Vancouver's Langara College 'Leed's in Sustainable Construction
Langara College is making some admirable changes and commitments towards sustainable construction at its Vancouver campus including its LEED Gold Standard library/classroom building.
Langara College Library, photo: Shai Gil, source: www.langara.bc.ca
Utilizing the "stack effect", the library gathers cool air in the underground garage and a monitoring system activates or deactivates the vents throughout the building to disperse air as needed, maintaining a naturally regulated internal environment. Ground source heating and cooling and a wind tower also adjusts the concrete thermal structure and contributes to the building's energy conservation. Other resource saving methods include: large, open windows to illuminate study areas with natural daylight and an automatic electric light control that turns on only when necessary and rainwater collecting roof that contributes to irrigating the surrounding landscape.
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
Teeple Architects Inc. are behind the modern eco friendly design and also mapped out the college's master plan to attain its environmental goals. Any new construction on this campus will surely be LEED certified with an architecturally modern aesthetic.
What is "LEED"?
Langara College Library, photo: Shai Gil, source: www.langara.bc.caUtilizing the "stack effect", the library gathers cool air in the underground garage and a monitoring system activates or deactivates the vents throughout the building to disperse air as needed, maintaining a naturally regulated internal environment. Ground source heating and cooling and a wind tower also adjusts the concrete thermal structure and contributes to the building's energy conservation. Other resource saving methods include: large, open windows to illuminate study areas with natural daylight and an automatic electric light control that turns on only when necessary and rainwater collecting roof that contributes to irrigating the surrounding landscape.
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.com
source: sabmagazine.comTeeple Architects Inc. are behind the modern eco friendly design and also mapped out the college's master plan to attain its environmental goals. Any new construction on this campus will surely be LEED certified with an architecturally modern aesthetic.
What is "LEED"?
According to the Canada Green Building Council: LEED is a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. It provides building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:Langara's library project has been featured in Azure, SABMag (Sustainable Architecture and Building) and Construction Business magazine and led to a Canadian Architect Award, an Holcim Acknowledgement for Sustainable Design, and a SAB award for Teeple Architects.
- sustainable site development - water efficiency - energy efficiency - materials selection - indoor environmental quality