Fire stations have always exuded a strong civic presence as a conduit for the safety and protection of citizens. Over the years, they have evolved into a much broader sense of community as cities seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reach net-zero targets partially through design.
The 16,400-square-foot Windermere Fire Station is Edmonton’s first net-zero energy building. It officially opened last August in the rapidly growing southwest corner of the city. As Edmonton’s population is expected to reach two million in the future, the brand-new station will reduce response times and act as a local centre during emergency events.
Lead design architect gh3 worked alongside prime consultant S2 Architecture and PCL Construction, with a budget of $21.5 million and the city’s goal of becoming net zero by 2040. The resulting design mixes the comforts of home with the community’s safety needs in a climate-resilient space.
Pat Hanson, principal at gh3, says fire stations are an interesting type of facility in how they incorporate both industrial and residential uses. About half of the building includes a three-lane apparatus bay that houses fire trucks, a decontamination room for uniforms and gear, and emergency shower rooms.
Domestic quarters make up the other half of Station 31: dorms for firefighters, a gym, a study, and a television and games room. The building also has a dedicated space to receive donations for community drives the department supports.
An eat-in-kitchen, where occupants prepare their own meals, overlooks an outdoor barbecue patio. Double-glazed, low-e windows bring in views of the natural landscape. “It’s increasingly more important that they go back to a space that is serene and comforting,” says Hanson. “Firefighters are often first responders for terrible accidents.”
One of the key elements of designing two distinct uses is ensuring that firefighters can quickly move from the residential portion to the apparatus bay, and there are multiple entry points for that purpose.
Six side-folding bay doors through which fire trucks enter and exit take cues from the past. Most fire stations had overhead doors for about 40 years, Hanson explains. This side-folding design opens two-and-three-quarter seconds faster than an overhead door. “Even that response time is considered critical by the fire department,” she says. “They also perform a little better environmentally because they are faster and let less hot air out.”
To achieve net-zero design, a building must produce as much energy as it consumes. For Station 31, Edmonton required renewable energy equal to 1 per cent of total building energy needs, 40 per cent better energy efficiency than the National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings 2011 (NECB 2011), 40 per cent better GHG emissions than the baseline using (NECB 2011), and 80 kilowatt-hours per square meter per year for heating needs.
“One of the things we’re particularly interested in as an architectural firm is making the architecture reflective of the sustainable ambitions of the building,” says Hanson. The team was partially able to achieve this by harnessing solar energy to heat and cool the building. Solar is a very viable energy source in Edmonton as it’s one of the sunniest climates in Canada, she adds.
As the sun shines there more than 300 days per year, the roof maximizes this opportunity through a sloped, south-facing design that features 382 panels with a rated capacity of 143 kilowatts.
Due to the energy used in the residential portion of the facility, along with the continuous opening of apparatus bay doors, the solar panels had to be combined with geothermal energy to help achieve net-zero.
According to PCL, the geothermal field was created in an L shape outside the perimeter of the building with the header pipes feeding into the station. It features 35 boreholes at about 70 metres in depth, which provide energy for heating and cooling.
On the quest to reach net-zero, further attention was given to the building envelope, which features walls with an R-value of 35 (compared with a typical house wall of R-20). The roof insulation is R-50 and the underslab R-20.
The brick was selected as a natural material. “All the choices one makes about interior finishes affect the carbon footprint of the building,” says Hanson. “The masonry was a good choice for that reason.”
A woven pattern of the brick spread across the majority of the envelope also gives the building a domestic scale, she adds. The masonry also works well as a screen that wraps around the south side where the outdoor patio is situated.
Stormwater management landscape innovations were also designed for the climate-resilient, post-disaster facility. “We’re also landscape architects so we like to think about the building and site at the same time,” says Hanson. “It’s really important as we continue to try and build sustainability to consider how we manage stormwater.”
All the on-site stormwater is brought into a rain garden located at the front, a small depression on the northwest corner, and a bioswale wrapped around the parking lot on both sides of the building.
As the water is managed and moves through the soil in a more natural way, it is cleansed before going back into the city stormwater system. “I like to think about it as a working site,” says Hanson. “We’re always thinking about how the site and building are working together.”
