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Clayton Community Centre wins another award

Centre wins ‘Innovative Design Award’
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Employees leave the Clayton Community Centre in January, 2021. The community centre recently won yet another design award. (Photo: Malin Jordan)

The Clayton Community Centre has won yet another design award.

The centre was recently awarded the “Spaces and Places” award as part of Fast Company’s 2022 Innovation by Design Awards. The community centre also received honourable mentions for “Accessible Design” and “Experience Design and Sustainability.”

“Clayton Community Centre’s innovative and environmentally friendly design is something we can all be proud of,” Surrey mayor Doug McCallum said in a press release. “Built to Passive House standard, Clayton Community Centre is a highly energy efficient building will little to no emissions and better indoor air quality.

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“Compared to the same building with gas heating built to code, Clayton Community Centre operates with 72 per cent energy savings and 98 per cent less carbon emissions.”

PASSIVE HOUSE

The Clayton facility was built as a Passive House. Originating in Germany, Passive House is a unique way to construct a building that uses “super insulation” combined with a complex ventilation system to drastically reduce a building’s energy consumption.

Fresh air is continuously sucked into a building and stale air is continuously forced out. While the stale air is being forced out, it is used to heat the incoming air, which minimizes heat loss.

According to Passive House Canada, the low-energy buildings “consume up to 90 per cent less heating and cooling energy than conventional buildings.” This design includes being able to build houses without furnaces in cold climates.

The Clayton facility was projected to cost $43.5 million — with Natural Resources Canada kicking in $1.3 million, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund gifting $175,000, and BC Hydro donating $30,000.

The first Passive House in Canada was constructed in Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics. “Lost Lake PassivHaus” was built to showcase the unique construction methods to the building community.

As for the Clayton Community Centre, it was partially design with input from the local community.

The centre hosts arts and rec spaces, a library, child-minding/preschool space, along with social and outdoor spaces.

“From the earliest stages of the process, we wanted the Clayton Community Centre to seamlessly integrate arts, library and recreation activities, to achieve very high environmental performance and to be an inclusive, safe, and equitable place for everyone,” said Melissa Higgs, a lead architect with hcma, the company that designed the centre.

“So, it’s an honour to be recognized at Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards, not only for the design of the space but also for its experience, sustainability and accessibility.”

The Clayton Community Centre is located at 7155 187A Street.



editor@cloverdalereporter.com

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Malin Jordan

About the Author: Malin Jordan

Malin is the editor of the Cloverdale Reporter.
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