Centre for Clean Energy and Automotive Innovation

Students will embark on a transformative journey upon entering the new eight-storey Vancouver Community College Centre for Clean Energy and Automotive Innovation (VCC CCEAI), designed to make interprofessional collaboration and innovative engineering solutions possible. Symbolizing the City of Vancouver’s cultural heritage, the building’s architecture and design incorporates Coast Salish stories and knowledge shared by Indigenous leaders. The intent of the new CCEAI is to bring mixed-use programming under one roof, creating a memorable home for VCC’s students seeking education and training in the construction and maintenance of electric vehicles and clean energy technology. Large visual display zones and transparent elements were incorporated to interconnect diverse program environments. Challenges including accommodating large, industrial clean-energy programs into confined spaces while ensuring accessibility. Manufacturing and fabrication spaces will provide an integral platform for industry collaborations and facilitate the development of alternative energy cells, solar technology, and EV batteries. Creative and adaptable future-proof spaces throughout allow for changing technology and evolving program requirements. To further support VCC’s goal of creating a space centered around green automotive innovation, the building is designed to be low carbon and meet British Columbia’s Step Code 2 and LEED Gold Certification requirements. A major objective is for the CCEAI to become a collaborative heart for student development on campus, offering a dynamic and inclusive social hub for educational engagement and cultural exchange. An Indigenous Gathering Space will provide opportunities for First Nations students to meet, study, gather, and engage with elders and academic support. With convenient access to the larger student body, it encourages cross-cultural understanding. Large clerestory windows at grade provide light into the below-grade clean energy technology spaces, offering a unique opportunity for the public to observe students working and learning. A place designed for healing, gathering, and community Coast Salish site heritage, as conveyed by local Indigenous leaders, is layered into the building’s architecture, creating a cultural beacon for the City of Vancouver. The intent was to incorporate into the design language of the project Indigenous elements such as Skwachàys (spiritual tunnels representing transformation and journey), the Indigenous story of ‘The Serpent,’ and extensive use of local materials utilized historically in Indigenous vernacular architecture. Clad in delicately carved and painted aluminum shingles to represent ‘The Serpent’—a potent emblem of the Coast Salish Peoples—the amorphous form of the Indigenous gathering space commands a prominent position overhead, its shingles reminiscent of sea creature scales and its gentle curves suggestive of The Serpent’s undulating movement through water. Another important symbol in Coast Salish culture is the canoe, which represents life, sustenance and heritage. As a result, incorporated into the design of the new structure are various elements nodding to the traditional significance of the canoe and water. A future-proof campus with flexible classroom layouts, powerful HVAC systems that respond to climate change, and mass timber as the primary structural material in the atrium space, VCC’s new CCEAI will represent qualities of sustainability, connection, and community experience while providing students with an essential education.