The 13,185 gross square metres (141,925 gross square feet) Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Innovation (ICI) Building will bring social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, creative fields and professional disciplines together to facilitate collaboration and enable breakthroughs to solve real world challenges. The building has been designed to provide maximum flexibility through shared and common infrastructure, enabling clusters of interdisciplinary research and teaching activity in areas that will include high value agriculture, health and data, with social and economic regional development and indigeneity as overarching themes. Construction of the ICI Building will help address UBC Okanagan’s (UBCO) critical shortage in academic program, classroom, and research space and will facilitate world-leading, interdisciplinary/ transdisciplinary research. The project is critical to supporting UBCO’s relationship with Indigenous partners, and in advancing the mandate of UBCO as a partner in regional development.
Indigeneity is an overarching theme for the building. The building’s siting, architectural and landscape approach have been guided by direction from the ICI Cultural Plan Sub-working Group and the ICI building will be a new home for the Interior Salish Studies program and the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency (BNLF) program. The Indigenous & Community Engagement Space included in the building comprises language labs, a multi-purpose room (20 seats), collection room, student lounge, Elder’s room and Speaker-In-Residence office(s). This space is immediately adjacent to the 100 seat (250 nsm) round ‘community’ space which is available for all users in the building (and campus) and incorporates indigenous design ideas.
In 2019, it was determined that connecting buildings to the district energy system was the lowest cost option for the UBCO campus, and the best option to achieve carbon reduction goals, simplify building operations, maximize resilience, and provide a foundation for the integration of waste heat, renewable energy, and other low carbon energy sources in the future. In support of the UBC Climate Action Plan objectives and as part of UBCO’s integrated energy strategy to achieve 65% emission reduction from 2013 levels by 2030, a mini-plant has been added to the ICI project. This critical piece of enabling infrastructure will allow future buildings as well as legacy buildings with end-of-life systems to connect to the district energy system for heating and cooling.
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UBC Okanagan – Campus Planning: Planning and development permit