Case Study: Manitoba Hydro Place, Winnipeg, Canada

By Charles Linn, FAIA
With the southern winds gusting across the prairie at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour, and the temperature well below zero Fahrenheit on a recent January afternoon, it challenged the imagination to accept that all of the toasty warmth of Manitoba Hydro Place was being generated by renewable sources—the sun and geothermal wells, supplemented by hydroelectric power. The building’s 18 floors of beautifully daylit offices were being continuously supplied with fresh air that was circulated through the workspaces only once. All of this was being accomplished where extremes in temperature and humidity are among the most challenging for any large city in the world, and yet the building’s energy consumption is predicted to be 66 percent lower than similar buildings here. Since September, the fully-metered building has been within 10 percent of that figure.

Key Parameters