Gleneagles Community Centre
Patkau Architects
OVERVIEW
The Gleneagles Community Centre is located on a small, gently sloping site adjacent to a public golf course. The building is in direct conversation with the larger site, and uses design features and technological solutions to achieve a drastic reduction in energy use. The topography of the site was subtly reshaped to allow both the lower level and the intermediate level to be located on grade.
The program is organized on three levels to minimize the building footprint. The intermediate level, accessible from a generous porch along the street, contains a community “living room,” café, meeting room, administration, and child-care facilities. The lower level opens on the opposite side of the building to covered terraces and courtyard spaces adjacent to exterior pathways. It includes a gymnasium, multipurpose room, arts room, youth room, and workshop area. The upper level accommodates fitness facilities. The sectional arrangement of interior spaces activates and energizes the building. The volume of the gymnasium rises through the three levels; open or glazed walls facilitate visual connection between the various programs within the building. These simultaneous views of multiple activities animate the interior, making the life of the building and the energy of the place palpable to the community within and without.
The structural system consists of cast-in-place concrete floor slabs, insulated double-wythe composite tilt-up concrete end walls and a heavy timber roof. This structure, an important component of the interior climate-control system, acts as a thermal-storage mass and a large static heat pump that absorbs, stores, and releases energy to create an extremely stable indoor climate. Radiant heating and cooling in both floors and walls maintains a set interior temperature and the concrete surfaces act alternately as emitters or absorbers. The thermal energy for this system is provided by water-to-water heat pumps via a ground-source heat exchanger under the adjacent permeable parking area.
Energy Conservation Features |
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Other Sustainability Features |
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MEASURED
REDUCTION IN
ENERGY USE |
National Average Energy Use
Intensity (EUI):
2,156 MJ/m2 (599 ekWh/m2) |
Building's EUI:
498 MJ/m2 (138 ekWh/m2) |
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Natural light
Clerestory glazing and skylights provide natural daylight illumination.
[ CLICK FOR SOLAR SHADING, DAYLIGHT & LIGHTING ] |
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displacement ventilation & air to air heat recovery
100% fresh air is tempered and supplied at low velocity at low levels. This air rises, flushing contaminants upward, where it is captured and exhausted through a heat recovery ventilator.
[ CLICK FOR HEATING, COOLING & VENTILATION ] |
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radiant heating & cooling
Polyethylene pipe (PEX) was cast into the concrete floor slabs and the concrete tilt-up wall panels. Warmed or cooled water is continuously circulated through the embedded piping to maintain concrete surfaces at a set temperature, allowing it to act as a radiant emitter and/or absorber.
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roof overhangs
Generous roof overhangs shade building interiors from excessive local solar loads in summer.
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geothermal heat pump system
Two ground-source heat pumps are tied to a ground source heat exchanger consisting of 3,000m of “slinky” plastic piping installed below the parking area. The exchanger utilizes the earth’s stable temperature as a heat source, or heat sink, depending on the demand.
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WATER CONSERVATION
Water for non-potable uses is drawn from nearby ponds further reducing use of potable city water.
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