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)

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

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

StFX Campus Planning

Framework Plan Project

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

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

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.

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