A Case Study of Innovative Sustainable Design: The Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence
The Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation — on the campus of Okanagan College in Penticton, British Columbia — is a shining example of what integrated design and sustainable innovation can be: a custom solution shaped by its site, the curricula it teaches, and those for whom it was designed. Conceived to meet the urgent need for tradespeople, site managers, and construction workers who are skilled in sustainable building practices, the structure itself is used extensively as part of the teaching curriculum and is highly-adaptable to future changes in technology and education.
The goal of this case study is to describe the sustainable design features used in the Centre and to provide insight as to how the features performed in practice, based on a 2015 report from the International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE) Canada — an independent, nonprofit group of Canadian engineers, architects, and researchers who seek to promote sustainable environments (Chu et al., 2015).
