What a magical journey!

Starting two-and-a-half years ago, GlasCurtain began working closely with Teeple Architects and Cibinel Architects, and ultimately Vitrerie A&E Fortin and Kudlik Construction, to deliver a nearly 30% glazed building to fellow Canadians braving some of the most challenging environmental conditions on earth. Now, after completing our fibreglass-framed curtain wall installation (and of course the completion of the rest of the building), local students and teachers have officially moved into the new Nunavut Arctic College Expansion at the Nunatta Campus in Iqaluit!

At 63° North Latitude, this is GlasCurtain’s northernmost completed project to-date and certainly one of the most striking. Who knew that the architectural avant-garde would feel so at home in the Far North of Canada ? The contrasting translucency and transparency of the facade sparkle against the darker palette of exterior cladding materials, particularly the vertically-applied Western Red Cedar.

From the inside, the unique aesthetic of white-painted Therm fibreglass curtain wall mullions positively glow, making the whole interior feel spacious and open, even on the darkest winter days.

It wasn’t so long ago that buildings at this latitude were significantly less glazed than the new Nunatta Campus building (think 0.3% glazed instead of the incredible 30% glazed building here), in an intuitive effort to minimize thermal bridging and energetic losses. Thankfully, we live in a day and age where GlasCurtain R7+ Therm (now Thermaframe) fibreglass-framing, high-performance triple-glazing, and Solera Daylighting Units exist, allowing buildings in the Low Arctic to cost-effectively experience much higher levels of daylighting than were ever possible before!

This stunning new post-secondary facility serves as a beacon of hope for the world of the possible.  That’s obviously worth celebrating! At 22,000 sq ft, this new Iqaluit building provides program space for fine arts studies, digital and multimedia courses, fisheries training programs, kitchen classrooms and more. In all, over 300 staff and students will be accommodated once doors open for the Fall 2019 semester.

The Nunatta Campus project has already been awarded by ThePlan.it with an Honourable Mention in the Education category and surely many more awards are to come!

From recent photos of the project’s Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, we see that GlasCurtain’s magical journey on this project has ended in success, and that the community’s magical journey with this building has only just begun. We wish the students, staff, and broader community in Iqaluit all the best on the road ahead.

It’s been an honour and a privilege to share a part of ourselves with you, just as you’ve shared so much of yourselves with us and the rest of Canada.

Nakurmiik!

Nunavut Arctic College Spatial Tour from Julie Jira on Vimeo.

[Photo credits : ©JulieJira]