Awards of Excellence - ACEC|Manitoba

2012 Awards of Excellence
Award of Excellence – building
By Richard Lay, P.Eng., Enermodal, a member of MMM Group
Project Name: Churchill Northern Studies Centre – Energy Efficiency and
Water Self Sufficiency in Northern Manitoba
Firm:
Enermodal Engineering, a member of MMM Group Limited
Client: Churchill Northern Studies Centre
After years of struggling with an
old sheet metal building inherited
from the military, Churchill Northern
Studies Centre has a new 27,000-sq.
ft. building. The CNSC is an independent,
non-profit research and education facility
located 23 kilometres east of the town of
Churchill, Manitoba.
The new building is designed for 88
visiting scientists and 12 staff working yearround
on sub-arctic scientific research and
education. The building has laboratories,
classrooms, kitchen and dining rooms, recreation
areas, gift shop, observation dome,
library, herbarium, and study collections of
various animal species.
The goal was to reduce operating costs
and showcase best practice green building
engineering design. Prairie Architects of
Winnipeg designed a streamlined elevated
building, which sheds wind and snow and
collects sunlight. The two-storey structure
has a long shallow rectangular plan
oriented east-west for good daylight penetration
and views. The building envelope
is R-40 freezer panel construction with
low-e argon triple-glazed –windows. The
structure is raised about 1.5 metres above
grade to minimize snowdrifts. This feature
also provides space under the building for
the ventilation openings, protected from
snow entry.
Enermodal Engineering designed
mechanical and electrical services, which
include generous ventilation with heat
recovery, intelligent building controls, and
good lighting. The kitchen and laboratories
are energy efficient, and there are
on-site water and wastewater treatment
systems, non-potable water distribution,
grey water recovery, and waterless composting
toilets.
The main ventilation system is a 1175
L/s reversing flow heat exchanger made in
Manitoba and featuring 85% heat recovery
efficiency and no requirement for defrost.
The other HRVs, serving the dining room
page 28 | Manitoba Consulting Engineer
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