Algonquin College New SCIENCE WING
Start Date: January 2025 Completion Date: August 2025
Final Cost $ 13 000 000.00
Size 1,600 square meters
Bryden Gibson Architects was retained to convert the former Recreation Center into a state-of-the-art Science wing for the College. The new wing houses 3 CL2 bio safety teaching labs, two organic chemistry teaching labs, two advanced research CL2 bio safety labs, an analytical instrumentation lab, three chemical storage rooms, and technical support space to serve the labs. The labs were being designed for programs that had not yet been fully realized. The design team had to work closely with the stakeholders, including the academic team, to understand the technical and operational requirements, and the types of equipment and chemicals that may be stored. Through this discussion, the user requirements were developed. Bryden Gibson was responsible for the implementation of these requirements and ensuring the labs operated efficiently, safely, and in compliance with the regulations.
As part of the college’s commitment to reconciliation, the design team had multiple meetings with the Algonquin First Nations Elders, and as part of these discussions, a theme emerged: Two-eyes Seeing, honoring Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science. This theme was woven throughout the fabric of the design. Working with a local artist, murals are located throughout the space, indigenous artifacts from a local archeological dig are patterned on the floor, and wood paddles and canoe-like shapes are suspended from the ceiling in the common areas leading to the lab.
The labs themselves are brightly lit, state-of-the-art facilities, with a flexible layout including modular lab benching that will allow for reconfiguration of the space as the newly formed programs develop. With collaborative spaces to allow for informal meetings, digital screens, and areas for writing up ideas. The corridors allow views into these technical spaces, allowing the teaching spaces to animate the corridors.
The juxtaposition between the art, wood elements, and natural shapes in the common areas and high-tech finish and stark white lab casework, walls, and stainless steel chases creates a balance of warmth and precision.