Accoya Color Grey deck and cladding on a campus

On the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the collective Third Quadrant Design, founded in 2019 by three civil engineering students, built Third Space Commons, a demonstrator building with near-zero energy use and a low carbon footprint. The deck and the cladding are in Accoya Color Grey, donated by Upper Canada Forest Products: this FSC certified wood, coloured grey right through, brings texture, warmth and a contemporary look while reducing the carbon footprint of the envelope. Designed on a principle of circularity, the building reuses materials and systems from an existing deconstructed house, then becomes a living laboratory for students and teachers. Entered in the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Build Challenge, the project took third place overall and first place in the Architecture and Embodied Environmental Impact categories, confirming the alliance of sustainability and elegance.