C. K. Choi Building

C.K. Choi Building
C. K. Choi Building, street facade, c.2010
UBC Campus, Vancouver, BC, Canada
General information
Type	University Office Building
Address	1855 West Mall, UBC, Vancouver
Country	Canada
Coordinates	49°16′02″N 123°15′30″W / 49.267132°N 123.258405°W / 49.267132; -123.258405
Current tenants	Institute of Asian Research
Completed	1996
Owner	University of British Columbia
Technical details
Floor count	3 storeys
Floor area	34,400 sq.ft.
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Matsuzaki Wright Architects
Website
www.iar.ubc.ca

The C. K. Choi Building is an award-winning building recognized for its leading-edge sustainable design features. It is the University of British Columbia's "flagship environmental building" in what it calls its ‘living laboratory’, the campus used to showcase "innovative approaches to conserving energy, water and materials, while striving to make positive impacts on the environment."

Located in the northwest quadrant of the UBC campus, the building is named after Dr. Cheung-Kok Choi, a businessman and philanthropist in China, Hong Kong and Canada, and a major donor to UBC. The C.K. Choi Building was purpose-built as a university office building to house UBC's Institute of Asian Research's five research centres. These focus on China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and India and South Asia. The "daringly innovative architecture" integrates cultural expression, interior and exterior architectural presence, together with environmental features and functions. The five identical curved roof forms reflect the Institute's Asian focus, providing an identifiable focus for each research centre without giving predominance to one culture or centre over another, and provide natural light and natural ventilation to interior spaces.

The Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia is a research institute founded in 1978 that has been the foremost research centre in Canada for the study of Asia. With a broad geographic reach extending to China, India and South Asia, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, the Institute conducts research and teaching in policy-relevant issues informed by language and area studies. The Institute has played a central role in building UBC's excellence in research, teaching and community liaison in matters pertaining to Asia. The Institute has pursued research into many aspects of the human experience in Asia.

Owner:University of British Columbia, Freda Pagani, Campus Planning and Development
Owner's Sustainability Advisor: Bob Berkebile, BNIM

From the project's start, it was intended to be "an embodiment of new standards for sustainable design, construction and operations." The building was designed with ambitious targets for minimizing energy usage but an evaluation conducted on the building's first ten years found that the performance exceeded expectations by a significant amount. The building was completed before the US and Canadian Green Building Councils' LEED Rating Systems were developed, but the building's performance compares favourably with those more recent standards.