Reflective panels aid in building’s fish-scale design
Posted
10/5/2011
Three architectural firms were challenged by the Vancouver
Organizing Committee to design Millennium Water: The
Southeast False Creek Olympic Village in Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada, for its first use as a temporary home
for many of the 2,600 athletes from 82 nations that competed in the
2010 Winter Olympics. Permanently, Millennium Water was designed as
a sustainable mixed-use residential and commercial community,
incorporating not only environmental sustainability but social and
economic sustainability goals as well.
Millennium Water is the largest single-phase development in
Canada, spanning 1.4 million square feet and an estimated total
cost of $1.075 billion. Awarded LEED-ND Platinum status, the
Olympic Village encompasses seven city blocks and includes 16
residential buildings-all of which were awarded LEED Gold
certifications.
Built on a former industrial site, the Southeast False Creek
Olympic Village was designed as a showcase for green building,
incorporating leading-edge techniques ranging from green roofs to
toilets flushed with the aid of rainwater. The entire complex is
heated by sewage, while renewable energy systems, including solar
panels and solar hot water systems, generate power for households.
Building materials were chosen for their sustainability, including
their embodied energy use over the building's life span in the form
of required maintenance and upkeep.
Mooresville, N.C.-based 3A Composites USA Inc.'s Alucobond
naturAL aluminum composite material featuring a finely textured
aluminum surface with a FEVE clear coat was selected with a brushed
finish for the cladding of Parcel 4 of the Olympic Village.
Known as Canada House, Parcel 4 served as the temporary home of
Canada's athletes during the Olympic Games, and was designed by
Nick Milkovich Architects Inc., Vancouver, with Arthur Erickson,
CC, Vancouver, as design consultant.
The Canada House's unique design incorporates a fish-scale
surface that was achieved with approximately 77,000 square feet of
4-mm-thick Alucobond naturAL fabricated into 7,000 individual
panels. The sculpted architectural image reflects the property's
waterfront location overlooking Vancouver Harbor at the northwest
corner of the Millennium Water development.
The $75 million Canada House residence consists of two
buildings-the 106,100-square-foot, 12-story West Building and the
55,750-square-foot, seven-story East Building-offering 60
condominium suites. A public courtyard featuring a reflecting pool
and light sculpture separates the two buildings. The original
building design was reconfigured from a u-shaped massing to two
separate buildings to allow the greatest amount of sunlight to
flood the courtyard and waterfront public walkway and bike path to
the north of the site.
According to architect Nick Milkovich, the sculptural shaping of
the buildings was done to allow more early morning sunlight to
reach the public garden and park to the west of the site. To
achieve this goal, the west building leans away from the park by 15
feet over its 12-story height through a rotation of floor plates.
The same movement was applied to the lower seven-story building.
"The resulting dynamic silhouette of the buildings is enhanced by
the cladding of glass and brushed aluminum 'fish scales' that catch
the changing light of the day creating interesting shadows
articulating the textured skin," says Milkovich.
"These buildings were very unique in the village," says Carlo
Gatti, business development manager, Keith Panel Systems Co. Ltd.,
Vancouver, which fabricated the Alucobond naturAL and installed it
with the proprietary KPS System "A" Plus, which features a
dry-joint pressure-equalized rainscreen.
KPS became involved in the project in a design assistance role
two years prior to its completion, according to Gatti, who says the
design complexities of the fish-scale look required weekly meetings
to solve interface connections on the building.
"All issues were resolved in these design assistance meetings,"
says Gatti. "We used typical details floor-to-floor to design the
panel system. And, to accommodate the twist in the building, we
ensured the panel dimensions were field measured. … To create the
fish scales, we fabricated wedgeshaped panels. The assembling of
our proprietary frame to the Alucobond was unique. We tested it for
structural and rainscreen performance."
KPS proposed the use of Alucobond naturAL in response to the
architect's specification of a naturallooking metal. Each building
floor features a fascia band with the fish-scale design fabricated
from Alucobond naturAL.
"The Alucobond offered a quality finish in terms of performance
over time, and it offered the flexibility to make any size panel
with no oil canning," Gatti says. "The Alucobond composite also
gave us flexibility in completing unique closures and profiles. The
head and sill panels at the window in this project were comprised
of irregular shapes. With Alucobond, we could keep the edges
crisp." At one point in the design process, the architects
considered utilizing insulated glass for the fish scales, according
to Milkovich, who said this material was rejected as too
expensive.
"We wanted a material that would be a little reflective, and the
Alucobond gave us reflection," says Milkovich. "It could carry the
fish-scale shape and the Alucobond strip (fascia) along the
building. … Compared to other metals, the Alucobond was thicker. It
doesn't oil can. And, it provides a good flat surface. The south
façade of these buildings is nearly solid Alucobond."
While Gatti often sees architectural specifications for
stainless steel to achieve a metal look, one of the reasons he
recommends Alucobond aluminum composite material is because it
features a clear coat that prevents visible marks being left when
it is touched during installation.
"In the case of Canada House, the Alucobond naturAL reflects the
color of the atmosphere," Gatti says. "As the sun hits the panel,
it produces an interesting effect."
It took KPS approximately six months to fabricate the Alucobond
naturAL panels, according to Gatti, who said the panels were fed to
the site as they were required. Canada House was the last parcel to
begin construction at the Southeast False Creek Olympic Village;
and, KPS was the final trade to work on these buildings under the
supervision of general contractor ITC Construction Group of
Vancouver. Canada House was turned over to the Vancouver Organizing
Committee in October 2009.
KPS received the 2010 Vancouver Regional Construction
Association's Gold Medal in the President's Trade Awards category
for its involvement in the design, development and installation of
the Alucobond panels featured in the KPS System "A" Plus on Canada
House.
3A Composites USA Inc.,
www.alucobondusa.com,