Public Architecture and Design Extend UBC's Biodiversity Centre with a Brick Wing around a Garden Courtyard

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This article covers topics related to Building Design, Built Environment Interiors, Architecture & Urban Design, Living Building, Landscape Design, Installations, Building Planning & Design. On Vancouver's Point Grey campus, a pale brick addition gives researchers labs, collections and classrooms that open onto a planted courtyard.

On Vancouver's Point Grey campus, a pale brick addition gives researchers labs, collections and classrooms that open onto a planted courtyard.

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The University of British Columbia has expanded the Beaty Biodiversity Centre on its Point Grey campus in Vancouver with a 4,428 m² addition of research space, offices and collections. The design is by Public Architecture and Design, led by Martina Caniglia, Shane O'Neill, Brian Wakelin and Yiyi Zhou. It sits along Main Mall, the university's central spine, where most people will pass it on a bike or on foot before they ever go inside.

The addition does not try to be an icon, and that is the interesting part. It puts a glazed, almost transparent ground floor under a disciplined body of pale brick and tall window slots, then turns its back half toward a planted courtyard by hapa Collaborative. The result reads less like a lab block and more like campus infrastructure for paying attention: to trees, to specimens, and to the path that runs past the front door.

A Quiet Frontage on Main Mall

Low glazed pavilion with slim columns seen through mature oak trees, cyclists and pedestrians passing on the path under a cloudy sky

Glass-walled ground floor with stone piers and a thin roof edge, a vertically windowed tower rising behind it under maple branches

Entrance path framed by two large trees, with a glazed base, slim canopy and tall window slots above, walkers and a cyclist crossing

Concrete column and mesh canopy beside the glazed ground floor, with a cyclist and walkers crossing in front of a grassy bank

Walkway between a brick and glass facade and a concrete-columned mesh canopy, with two people strolling toward trees under blue sky

Seen from the mall, the building lets the mature oaks and maples do most of the talking. The ground floor is a low band of glass behind slim columns and stone piers, capped by a thin roof edge that barely registers against the canopy. The taller volume steps back behind it, so the pedestrian experience is set by the trees and the glazing, not by the mass.

A mesh canopy on concrete columns runs along the edge and makes a covered walkway between the building and the grass. It is a modest move, but on a campus where it rains for much of the year, a dry edge where you can pause matters more than any gesture on the skyline.

Brick, Slots and a Vertical Rhythm

White brick tower with tall blue glass slots and a perforated metal canopy over the entry, framed by oak leaves in sunshine

Close-up of grey brick piers between tall glazed strips, with tree branch shadows falling across the facade in bright sun

Pathway leading past a white brick facade with vertical glazing, where students walk beneath tall conifers in dappled light

Close view of the entrance canopy and white brick facade with tall windows behind a leafy tree, a dog and pedestrians in the foreground

Ground-floor entrances with louvered metal panel, glass doors and a mesh canopy, as a passerby in a tan jacket walks past

Above the glass base, the facade turns to white and grey brick broken by tall slots of blue-tinted glazing. The vertical rhythm reads well against the tree trunks, and in direct sun the branch shadows travel across the piers. The facade works with what is growing around it rather than competing with it.

At the entrances the language gets more technical, with louvered metal panels, glass doors and a perforated canopy. We think this is the right place to switch registers: the brick stays calm, and the hardware of arrival is kept light and readable at hand height.

The Garden Side

Pale banded masonry block with dark window strips above a courtyard garden of flowering perennials, a person seated on a yellow chair

White brick facade with dark window bands beside a metal mesh screen, seen over pink flowering plants and foxglove spires

Pink flowering plants and a young tree in a planted bed, with a person seated beyond and a metal mesh screen behind

Rear elevation of a pale brick block with ribbon windows, seen from a gravel path lined with planted beds and a passing pedestrian

Courtyard view with a sloped metal canopy at left, a young tree and ferns, and a stone-paved path beside the perforated facade

Behind the public face, the building changes character. Banded masonry and dark ribbon windows sit over beds of flowering perennials, foxglove and young trees, with a gravel path along the rear. The planting is dense and slightly unruly, which suits a centre devoted to biodiversity far better than lawn would.

A metal mesh screen and a sloped canopy define the edges of this outdoor room. The yellow chair and the seated figures in these views suggest the space is meant for use, not just for looking at from a lab window.

Moving Through the Courtyard

Steel stair rising through a courtyard planted with ferns, boulders and young trees between mesh-clad and brick facades

Covered walkway between two brick wings with a slatted canopy, bicycles parked in the distance and a person seated at a bench under blue sky

Ground-floor glazing and entry door beneath tall window strips, with a person seated at a table in the shade of tree trunks

A steel stair rises through ferns, boulders and young trees between the mesh-clad and brick facades. It may be the best moment in the project: vertical circulation is pushed outside into the planting, so going up a floor means passing through the landscape the building studies.

A slatted canopy links two brick wings with a covered passage, and benches and tables sit in the shade at the base. These are small, generous spaces that let researchers and students spend unplanned time outdoors, which is where much of the informal exchange on a research campus happens.

Classrooms That Open to the Lawn

Classroom with timber slat ceiling and linear lights, green chairs and long tables, where students stand by an open glass door to the lawn

Classroom with green chairs and long tables beneath a timber slat ceiling, a student walking past the columns and glazing in daylight

The teaching rooms pair long tables and green chairs with a timber slat ceiling and linear lighting. The strongest detail is the glass door opening straight onto the lawn. A class can spill outside without a corridor in between, and in a building about living systems, that direct link makes sense.

Labs and Collections

Laboratory with black-topped benches, a microscope and shell specimens, a researcher in a white coat moving before a courtyard window

Collections storage room with mobile white cabinets, exposed ductwork and taxidermy bears, a staff member pushing a blue cart across the floor

In the laboratory, black-topped benches, a microscope and shell specimens sit in front of a courtyard window, so close study happens with a view of something alive. The collections store is more frankly utilitarian: mobile white cabinets, exposed ductwork and taxidermy bears in the aisles.

That contrast is honest. The collection is the reason the building exists, and the store looks like a working archive rather than a display. The architects saved the polish for the rooms where people spend their days.

Stairs, Nooks and Desks

Exposed concrete stair with glass balustrades, people meeting in a glazed room beyond and a blurred figure climbing above

Corridor nook with a green lounge chair and round side table facing a tall window onto a narrow planted courtyard

Office with two desks and black chairs beneath a ceiling of acoustic tiles, a window framing a courtyard tree and a stair

Inside, an exposed concrete stair with glass balustrades connects the floors and looks into glazed meeting rooms, so movement and conversation stay visible to each other. A corridor nook with a single lounge chair faces a narrow planted courtyard, a small and humane gesture that many research buildings leave out.

The offices are plain: two desks, acoustic tile ceilings, and a window framing a tree and the courtyard stair. The views do the work the finishes do not, which fits the project's general economy.

Plans and Drawings

Ground floor plan drawing showing a bold-outlined building wing beside a curving landscaped courtyard and a sweeping path among tree canopies

Upper floor plan drawing showing a bold-outlined L-shaped wing of rooms and stairs, with an open void and tree outlines to the south

The ground floor plan shows the wing set beside a curving landscaped courtyard, with a sweeping path weaving between tree canopies. The upper floor resolves into an L-shaped band of rooms and stairs around an open void, with tree outlines to the south. Together they confirm what the photographs suggest: the building is laid out around retained trees and planted ground.

Why This Project Matters

Campus research buildings often swing between sealed boxes and expressive objects. This addition takes a third route. It gives scientists serious space for labs, offices and collections, and it spends its design effort on edges, thresholds and the courtyard between them. The architecture recedes so the trees, the mall and the planting stay in the foreground.

For a centre devoted to biodiversity, that restraint carries meaning. The building shows that the program can shape the experience without a single signature gesture: an outdoor stair through ferns, a classroom door onto the lawn, a chair facing a window. You notice it the way you notice a good landscape, gradually and through use.

UBC Biodiversity Centre Addition by Public Architecture and Design. Location: Vancouver, Canada. Area: 4,428 m². Year: 2025. Photography: Andrew Latreille.

About the Studio

Public Architecture

Official website of Public Architecture, one of the studios behind this project.

publicarchitecture.org

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