The Univeristy of Toronto's Mississauga campus has caught the attention of sustainability publication Treehugger for its award winning Instructional Centre.
Featuring a gallery that highlight's some of the building's greatest attributes, Treehugger pays homage to the Centre's many integrated photovoltaics, solar panels that convert light into energy, as well as its student lounges that overlook green roofs planted with indigenous meadow grasses. The solar panels are unique in that they also offer shading in the centre's main east west corridor and centre staircase while simultaneously providing clean energy throughout the building. An additional star attribute, the building's geothermal system that heats and cools the building, is hidden beneath a playing field.
The Centre is the creation of architects
Perkins + Wills, known for their green educational buildings, as well as design principal Andrew Frontini, a master at crafting breathtaking fixtures. He chose to "clad the building insides and out in copper," which Treehugger points out isn't the greenest of materials, but one that certainly lasts a long time "if it isn't stolen."
"This is certainly not the greenest educational building that Perkins + Will has turned out; that would probably be
Peter Busby's Centre for Interactive Research and Technology. But it is lovely to look at and combines such generosity of comfort, luxury and sustainable features. Leonard Shore would be proud,"
Treehugger says.
Original Source: Treehugger