Seymour Capilano Watershed Centre

The Watershed Centre is a multi-functional facility that integrates the operations and educational programming of Metro Vancouver’s Watersheds Environmental Management Division.

Located in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, the building houses watershed staff and welcomes visitors to the natural reserve that supplies drinking water to the region. Starting as rainfall and snowmelt, freshwater flows through the watershed and is collected in lakes that serve as reservoirs for drinking water before being treated and delivered to our households.

To tell the story of water, the design strategy was to create a simple grounded form that blends with the landscape with a roof line that splits water collection to two cisterns, one for educational demonstrations and one for reuse in the building. The west face of the building incorporates tangible, interactive elements for the visitors to learn about where our water comes from. The existing east-west trail is realigned around the building to direct visitors to the educational features.

The building siting and surrounding landscape is designed to create layers of privacy, using native vegetation that promotes water conservation.

With its dual purpose, the building is divided into halves. On the west side, the multi-purpose room opens to an outdoor classroom connecting to the exterior educational features, with the administrative offices on the east.

The building is an educational tool for visitors to understand the relationship between our water source and water use. Rainwater is collected off the north side of the roof into the Educational Cistern, which overflows into channels for visitors to engage and play in the Educational Area. The rainwater from the south side of the roof is collected into the Greywater Cistern and it is used for toilet flushing to directly reduce the water consumption of the building. Any overflow water from either cistern travels through the bioswales and is returned to the natural hydrological cycle in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve.

The multi-purpose room hosts school programs who attend educational workshops and tours to learn about where our water comes from and sustainable water use. The space has views towards the forest and is protected from direct sunlight to generate a comfortable environment. In warmer weather, larger groups have the opportunity to learn in the outdoor classroom, reinforcing the relationship between water and our broader ecosystem.

On the administrative side, the Water Services team can thrive in a work space that supports their daily activities and wellbeing, is acoustically separated from the public side of the building, and is naturally cross-ventilated as a passive design strategy.

The Watershed Centre is a vital piece of community infrastructure that houses essential watershed staff and provides educational space for the wider community. Through better understanding of the connection between our water source and our water use, we all become stewards of watershed protection and water conservation.

Client: Metro Vancouver Water Services

Location: North Vancouver, BC

Project Team: Local Practice (Architecture), space2place (Landscape Architecture), Associated Engineering (Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical), Jacob Bros Construction (Contractor).