FOURTH YEAR UNDERGRADUATE
Daniel Fiala—The Pella Travel Award
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Daniel Fiala—The Pella Travel Award
About the Award
The Pella Travel Award:
Pella Corporation designs and manufactures windows and doors for both residential homes and commercial applications. Since our founding in 1925 by Pete Kuyper, we have been proud to support the communities where we live and work.
City School
The alternative school integrates a specialized environmental and social program. Materials and structure were chosen in response to this program and an intention to create a warehouse-like environment for students to experiment.
Corten steel cladding was ultimately chosen for its durability and contextual sensitivity. It has qualities of the primary interior material, wood, with it vertically grained texture and qualities of the primary material of the surrounding context, brick, with a rough and reddish-brown colour. As weathering steel, its patina will change over time as the students change through their time at the school. Students are encouraged to use the school like a warehouse, with exposure to raw materials like corten steel cladding, mass timber structure, and concrete floors. Edge trims and flashing follows the pattern of the corrugations, seamlessly blending with the cladding material. A by-product of the weathering is rust, which is carefully considered at the grade to run-off in gravel or where the students need to pass through an opening, a trench drain.
CLT mass timber was chosen for the main structural system in consideration of its postive social and environmental impact. With a low embodied carbon compared to steel and concrete, mass timber is sensitively harvested by local Canadian manufacturers. Where many of the project’s other materials are rough and hard like steel and concrete, wood provides a human softness that can be enjoyed. Using a system of columns, slabs, and beams, the mass timber is left exposed while wood is also used in other interior details such as the window mullions to emphasize these qualities.
Overall, the building has a heavy feeling to it, both by material choice but also because of its high insulation. With two layers of rigid insulation on the outside and one layer of fiber insulation on the inside, the project goes beyond minimum requirements. This creates walls that are thick and windows that are deep, similar to old warehouses built from mass-bearing walls. To retain the heating and/or cooling within, insulation and membranes are kept continuous, with thermal breaks at opening conditions.
Travel Statement
In thanks to Pella, through the architectural exchange program I will travel to the Bergen Architecture School. I am drawn towards Norway when compared to other exchange options in large metropolitan locations because of its ‘isolation’. Being in Toronto, I feel comfortable with my creative inspirations of urban life. Living and studying in a smaller city surrounded by natural landscape, these comforts would no longer be easily accessible. I want to be forced to focus on both developing my philosophies about architecture and be thrown into a new world of abundant inspiration.
In Scandinavia I will be taught many cross-applicable lessons on vernacular construction methods to complement the built form with natural landscapes; and critically, how they have adapted them with contemporary technology. These could apply to the Canadian landscape. Where at TMU I have developed a strong technical knowledge and skill in digital representation I want to fill a gap with more hands-on approaches to design. The program at BAS promotes the creative process through drawing and modelling. Here, I will have the opportunity to collaborate with local Norwegian students and share each other’s strengths.
The Pella Travel Award:
Pella Corporation designs and manufactures windows and doors for both residential homes and commercial applications. Since our founding in 1925 by Pete Kuyper, we have been proud to support the communities where we live and work.
City School
The alternative school integrates a specialized environmental and social program. Materials and structure were chosen in response to this program and an intention to create a warehouse-like environment for students to experiment.
Corten steel cladding was ultimately chosen for its durability and contextual sensitivity. It has qualities of the primary interior material, wood, with it vertically grained texture and qualities of the primary material of the surrounding context, brick, with a rough and reddish-brown colour. As weathering steel, its patina will change over time as the students change through their time at the school. Students are encouraged to use the school like a warehouse, with exposure to raw materials like corten steel cladding, mass timber structure, and concrete floors. Edge trims and flashing follows the pattern of the corrugations, seamlessly blending with the cladding material. A by-product of the weathering is rust, which is carefully considered at the grade to run-off in gravel or where the students need to pass through an opening, a trench drain.
CLT mass timber was chosen for the main structural system in consideration of its postive social and environmental impact. With a low embodied carbon compared to steel and concrete, mass timber is sensitively harvested by local Canadian manufacturers. Where many of the project’s other materials are rough and hard like steel and concrete, wood provides a human softness that can be enjoyed. Using a system of columns, slabs, and beams, the mass timber is left exposed while wood is also used in other interior details such as the window mullions to emphasize these qualities.
Overall, the building has a heavy feeling to it, both by material choice but also because of its high insulation. With two layers of rigid insulation on the outside and one layer of fiber insulation on the inside, the project goes beyond minimum requirements. This creates walls that are thick and windows that are deep, similar to old warehouses built from mass-bearing walls. To retain the heating and/or cooling within, insulation and membranes are kept continuous, with thermal breaks at opening conditions.
Travel Statement
In thanks to Pella, through the architectural exchange program I will travel to the Bergen Architecture School. I am drawn towards Norway when compared to other exchange options in large metropolitan locations because of its ‘isolation’. Being in Toronto, I feel comfortable with my creative inspirations of urban life. Living and studying in a smaller city surrounded by natural landscape, these comforts would no longer be easily accessible. I want to be forced to focus on both developing my philosophies about architecture and be thrown into a new world of abundant inspiration.
In Scandinavia I will be taught many cross-applicable lessons on vernacular construction methods to complement the built form with natural landscapes; and critically, how they have adapted them with contemporary technology. These could apply to the Canadian landscape. Where at TMU I have developed a strong technical knowledge and skill in digital representation I want to fill a gap with more hands-on approaches to design. The program at BAS promotes the creative process through drawing and modelling. Here, I will have the opportunity to collaborate with local Norwegian students and share each other’s strengths.
