Thompson Rivers University Student Housing

Award Criteria

Architectural Excellence

The Thompson Rivers University (TRU) student housing project is the newest addition to the university’s East Village. It was funded as part of the Homes for BC initiative, which aims to add 8,000 on-campus beds to post-secondary institutes across the province. The 52 modules included in the project were manufactured in close proximity to the building site, at NRB’s Kamloops facility. Across four storeys, the building consists of 80 rooms and accommodates 148 student-beds. Each floor is 10,796 square feet, resulting in a completed structure with over 40,000 square feet.

Technical Innovation & Sustainability

A key sustainability consideration for this project was the method of energy sourcing. No gas lines were utilized for the building. Instead, all power in the building is purely electrical. All the mechanical components, from the heat-pump units in the residence to the P-TACS in individual rooms, are electric.

Cost Effectiveness

This build incorporated renovated modules originally built for use in hotels along with the brand-new units manufactured specifically for the student dormitories. Reusing modules reduced our own manufacturing costs and eliminated disposal costs for the unused units. We were then able to transfer these cost savings to the client by pricing the renovated modules at a discounted rate compared to the new ones.