While climate change is seeing global temperatures trending up, UBC’s Okanagan campus is committed to trending greenhouse gas emissions down and its newest and most efficient student residence building is playing no small part in those ambitious plans.
In May 2022, UBCO’s Skeena Residence officially received Passive House certification—a stringent set of efficient design and construction standards—making it the first student residence in Canada to receive that status.
“This is an incredible achievement and one that our team has been working on since the building was first imagined four years ago,” says Lesley Cormack, Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. “As our campus community grows and develops, we are committed to taking bold action on climate and employing the most innovative and efficient building practices is an important way to achieve those goals.”
While the Skeena Residence was primarily built to house students, the UBC Okanagan School of Engineering is seizing the opportunity to study the long-term impacts and benefits of a Passive House building on campus. An array of sensors was integrated into its design and construction in order to establish the residence as a living lab. Researchers aim to identify the energy patterns of passive residential buildings and resident behaviours to provide recommendations on the most energy-efficient uses.
Please read the full story on the UBC Okanagan news site.
Under Strategy 2: Inspiring Spaces, UBC is dedicated to establishing accessible and inspiring physical and virtual spaces in order to promote learning, innovation and interaction.