At the outset of the project, the School District established three goals for this building envelope upgrade:
- Double the effective thermal resistance and air tightness of the building.
- Remove hazardous materials, which included lead and asbestos, from the exterior walls.
- Protect the building with a robust, low maintenance cladding material that can endure a daily bombardment of balls, boots, and graffiti.
Architecturally, the upgrade to the building envelope was also an opportunity to restore the potency of the original school building. First built in the 1950's, the wood clad school was a fine example of early Modernism in the Kootenay region. It showcased wide arrays of windows to bring daylight into classrooms, a logical structure, and an authentic use of materials. However, later renovations to the school obscured its honest Modernism by blocking out windows, introducing neoclassical geometries, and applying decorative elements to the building.
The architectural solution replaces all windows and removes all exterior stucco and neoclassical decoration. An engineered cladding assembly is added to the exterior face of the school. The newly applied layers consist of a continuous self-adhering air barrier, 4" of high density mineral wool insulation, a ventilated air space, and cladding panels that are supported on galvanized subgirts and thermal clips. The panels themselves are a dance between fibre cement and aluminum - the sequence of materials is used to define the various wings of the school. The vertical channel fibre cement panels are tactile, with grooves that accentuate sunlight and shadow on the face of the building. The playful colour scheme of the aluminum panels allude to the open, blue sky mind of early childhood.
Location: Fruitvale, BC
Client/Owner: School District 20
Team: SOA (Architect), 9 Dot Engineering (Structural), Cornerstone General Contracting (GC, Phase 1)
Status: Built