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Architects: Dub Architects
- Area: 5250 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Doublespace Photography Younes Bounhar
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Manufacturers: Allwest Furnishings, American Standard, Cascade Building Supplies, Christensen & McLean Roofing, DIRTT Modular Wall System, Eaton Halo, Envision Building Innovations, Halfen HIT, JA Solar, LumenWerx Via 2 Direct, SkyFire Energy, Teknion, Toto, thyssenkrupp
Text description provided by the architects. The Edge, a 10 storey office building, built on a single 15m wide lot, features one of Canada’s largest solar walls. Its 560 photovoltaic panels provide 80% of the building’s electrical requirements. The building is connected to the city’s power grid, returning excess power on sunny days. The design incorporates both insulated triple-glazed and quadruple-glazed systems. The open floor plates are naturally lit by comfortable north daylight. The north windows require no blinds and the building requires little artificial light during the summer months. The ends of the building feature large thermally-separated balconies and solar screens to control sunlight.
The development contains private educational facilities throughout seven floors and private office space on the top two levels. The ground floor engages the street with changing pop-up uses in the open lobby. Eighteen underground parking spaces are accessed through the condominium apartment parkade next door, eliminating the need for a disruptive ramp at ground level.
The solar wall provides sustainable benefits and is a prototype for similar infill conditions. Here, the adjacent building to the south is a recently repurposed warehouse (also by Dub Architects) with no anticipated redevelopment for 50 years. However, the solar wall has a payback period of only 5-8 years, making the prototype highly feasible in comparable locations. The solar wall will save 26 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere annually.
The flexible interior floor plate accommodates open planning or up to 10 enclosed offices along the north wall. Minimalist interiors kept construction costs very low. Heat pumps and lighting serviced from the dropped ceiling along the core allow for an unobstructed exposed concrete ceiling, convenient for demising. Air ducts are supplied along the beams and electrical floor outlets are served by ducts within the poured concrete floor.
