Highlights

CANMET-MTL Wins 2011 Urban Design and Architecture Award from City of Hamilton for Excellence in Architecture and Sustainability

From the Jury Report

Project Description

As the second building in McMaster Innovation Park, on Longwood Road South, the CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory recently strengthened its position in the steel and manufacturing sectors. The three-storey, 174 300-square-foot building houses state-of-the-art industrial labs designed to foster relationships between government, academia and industry. The building is a showpiece of sustainable design, redeveloping a brownfield site and targeting a Platinum LEED rating. This building is a tour de force of passive and active sustainable technologies such as geothermal heating and cooling, radiating in-floor heating, photovoltaic cells, solar walls, solar shades, and light reflecting materials.

Jury Comments

Great architecture is art and technology paired to deliver a meaningful product. This building is awarded the 2011 Urban Design and Architecture Award of Excellence in Architecture and Sustainability in recognition of its excellent integration of a number of technologies and expert balancing of these technologies to create a meaningful edifice that celebrates the industrial heritage of its site.

The architecture cannot be separated from the sustainable technologies that give it form. These technologies, especially the solar walls, echo the peaked silhouettes of the former industrial buildings that once occupied the site.

Albeit a large and complex building, the design has warmth and human scale. There is ample glazing in the front facade, and a long perch invites pedestrians to sit, enlivening the streetscape. The many windows and projecting bays along Frid Street divide the long facade to create visual interest as well as human scale.