Location: Oshawa, Ontario
Architect: Montgomery Sisam Architects in joint venture with Architecture Counsel Inc.
Shawenjigewining (pronounced “zha-wen-ji-GEH’-win-ing”) is an Anishinaabe word meaning the “The Kind Place.” True to its moniker, Shawenjigewining Hall is a home-away-from-home for every student on the commuter campus of Ontario Tech University. The five-storey, 7,432-square-metre building delivers a wide range of student-centred functions, converging around a large, open atrium. Inside and out, a sophisticated manipulation of simple elements—volume and void, light and shadow—create compelling, memorable qualities of space and a rich diversity of experiences.
Photo Credit: Younes Bounhar
The design solution is predicated on manipulating simple elements to create a rich experience of the building. Concrete panels, precast in four different shapes, are repeated and arranged in response to the cardinal direction of each elevation and its unique sun conditions. Outside, this creates an attractive exchange between transparency and opacity; inside, a dramatic juxtaposition between light and shadow. Double and triple-height spaces descending into the lower-level are crafted to capture daylight as it travels through the different voids in the enclosure. Public programs are clustered where daylighting and views are strongest, notably the southeast/southwest ends overlooking the quad.
Photo Credit: Younes Bounhar
Shawenjigewining Hall fills the last vacant site around Polonsky Commons to complete the university’s only quad and create a visible gateway to this important campus precinct. It responds in height, massing, and set-back to both the adjacent Energy Systems and Nuclear Science Research Centre (ERC) and proposed library expansion to support floor-to-floor connections at Levels 1 (outside), 2, and 3 (inside) and complete circulation around the quad with the atrium as its gravitational center. The atrium is a dynamic destination—the ultimate collision space—whose energy activates not only the building core, but its perimeter, the streetscape, and the adjoining commons, strengthening the urban condition.
Photo Credit: Younes Bounhar
Common-sense strategies drive sustainability at Shawenjigewining Hall. The manipulation of the façades relative to the solar path achieves a high quantity and quality of daylighting in spite of their modest 30% window-to-wall ratio. This not only reduces energy loads from artificial lighting, but also creates opportunities for passive heating and contributes to a superior indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The building uses low-carbon fuel sources for heating by using a heat-recovery chiller that connects to the neighbouring geothermal field. It offsets carbon output with an array of photovoltaic panels. Occupancy, vacancy, daylight-harvesting, and carbon dioxide measuring controls modulate the building based on actual use.
Photo Credit: Younes Bounhar
Shawenjigewining Hall is a commitment, in its compelling qualities of light and space, to create a sense of place for every student. True to its moniker, the building is programmed and designed to break down silos on campus and craft moments where students of different backgrounds on different academic journeys can intersect, engage, and grow together. Spaces like Mukwa’s Den, “an Indigenous space that offers a home-away-from-home for Indigenous students, and space for all students to connect and learn from Indigenous culture and resources,” exemplify this at a human scale
This blOAAg post is part of a series exploring the OAA’s 17 Design Excellence Finalists for 2022, as selected by our jury.
Click here to see other projects from this current award cycle.