We have more people that need care than we have people that can provide that care.

-Benjie Nycum

Check out the article here.

A portion of Benjie and Nebal‘s discussion about the design aspects was published in the May 21, 2020, edition of the paper.

Links

• Chronicle Herald article
• Blog post announcing replacement of Villa Acadienne (new design is based on the household model discussed in the interview)
• Blog post discussing impact of household design on Long Term Care facilities in Nova Scotia
• Blog post announcing engagement to present Nova Scotia’s household model at healthcare architecture forum
• Blog post announcing engagement to present Nova Scotia’s household model at conference on aging
• Annapolis Royal Nursing Home (Nycum household model project)
• Northwood at the Parks (Nycum household model project)

Links

• Hadrian’s Blog Post
• Nanuk Technologies

After construction is complete, interior and exterior renovations will result in the addition of six dialysis stations to this 63-bed inpatient facility.

Links

• Cape Breton Post Article announcing construction tender issued, April 22, 2019
• Cape Breton Post article announcing funding, March 25, 2019

July 3, 2019, saw the announcement by the Provincial Government that the facility would, indeed, be replaced: a successful outcome for the hard work of Villa Acadienne, its board and our consulting team.

The new Villa Acadienne is designed based on a “household” model of care where residents live in smaller groups, or households, each with its own dining, food prep and other support areas. The new building will increase the facility’s bed count by ten to a total of 96 residents.

Links

• Digby Courier Article announcing replacement, July 3, 2019
• Blog post discussing impact of household design standard in Nova Scotia, Observations from Implementation
• Blog post announcing LEED certification of one of our long-term care projects
• Blog post announcing LEED certification of two of our household-model long-term care projects
• Blog post announcing engagement to present Nova Scotia’s household model at healthcare architecture forum
• Blog post announcing engagement to present Nova Scotia’s household model at conference on aging
• Annapolis Royal Nursing Home (Nycum household model project)
• Northwood at the Parks (Nycum household model project)

Links

• CBC Article, October 26, 2018
• Blog post announcing release of construction tender
• Blog post announcing project

The full article can be found here, beginning on pg. 26

To create his Originals profile Benjie was interviewed on his time at Dalhousie University. The interview was recorded and added to the university’s archive and special collections so that future students can be inspired by the actions of the 52 originals.
Benjie continues to be connected to Dalhousie through his role as adjunct professor. Working closely with students allows him to learn through his teaching and he is constantly excited to help students discover solutions so that they can reach their potential.

Featured alongside Benjie is (Former Prime Minister) R.B. Bennett, (Community Leader and women’s suffragist) Eliza Ritchie, (Former Architecture Dean) Essy Baniassad, (Astronaut) Kathryn Sullivan, and (Former Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet member) Anne McLellan

Benjie’s 52 Originals profile can be found here

Links

• Kings County News Article, August 24, 2018
• NovaNewsNow Article, February 24, 2018
• Blog post announcing project

It allows me to live where I want to live.

Future Patient

An important factor in the quality of life and health for all Nova Scotians.

Links

• Kings County News article, August 13, 2018
• CBC Article announcing project, January 13, 2017
• Blog post announcing project

The museum aims to expand and enhance the public’s understanding of human rights with special but not exclusive reference to Canada. Visitors from around the world explore concepts with an international scope through a Canadian lens devoted to human rights awareness and education to promote respect for others, and to encourage reflection and dialogue.

I am very excited to serve this vital institution. The advancement of human rights has been at the core of my life for decades and it fundamentally shapes our approach to advocacy in the work we do at Nycum + Associates. For me this is a perfect fit and a perfect time to serve the Canadian Museum for Human Rights”
– Benjie Nycum

“Canada’s national museums are a point of pride for our country, and it is important that qualified and passionate individuals provide the leadership these institutions deserve. With the dynamic background and skills of these new and reappointed board members, I am confident our museums are in good hands.”
– The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage

Here is an excerpt from the abstract:

This talk explores the environments where people are most likely to die. Using visual and graphic descriptions taken primarily from architectural designs (many in Nova Scotia), concepts of home, ageing, dying, dignity, boredom, family, care, and the taboo of death are viewed through the lens of these environments to shed light on their objectives, their roles, their operations and the experience they offer.

From 2007 to 2010, Nova Scotia built 1533 new and replacement Nursing Home Beds. Currently Nova Scotia is building community based Hospice projects. Home care is also a trend that is politically and practically topical. Hospitals remain an important emphasis.

How do we as citizens and a province advocate for the appropriate environments for care and ageing? How do we avoid allowing our misconceptions about the dying process to inappropriately influence our direction and priorities? What do we want and what can we expect from environments where we are likely to die?

This presentation reveals these environments emphasizing facilities in Nova Scotia, and explores them through the context of these important questions to enable and arm the audience to become better advocates for them.

We are extremely excited to be a part of this influential project and to keep working with such a passionate and thoughtful client in St. Francis Xavier University. Next steps will be to act as owners adviser through the design build process and we are looking forward to the future of the project.

Breaking Ground at Mulroney Hall

QEII Redevelopment – Hants Hospital OR
Important Piece of the Puzzle
Press release

Surgical Department Redevelopment

The residential scale of the interior spaces lent itself well to traditional dimensional framing – spaces were designed to evoke feelings of home, most of which are wood framed. The wood framing was combined with plywood sheathing to provide shearwalls in an economical and easy-to-construct manner.

The potential for the building to appear as a large institutional facility was mitigated by introducing traditional peak-roofed “house” forms to dissolve the large facility into smaller units. Each “house” is home to ten residents, and all of the houses are linked together to allow support and care staff access to individuals and groups and encourage healthy socialization among the residents. Prefabricated engineered wood trusses were a natural and economic fit for this residential vocabulary in an institutional setting, and the material easily accommodated complex shapes.

The client wanted the exterior of the building to relate to the adjacent residential community, helping the project to fit in with its neighbours and reduce the stigma for people entering a “hospital” for mental health care. Prefinished wood siding is a durable and attractive cladding that relates to vernacular wood sided houses in Nova Scotia – the variety of finishes and profiles available allowed the design team to further break down the mass of the project using pattern and colour.

A wood and steel hybrid system of construction was chosen to combine the ease and economy of wood construction with the longer spans of steel frame construction. The hybrid construction mirrored the hybrid program of the building: a large institutional facility that feels smaller-scaled and residential.

Wood framing was chosen for its speed of installation, stainability benefits, familiarity with material for trades and ease of sourcing locally. Shorter spans were realized by utilizing the interior partitions as load-bearing and shearwall structures – this helped simplify structural connections by maintaining consistent structural materials in these areas and minimized the depth of the roof/ceiling.

The high-pitched roof design lent itself to prefabricated wood trusses: a local product, familiar to local trades and with benefits to the schedule with their ease of construction. Pre-finished wood cladding provided residential feel to the exterior of the building, helping to relate to the surrounding community.

Steel was used to address snow loading and the weight of vegetated roofs over areas the program required to be clear span – the use of steel was minimized by using it selectively in conjunction with economical wood construction. Steel and wood were a good combination with relatively simple and common connections between the two materials, with many pre-fabricated, simple to install, solutions.

WoodWorks! Atlantic

The St. John Ambulance Headquarters building is a hybrid one story building that combines several functions under one roof: administrative centre, supply warehouse, learning and teaching facility, and home base for travelling instructors.

Wood provided a familiar building material and economical choice for smaller-scaled portions of the building. The Administration wing of the project is primarily standard dimensional framing – easily adaptable and configurable for a standard office layout for private and shared workspaces. The wood trusses in the classroom wing provide column-free learning spaces and enhance the aesthetics of the exposed tongue and groove structural pine decking in these spaces. Clerestory windows are spaced between each of the classrooms’ trusses with light fixtures integrated into the truss forms themselves, providing an integrated approach to daylighting and artificial lighting strategies.

Wood, expressed as an interior finish in classroom spaces, provides a warm natural material, creating engaging spaces in which to teach and learn.

Overall, responsible use of wood was an important part of the project’s sustainability goals.

Wood was chosen to work in conjunction with steel in order to take advantage of efficiencies for different spans, provide character to interior spaces where exposed, and offer an easy to source and easy to work with material.

Steel post and beam structure provides the framework within which a curving and expressive exterior curtainwall is implemented: wood trusses continue from the interior to provide a generous and protective overhang that helps keep the interior spaces at the curtainwall comfortable, while connected to the exterior. The use of steel in this area minimized the number and size of columns and allowed them to more easily be located outside of the building envelope.

The standard dimensional framing of the administrative area was a cost-effective and easy-to-construct approach that helped keep on-site activities moving.

Plywood was used in conjunction with standard dimensional framing to provide shearwalls as part of the overall structural solution.

WoodWorks! Atlantic

The Institute will be home to at least six endowed chairs and further enhance the renowned undergraduate experience at StFX. Mulroney Hall will become the major classroom building for the campus, supporting the excellent learning environment with new spaces that support a wide range of pedagogies. Classrooms, Institute and academic offices and displays and exhibits related to the life and government of Canada’s 18th Prime Minister will be organized around a double-height forum space – intended to become a vital gathering place in the heart of campus.

We’ve been lucky enough to work with fantastic design partners at SmithGroupJJR and an engaged and thoughtful client in St. Francis Xavier University since 2015. Next steps will be for the university to continue our work with design builders they’re looking to select soon. We’re excited to see how this all develops and look forward to assisting with the next steps.

StFX Recording of the Announcement, October 26, 2016 (Images of the project at 10:24, 14:53 and 17:23)
Globe & Mail
National Post
CBC
Local Xpress

How did you get started in the Syllabus Program?
I love teaching, so when Tom asked if I would join on to help out I was pretty excited. First I attended as a guest during a few sessions in the winter. Then I joined on as an instructor in spring/summer.

What is the Syllabus Program?
For technical components of the program, students complete long-distance learning modules with Athabasca University. Design is taught in each region through studios like ours following a guideline for assignments. The graded work is submitted to the RAIC for final evaluation.

The following is copied from the RAIC website:
To practice as an Architect in Canada, a person must be a registered member of an Association of Architects in one of the Provinces. Applicants for Provincial Registration must first obtain certification of their academic qualifications from the Canadian Architectural Certification Board (CACB). The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Syllabus curriculum has been prepared to comply with Academic Certification Criteria adopted by the CACB as its standard for granting certification.

The RAIC offers an accessible alternative through a direct, self-paced program of academic studies, design studios, and practical experience leading to the RAIC Diploma in Architecture – accepted in Canada as equivalent to a Professional University Degree in Architecture. Graduates from the Syllabus are entitled to use the designation “Dipl. Arch.” indicating that they have completed all requirements of the RAIC Syllabus Diploma.

What do you want people to know about the Syllabus Program?
What is amazing about the program is the offering of an alternative to the university path. It takes much longer than a conventional university degree (for most students, at least a decade), but it’s hard not to be excited about providing an alternative to the conventional way of doing things. Many people incur disruption in their lives that prevent the kind of 100% focus and dedication to a university architectural degree. If you can’t make yourself committed 24/7 to a university architectural degree program for 4 years (after already completing undergraduate studies), then you have no hope of making it through. But with Syllabus, it is self-paced. The deliverables are stretched out over a long period of time. So folks who have disruption their lives, still have a chance of becoming an architect.

What do you get out of teaching in the Syllabus Program?
It’s all volunteer and every activity of the design studio from coordination to grading to planning assignments and critiquing the work falls on the volunteer teachers. But it is very rewarding. I love teaching and am privileged to teach as an adjunct at the Dalhousie University Faculty of Architecture in Halifax. Syllabus adds another dimension to learning. I really enjoy working with Tom. Apart from being a very knowledgeable instructor who counts in his CV the title of Dean at the faculty of architecture, he is a constant affirmation of the profound values of humanity in architecture. He executes these values in every engagement with the students. It reminds me that architectural education does not have to be in a static box. It is fluid, dynamic, and more than just the content or the product. That is very exciting and something I get to export both to teaching at the university and in our practice at Nycum & Associates.

More importantly, the students are very inspiring. They are managing their lives and careers, yet still do the work of the program with rigour. The biggest challenge is to not give them any slack for this. We have to demand excellence in their work. The heat is on every week. Yet they still come passionate and prepared to present. It’s hard not to come away from that without a weekly feeling of inspiration and goodness. We meet on Thursdays so Wednesday nights feel like Christmas Eve.

What advice do you have for someone who might be considering the Syllabus Program?
Get started now!

This project represents the second in a series of three health centres in Nunavut designed in conjunction with Stantec (formerly FSC Architects and Engineers). Nycum provided full architectural services, interior design and healthcare specialty design expertise related to the building interiors, as well as furniture and medical equipment consulting. The third project, in Arctic Bay, is presently under construction and slated to open in 2017.

Here is the CBC’s article on the opening!

The space, while well maintained, had not been upgraded for many years and needed to reflect the brand and ethos of an aerospace company: the brief was to bring more light in, modernize the finishes to reflect the high-tech products for which the company is known, create an inviting atmosphere for visitors and clients and elevate the experience of employees who enter and exit through the front doors every day.

The design minimizes visual clutter by developing a restrained, sophisticated palette and balances harder surfaces referencing glass, concrete and metal with warm wood millwork.

Nycum is providing Architectural and Interior Design and planning services to the Prime Consultant, Stantec (formerly Dessau) in Longueuil, QC

Check out our Facebook page for project photo albums

Find Arctic Bay on a map (look up, look way up!)

April 30, 2015

In recent decades, the debate over institutionalization vs. de-institutionalization has highlighted the tensions that continue to exist between architecture and psychiatric care and treatment. This is nothing new: architecture and psychiatry have shared parallel and intertwined roles in the care and treatment of persons with mental illness for the past 200 years. For example, the influential Kirkbride asylum design formalized the theory that the built environment was a key factor in the cure of mental illness in the middle of the 19th century. Psychiatric architecture reflects moral beliefs and social systems of urbanization, community, shelter, control and our quest for utopia. It is therefore not surprising that they each address social issues with solutions that are usually prescriptive but occasionally utterly inspiring.

As the professions of psychiatry and architecture face the future, changes like virtualization, technology, convergence, integration, and availability of resources will drastically alter the social needs they serve. Present day Psychiatry will increasingly be unburdened by the need for space in which to do its work, providing an opportunity to lead all types of medical practice through the transformation of healthcare, society, and the built environment.

For more information, visit our website’s Project Page.

LEED™ is a regular part of a large portion of the world of architectural design, with traditionally less representation in the world of healthcare architecture.

In this project, we focused on the LEED™ credits with the potential for the greatest impact on those living within. For example, including operable windows in what is traditionally a sealed environment, which means working closely with our Mechanical Engineers to ensure that appropriate humidity and temperature levels are not put at risk.

This project also included exterior rooftop gardens and decks in assorted sizes providing recreational and rehabilitation opportunities at many scales for the residents, visitors and staff, while encouraging closer connections with the natural world.

In addition to being lower maintenance and climate appropriate, landscape design for this project included native plants and other appropriate non-invasive varieties to contribute to familiar views for residents, improving health outcomes, and longer-term life-cycle cost benefits for the operator.

An Insulated Concrete Forming (ICF) system was chosen as a major structural component, allowing the building to take advantage of a high level of recycled content (fly ash) in the concrete mix and providing high thermal insulation values while acoustic comfort of residents was enhanced.

The LEED™ framework aligned with the team’s goal of choosing as many natural materials as possible in a healthcare setting to help reduce the institutional feel of the building and support biophilic design philosophies that a growing body of Evidence Based Design suggests enhance healing and well-being.

Congratulations to all involved with Ivany Place: Northwood at the Parks, in the Parks of Bedford West.

Client: Northwoodcare Inc.
Project Manager: Fairwyn Developments
LEED™ Consultant: Solterre Design

We were happy to have strong partners in our consultant team, client and project manager — all of whom put in the effort to ensure that points were counted and accounted for and followed through from concept to design to construction and after.

Congratulations to all involved with Ivey’s Terrace Nursing Home, in Trenton, and Shiretown Nursing Home, in Pictou.

Client: MacLeod Group Health Services Ltd.
Project Manager: Lampier & Associates Health Facilities Consultants Ltd.
Sustainability Consultant: Solterre Design

This is really profound and important work.

The dialysis component complements our significant portfolio of dialysis work. This is another special environment where so much can be done in the design of the spaces to impact the experience of those people who sit in dialysis chairs for hours on end, sometimes every day, in a positive way, making their experiences as comfortable and un-hospital like as possible.

Annapolis Valley Health is one of nine health districts in Nova Scotia providing programs and services to nearly 82,000 Nova Scotians in Annapolis and Kings Counties.

Planning Solutions by Design: Reuniting Healthcare Programming and Design

Hospital planning and programming can take years, often involving a number of incremental and much politicized steps. Common pitfalls may include an underestimation of the architectural impacts the programming and planning have on the project. This often includes the building site and without architectural visualization of concepts, awareness of the inputs users are making to the program may occur too late causing delays and inappropriate compromise. For a new 200 bed expansion, Capital Health (Halifax) and the Nova Scotia department of Health and Wellness recognized the pitfalls of this traditional “program first, then plan, then design” sequence and decided to combine them into a single 7 month fast-tracked, combined and simultaneous Programming/Planning/Schematic Design process. The result was a highly iterative and interactive approach that forced to the front of the room all major internal and external conflicts that the project needed to address.

For information on the International Union of Architects’ Public Health Group (UIA/PHG), click here.

For complete UIA/PHG Forum information, click here.

For more about the series of awards established by Nova Scotia’s Lieutenant Governors to recognize outstanding achievements of Nova Scotians, click here.

For more about the awards, as administered by the Provincial Association, click here.

For more about Brigadoon:
Brigadoon Website
Brigadoon on Facebook
Brigadoon on Twitter

Pilot projects are a great way to invite experimental change without having to commit entirely to the change until it has been properly evaluated. Change is happening at a staggering rate in Mental Health. Changing the way teams work together to adapt to these changes and improve patient centred care is the main goal of these experimental projects.

For more about the Quality Summit and the other award-winning projects, click here.

On June 24, 2013, all breast imaging moved to a new location at the IWK Health Centre in renovated space designed by Nycum.

We are delighted to be a part of the shared vision, giving patients the best care in one place – ensuring timely, integrated and coordinated breast health services and providing a patient-centered approach to care

See more information at:
The QEII Foundation
The IWK Foundation
Bust A Move Fundraiser

• Camp for children and youth who are blind or visually impaired
• Camp for children and youth receiving Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority services
• BraveHeart Camp (Cardiology)
• Celiac Camp (A Canadian first!)
• Camp Treasure Chest (Asthma)
• Open Family Camp: for families with a child with a chronic illness, condition or special need.
• Camp Natawe’ige (Learning Disabilities)
• Kidney Camp
• Arthritis Camp
• Camp Goodtime (Cancer)
• Camp Guts and Glory (Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis)
• Down Syndrome Family Camp
• Brainchild Family Camp (Brain Tumours)
• Heart Talk (Cardiology)
• About Face (Teens with facial differences)
• Autism Family Camp

Brigadoon open for business
Brigadoon Website
Brigadoon on Facebook
Brigadoon on Twitter