École des Pionniers
École des Pionniers is a newly constructed K-12 school facility in Port Coquitlam that replaces an older school under the Ministry of Education’s Seismic Mitigation Program. This new school also provides a daycare, a preschool program for 4-year olds, after school care, and francophone community facilities. The project is targeting LEED Gold certification with high-performance classroom spaces. The building design supports a 21st century learning pedagogical approach that has been adopted by the school board, as well as flexibility and modularity for an expanding school-age population. In addition to its academic role, the school is also a central gathering space for the broader Francophone community.
As well as providing architectural support to Principle Architects, Local Practice was the project’s sustainability advocate, keeping it on track to achieve LEED Gold certification and leveraging sustainable design strategies to create a beautiful, highly-functional educational environment. Daylight simulations were used to create comfortable spaces for students by optimizing building orientation, shading and window layouts. The school’s simple and flexible structural grid can accommodate different teaching methods, age groups, activities and technologies over time, as well as adapting to changes in funding and student population. Meeting places and community gathering spaces are centralized to foster francophone culture.
Client: Conseil Scolaire Francophone de la Colombie Britannique (SD93)
Location: Port Coquitlam, BC
Completion: 2021
Team: Local Practice with Principle Architecture (Architecture), Fast+Epp (Structural Engineering), Rocky Point Engineering (Mechanical Engineering), space2place (Landscape Architecture), Kerr Wood Leidal (Civil Engineering)