The Wayne and William White Engineering Design Centre serves UBC engineering students and enhances the learning, social and physical environment of the Applied Science community.
. Notable features of the building include:
- Engineering Design Studio. Design studio space to enhance delivery of engineering design courses, students’ engineering design activities and collaborations across all engineering disciplines.
- Project and Design Teaching. Instructional spaces for project and design teaching, including a project room and a study room.
- Student Workshop and Team Competition Space. One of the Faculty’s priorities is to support design through student-directed teams, competitions and related extra-curricular activities. The student-administered workshop and its facilities will support student-directed teams, competitions and related extracurricular activities.
The EDC’s primary role is to provide a new space for interaction, integration and innovation in engineering education. It is a place that will bring students and staff together from the various engineering faculties for a common experience.
The ground floor comprises the most active spaces that demand the greatest integration – the heart and soul of the building. A Design Studio provides space for new curriculum focused on project-centered integrated group design. The Competition Space is primarily controlled by students and houses team projects completed for national and international design competitions – previously scattered around the campus and hidden from the view of other students and the public. The Competition Space will provide further opportunity for students on teams to learn from and with each other as well as a highly visible showcase for the impressive results of the teams work. The atrium provides a student commons for socializing and multifunctional space. The entire ground floor is visually interconnected with transparency and may be opened up for exhibitions and open houses and other special events.
The second floor comprises a Project Teaching Area with a multipurpose classroom connected to an exterior deck at the west. At the east is a Reading Room with an entry promenade over the main building entry to increase acoustic separation and provide interest. In the middle is an office suite housing the building’s administration and offices for the Engineering Design Chairs and Instructors. All of these areas have direct access to the open atrium.
A third floor was included in construction with an eye to expansion to meet future needs.