The Urbandale Center for Home Energy Research is a joint venture between the School of Engineering and the Azrieli School of Architecture at Carleton University. Built in 2015 on campus grounds in the form of a typical gable-roofed house, the facility conducts long-term explorations into various methods of increasing building performance and reducing reliance of Canadian housing on conventional energy sources.
The Center combines Passive Solar Heating with a highly flexible wall assembly system using Vacuum Insulated Panels (VIPs) as primary source of insulation, achieving a performance R-value of 50 for every sing inch of thickness. The exterior cladding assembly is unitized, composed of units of reclaimed wood strapping hung onto steel Z-girts, which are in turn fastened to the structure through Cascadia Fiberglass Rainscreen thermal spaces. This allows for a generous cavity between the envelope and the structure of the building, where various exercises in insulation and passive solar heat gain can be conducted.
