Library Buildings around the World

esidential dwellings and sophisticated, educational environment with spaces for team teaching and team learning brings corporate
learning to a new level that is unmatched in Canada today. (Hariri)
HCM see: Hughes Condon Marler
Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architectes + Urbanistes, Vancouver, BC – Canada
http://www.hotsonbakker.com (see also stantec: http://www. stantec.com)
Libraries:
Quest University Canada, Library, Squamish, BC – Canada 2007
Area Library 44,170 sqf., University Services 31,550 sqf., Academic 50,660 sqf., Recreation Centre 28,202 sqf.
Budget $ 100.000.000, Completion September 2007 (Phase 1)
Tanya Southcott (Tanya Southcott is an intern architect living and working in Vancouver):
The challenge of place-making in the heart of Sea to Sky Country is to create an architecture that is responsive to the dramatic
landscape of coastal British Columbia rather than subservient to it. Located in Squamish, a community geographically midway
between Vancouver and Whistler, Quest University is Canada's first private not-for- profit, secular liberal arts university. It was
created through the vision of David Strangway, a former president of the University of British Columbia who had a vision to build a
private university soon after he retired as president in 1997. The process of creating Quest University was not without its challenges
from those who felt that the university would undermine the public educational system. Despite these challenges, Strangway
managed to open the university in 2007, with 160 students enrolled in an institution that charges a $25,000 annual tuition. Today, the
$100-million campus considers itself an integrated community that draws its inspiration from its spectacular context while nurturing
an intimate sense of community akin to the European hillside village, albeit one with state-of- the-art sustainable design.
In 2003, Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects + Urbanistes were retained by the Sea to Sky Foundation (now known as Quest
University Canada) to develop a master plan for the university. Located at the mouth of Howe Sound, the new campus sits atop 240
acres of coastal mountain range in the Garibaldi Highlands about 10 kilometres outside Squamish's town centre. The first phase of
the project featured the design of key campus buildings including the library, academic building, services building and the
recreation centre. Yet to be completed, the second phase will feature more community-driven development including residential
market housing, a chapel, a theatre and a neighbourhood commercial hub, not to mention more academic buildings to accommodate
a student population that will eventually surpass the university's current capacity of 800 students. The university marks a new
direction for postsecondary education in Canada. Designed primarily for undergraduate studies, the liberal arts and science
program approaches its curriculum thematically, integrating multiple disciplines into intensive three-and-a-half-week "blocks."
Classes are kept small through seminar-based learning with a student-to-teacher ratio of not more than ten to one. Even the
university's motto--Intimate, Integrated and International-- attempts to describe this unique educational experiment while setting
the stage for an architectural manifestation of its ideology. The opportunity to develop a campus design that responds to the
university's philosophy while addressing the students' yearning for a different educational environment is unprecedented.
Winding its way up and around the campus, the approach along University Parkway reveals a series of robust buildings carefully
integrated into their natural surroundings. Of note is the central academic complex that sits at the top of the steeply sloping knoll
like a modern acropolis. But rather than design pristine sculptural objects set against the landscape, the architects designed campus
buildings to firmly embrace the site and its surrounding beauty. At the core of the university, buildings are designed to take
advantage of dramatic views that frame a series of interlocking plazas. The campus's library sits on the uppermost peak while the
academic and services buildings are set into the more steeply sloping western portion of the site. Collectively, they frame the main
outdoor social area for the campus whose fourth side opens up to the landscape beyond. Outdoor walkways, landscaped open spaces
and large terraces link one building to the next and tie the complex together through numerous opportunities for visual connections
with the outdoors. The library serves as both the heart of the campus and a gateway to the university community. Yet it is an
introverted, centrally focused building constructed around a large three-storey interior atrium functioning as the main social hub for
the building. High clerestory windows allow daylight to penetrate deep into the interior, creating a room that is warm and
welcoming, even during the shorter days of winter. An opportunity for impromptu social engagement, the central staircase connects
the administration, student services and café at the ground level with the upper two levels of the library. With 360-degree aweinspiring
views as a panoramic backdrop, only the view from the library stacks uses the landscape as a visual focus. The academic
building is the largest building in the complex. Organized around a central exterior courtyard that follows the natural contours of
the site, each floor plate is designed to create a series of social spaces that contribute to the academic life of the school. Modestly sized
seminar rooms are located along the perimeter of the building, while smaller breakout rooms are focused inwards. Wide corridors
with framed views of the courtyard below and the mountains beyond link these two areas together. To give another level of
expression to the building, each study and meeting space is coded by door type and differentiated by glass panels that feature a
different piece of a larger poem. Both the services building and recreation centre are designed as meeting places for students and
faculty as well as the local community. The double-curved roof of the services building opens up toward the south while overhead
doors open up to the patios and plazas to maximize sunlight and provide opportunities to connect outdoor spaces with the large
informal cafeteria and multipurpose room. To date, the recreation centre accommodates a collegiate-level gymnasium, fitness area,
squash courts and change rooms. Commercial units are still under development and have yet to become operational. As the first
development along Village Drive--the university's main street--the recreation centre offers the opportunity to become a more
authentic village centre once development in the area increases. While the experience of each building is governed by its individual
program-driven design, the buildings complement each other throughout the complex via common materials, colour, and their
relationship with the outdoors. The materiality of the buildings--heavy timber and laminated beams, or horizontally laid corrugated
metal siding--is clearly informed by the industrial context of the region. Canopies and shading devices are assembled from a kit of
parts, adapted throughout the campus to further enhance the user experience. Along with concrete, metal, glass and wood, colour is
used to unite the architectural expression of each building and becomes a tool for wayfinding within the complex. Individual floors
within each building are distinguished by fields of colour, as are prominent circulation cores that become beacons of colour and
light. Both compact and walkable, the campus is also completely accessible. Visitors are dropped off at the library where access to all
buildings and amenities is convenient and close. Parking and service areas are located underground, along a "utilidor" that runs
beneath the complex and beyond pedestrians' experience. These are accessible from one entrance bay only, thereby eliminating
requirements for excessive service access roads. Part of the mandate for Quest University was to use environmentally, socially and
economically responsible principles going back to Strangway's original motto, and to this end the strategies read like a checklist.
Geothermal heating and cooling, used as the main energy source for the campus, are distributed through radiant-slab systems. Siting
was sensitive to the existing conditions of the landscape to minimize rock blasting while retaining the maximum number of trees.
Moreover, the design of interior and exterior spaces was also governed by solar orientation. All buildings have operable windows for
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