Fulfilling a long-held dream of creating a new community centre, Splatsin carefully crafted a new three-story, 33,581 square-foot building to reflect its history and focus on the future by caring for the land. This summer, the building was topped off with a 24,200 square-foot lightweight-planted roof.
The new Splatsin Community Centre was designed to serve multiple functions. The centre provides space for meetings, banquets, weddings, reunions, and concerts. The facility will also have a high school regulation basketball court as well as running track on the mezzanine and will provide many opportunities for community members to access physical activities.
Education outreach is another key focus planned for the new site.
The unique dome-shaped green roof was designed to represent a traditional winter shelter used by Splatsin ancestors. The site design allows stormwater and below-grade drainage to be captured and used to irrigate the vegetated roof as well as ground-level native landscapes around the building and in the area to provide low maintenance and water conservation.
“Incorporating a living, green roof on the community centre was the best way to represent a traditional shelter,” according to Shawn Wiebe, Director of Housing, Infrastructure& Lands for the Splatsin Community. “The planted roof also provides sustainability and longevity for the centre, and provides us with an important water recovery and reuse feature.”
The vegetated roof was grown by NATS Nursery of Langley, BC using a unique evergreen sedum mix with native accent plants, including: Festuca saximontana, Bouteloua gracilis, and Festuca rubra. As the local LiveRoof licensed grower, green roof experts at NATS Nursery worked closely with the design team and Splatsin leadership to develop this plant palette that reflected the site’s unique design elements.
“Our nursery shares with the Splatsin community a love of the earth, as well as responsibility for its nurturing and care. We were honoured to work with representatives of the Splatsin community to help create this beautiful community centre, helping them establish new roots sprouted from their history and tradition.”
Encan Construction and Laing Roofing Ltd. were responsible for the construction and installation of the living roof.
Green roofs provide nature function and beauty. A patented, subterranean modular system unites the soil and plants creating a naturally beautiful meadow-like aesthetic. The roofs provide aesthetic, environmental and social benefits . Financial benefits can also be achieved from a vegetative roof including: extension of roof life, energy conservation, enhanced public relations, and conservation of municipal septic systems.
About Splatsin First Nation
The Splatsin are the most southern tribe of the Shuswap Nation, the largest Interior Salish speaking First Nation in Canada whose aboriginal territory stretches from the BC/Alberta border near the Yellowhead Pass to the plateau west of the Fraser River, southeast to the Arrow Lakes and to the upper reaches of the Columbia River. The Splatsin people reside on Indian reserve lands adjacent to the City of Enderby to the south and across the Shuswap River to the east. www.splatsin.ca
FMLink featured the Splatsin Community Centre as an exemplary project.
