Education by design: Sudbury architecture school building components are teaching tools for students.

• Author: Myers, Ella
• Position: NEWS

Laurentian's new school of architecture is a piece of the landscape it sprang out of, both natural and artificial.

The off-campus school in Sudbury's downtown integrates wood, concrete, and steel in the $45-million, 72,000-square-foot space.

The wood reflects the surrounding forests, the steel represents the mining and rail industries, and the concrete binds it all together.

The McEwen Architecture building officially opened on Jan. 19.

It's the first new school of architecture in Canada in 45 years, and they're making every piece of the building count.

Ted Wilson, a master lecturer with the school, specializes in sustainable design and resource-efficient building.

The use of wood, steel, and cement not only reflects the region's attributes, he said, it also allows the students to learn from their surroundings.

The building materials are most exposed in the studio areas to illustrate how they work together; Wilson calls them the "nitty gritty part of the building."

The studio building, in the city's former Market Square, houses large-scale projects and equipment and is combined with an adjacent and repurposed former Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) building.

The century-old CPR brick building acts as the east-facing entrance to the school.

It's within these spaces that students will see a more historical side of their work.

Old marble countertops, windows, and glass-paned doors labelled "Private Office" have been retained and preserved. There are modern influences too.

While wood may be a traditional building material, students will learn more about the innovative ways it's being put to use, thanks to the use of cross-laminated timber (CLT), which are sheets of wood sandwiched together with glue.

Imported from Quebec, Wilson said it's the most significant use of CLT in a public building in Ontario to date.

"It's the most innovative piece of the building. There's a simplicity to the structure."

The sheets are cut to size, and are fast and efficient for quick builds, which is essential for Northern Ontario's short construction season.

One wing took only two weeks to construct, thanks to the prefabricated...