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14 June 2024
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Fire stations of the world: Windermere Fire Station 31, Canada’s first net-zero energy fire station opens in Edmonton
Windermere Fire Station 31 is located in southwest Edmonton in Canada in a rapidly expanding neighbourhood. The project is the City of Edmonton’s first net-zero building, achieved through a comprehensive passive design approach and a combination of solar arrays, geothermal heating and cooling.
The 1 520-square-metre facility has bays for three fire engines as well as offices, sleeping quarters and dining areas for a crew of up to 12 firefighters. The post-disaster, non-combustible, sprinklered building will also act as a community centre in the event of an emergency. To underpin this role, it also has a dedicated room to support the many community drives in which the department is involved.
As civic buildings, fire stations are highly functional and technical facilities, usually embedded in residential communities for citizen safety. At once practical and symbolic, contemporary fire stations serve a critical public service while conveying important civic values within a neighbourhood.
The design challenge was to create an expressive and engaging structure that would encourage community pride and incorporate technical advances in environmental performance.
Inside, the unified fire station houses two programmatic elements, an apparatus bay for trucks and equipment, as well as domestic and sleeping spaces for firefighters. The apparatus bay is painted in white colour, increasing interior daylight levels and promoting a healthy working environment. The domestic area is organised around a corridor circuit, with the change rooms and fitness centre in the middle and the sleeping areas, kitchen, lounge and offices around the perimeter.
The design ambition was to tie the shape of the building to its capacity to generate energy by optimising solar generation on the apparatus bay roof. To achieve ‘net-zero’ the building must produce as much energy as it consumes, optimising a PV-clad south-facing slope means the roof can perform as an energy generator. Other significant sustainability opportunities include maximising natural light in the work environment to reduce energy loads and improve the quality of the workplace, geothermal heating and cooling and storm water management landscape innovations.
The City of Edmonton requested a highly sustainable project that would generate on-site renewable energy equal to 100% of the total building energy demand. The facility must also have an energy performance that is 40 percent more efficient than NECB 2011, yield 40 percent less green house gas emissions than the baseline using NECB 2011 and operate at no more than 80 kilowatt-hours per square metre per year for heating needs.
The project site was unbuilt and unremarkable, essentially a blank slate. The station’s form was derived from a desire to underscore both the iconic image of a fire station as a community anchor and a contemporary imperative for sustainable citizenship.
A typical fire station might have been characterised by familiar signatures such as a pitched roof, large fire truck doors, a hose and bell tower and solid and heavy load-bearing walls.
Windermere adheres to those principles, however, it re-imagines the hose and bell tower form, now redundant elements, with a gently curving, south-facing roof, outfitted with an extensive array of photovoltaic panels.
Other strategies to increase environmental performance include the building’s southern orientation, which reduces energy demand by improving the quality of light received in the workplace. A geothermal heating and cooling system is also incorporated. The building is extremely well-insulated and includes high-performance windows and exterior doors.
Smith + Andersen was engaged to provide mechanical engineering for this unique fire station and community hub. The mechanical systems reflect the focus on net zero, with an energy-efficient design that incorporates geothermal heating and cooling features in order to achieve low energy usage for the net zero target. The facility includes post-disaster, non-combustible and sprinklered spaces.
Sources: GH3, Smith + Andersen, SABMagazine
The 1 520-square-metre facility has bays for three fire engines as well as offices, sleeping quarters and dining areas for a crew of up to 12 firefighters. The post-disaster, non-combustible, sprinklered building will also act as a community centre in the event of an emergency. To underpin this role, it also has a dedicated room to support the many community drives in which the department is involved.
As civic buildings, fire stations are highly functional and technical facilities, usually embedded in residential communities for citizen safety. At once practical and symbolic, contemporary fire stations serve a critical public service while conveying important civic values within a neighbourhood.
The design challenge was to create an expressive and engaging structure that would encourage community pride and incorporate technical advances in environmental performance.
Inside, the unified fire station houses two programmatic elements, an apparatus bay for trucks and equipment, as well as domestic and sleeping spaces for firefighters. The apparatus bay is painted in white colour, increasing interior daylight levels and promoting a healthy working environment. The domestic area is organised around a corridor circuit, with the change rooms and fitness centre in the middle and the sleeping areas, kitchen, lounge and offices around the perimeter.
The design ambition was to tie the shape of the building to its capacity to generate energy by optimising solar generation on the apparatus bay roof. To achieve ‘net-zero’ the building must produce as much energy as it consumes, optimising a PV-clad south-facing slope means the roof can perform as an energy generator. Other significant sustainability opportunities include maximising natural light in the work environment to reduce energy loads and improve the quality of the workplace, geothermal heating and cooling and storm water management landscape innovations.
The City of Edmonton requested a highly sustainable project that would generate on-site renewable energy equal to 100% of the total building energy demand. The facility must also have an energy performance that is 40 percent more efficient than NECB 2011, yield 40 percent less green house gas emissions than the baseline using NECB 2011 and operate at no more than 80 kilowatt-hours per square metre per year for heating needs.
The project site was unbuilt and unremarkable, essentially a blank slate. The station’s form was derived from a desire to underscore both the iconic image of a fire station as a community anchor and a contemporary imperative for sustainable citizenship.
A typical fire station might have been characterised by familiar signatures such as a pitched roof, large fire truck doors, a hose and bell tower and solid and heavy load-bearing walls.
Windermere adheres to those principles, however, it re-imagines the hose and bell tower form, now redundant elements, with a gently curving, south-facing roof, outfitted with an extensive array of photovoltaic panels.
Other strategies to increase environmental performance include the building’s southern orientation, which reduces energy demand by improving the quality of light received in the workplace. A geothermal heating and cooling system is also incorporated. The building is extremely well-insulated and includes high-performance windows and exterior doors.
Smith + Andersen was engaged to provide mechanical engineering for this unique fire station and community hub. The mechanical systems reflect the focus on net zero, with an energy-efficient design that incorporates geothermal heating and cooling features in order to achieve low energy usage for the net zero target. The facility includes post-disaster, non-combustible and sprinklered spaces.
Sources: GH3, Smith + Andersen, SABMagazine
