Nicola Valley Institute of Technology Wins Governor General's Medal for Architecture

Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Merritt, British Columbia has won a

Governor General’s Medal for Architecture, jointly administered by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts. Shared by the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and the University College of the Cariboo, this 48,600 ft² (4,500 m²) facility was designed to celebrate First Nations values and beliefs. Tensioned fabric, referencing traditional stretched skins, was used as a shading device. The building’s wood-column structural system represents poles used in traditional pithouse construction. The curved, three-story structure is built into the sloped site, and part of the roof is planted, lending the project a sense of continuity with its site. Other green strategies, including a glazed ventilation stack with operable windows and the use of locally manufactured materials, were implemented throughout the project: “This commitment to the ‘new technology’ of environmental sustainability is in clear alignment with the historical Aboriginal structures of the area,” according to designers Busby Perkins+Will (BPW), formerly Busby + Associates. All of BPW’s design associates are LEED-accredited professionals. The firm is online at www.busby.ca.