acre academic campus.

For centuries, this area was occupied by aboriginal people from five local bands. The design team, including a native project architect, consulted extensively with aboriginal elders to address the needs of a modern academic institution while acknowledging the significant features of the site and the heritage and culture of the native students. Consequently, the building is oriented to the cardinal directions, with the main entrance facing east and the morning sun. The curvilinear site plan is organized around a central ceremonial arbour that will be part of a later phase that completes the circle. Due to the slope of the site, the building is embedded into the ground at its north end and emerges to become a three-storey structure at its south end.

The institute accommodates 300 students and includes classrooms, faculty offices, social spaces, laboratories, bookstore, cafeteria, and a library. It is organized in a non-hierarchical way along an interior street, with faculty offices adjacent to classrooms. A two-storey atrium at the entrance rises up to a glazed roof lantern with operable windows for natural ventilation. A fireplace below marks the centre of the building and is the focus of the student lounge.

The Nicola Valley experiences hot, dry summers and moderately cold winters. The institute has been designed as a cold climate green building, using environmental principles drawn from two earlier forms of shelter in this area: the tepee, a simple and efficient ventilation structure that promoted cooling by convection in the summer months; and the pit house, a south-facing earth-sheltered structure that minimized heat loss in the winter months. Traces of several pit houses still exist on the NVIT site. Building on these principles, sophisticated energy modeling techniques were used to design a fully integrated environmental system with advanced control systems to optimize performance. Environmental considerations influenced the site design, construction process, selection of materials, and the selection of systems for water and energy conservation.

The structure and materials in the building are simple and efficient. Wood is used sparingly to emphasize its structural and visual qualities, and it has been integrated with concrete in an innovative way. 256 Douglas fir glue-laminated columns support the flat concrete floor slabs, using cast steel capitals and bases to transfer the loads. The columns were installed after the slabs were cured and stripped. The main body of the building is wrapped in a faceted modular wood frame rainscreen wall, clad horizontally with Alaskan yellow cedar that is durable and has a natural preservative. The exterior wall has tilt-and-turn windows, shaded by adjustable wooden louvres in four different patterns that are angled according to solar orientation. To slow the rainfall runoff, a portion of the roof is covered with earth and planted with kinickinnic, an indigenous shrub that will not need irrigation after its second season. Left untreated, the walls of the building will age to a silver grey and blend with the landscape and vegetation.

Jury Comments:

The architecture successfully contributes to the collective order of the institute by defining the central gathering space at the scale of the landscape. The circular geometry is gently handled to reduce its controlling properties while retaining its enclosing properties. The building offers a range of meeting places, distributed to reduce unwanted social and institutional hierarchy.

Brit Andresen,
(Australia)
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This project pays homage to the cultural roots and philosophical principles of the First Nations community without resorting to iconographic quotations. It seeks sustainability with an imaginative palette of high- and low-tech green motifs. In its technology and composition, this “modern vernacular” expresses modesty and confidence as it incorporates local materials and responds to its local micro-climate.

Daniel Pearl,
(Quebec)
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