First green school points to the future

The library is accessible directly from the main entrance of the school. the double height space receives ample daylight from the adjacent courtyard and is animated by sloping structural elements and a suspended resource room.

by Barry Sampson

The first of a new generation of high performance ‘green schools’ by the Toronto District School Board, Thomas L. Wells is intended to serve as a model demonstrating sustainable design principles and an enhanced learning environment.
With the conviction that architecture can play an instrumental role in the education of children, the school is designed as a terrain for engagement with learning, society and the environment. (more…)

A sustainable response integrates culture and landscape

View along the rammed earth entry wall, an attractive and durable construction with excellent thermal qualities. Note the section of Cor-ten steel at the location of the service yard.

The design of Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre is a specific and sustainable response to the building’s unique context - the unusual Canadian desert found in the South Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Sited adjacent to a remnant of the Great Basin Desert, of which 1,600 acres are being preserved by the Osoyoos band as a conservation area, this interpretative centre is part of a larger 200-acre master plan. (more…)