The new Divine Mercy school will be Edmonton Catholic Schools’ addition to the southeast of Edmonton; providing room for 650 new students. The exterior is simple yet engaging and attractive, to compliment the surrounding developing neighbourhood. The utilization of vibrant coloured metal panels give the school some cheerful character. The school’s basis will be rooted in play and exploration, being an elementary school scale played a vital role in the interior design of the structure. The interior materials selected will be warm and inviting, these materials will allow for comfortable learning and playful spaces including an outdoor roof top classroom.
The intent of this project was to create a workable 21st century school within the “typical footprint” available that was open and flexible for today’s students’ learning, while also keeping the school on budget. A CM method was combined with a strong desire to anchor the school in some Faith based 21st Century Learning and design principles.
Divine Mercy is a K-6 school and as such, it was one of the Conditions of Satisfaction that we were to create “wow” zones and Faith-based zones that would enhance the experience for young students, their teachers, and the community. As an innovative solution we worked with our CM partners and created WOW spaces under the school common stair, a second floor outdoor patio classroom, and various fun spaces that will stimulate the students, staff, and community to engage in various learning environment opportunities, both inside the footprint of the school and outside.
ACI, the Leadership team at ECSD, and the CM Aman Construction collaboratively adjusted the Divine Mercy school to allow for an 11 month construction period that was normally allowed as a 16-18 month build. This was achieved through key Target Value Design work; adjusting materials and finishes that were readily available (no long lead times and delivery times), adding additional staff to increase ACI's contract administration capacity; adjusting construction sequencing to allow the right work to happen at the right time, reducing the impact of service costs such as heating and hoarding, etc.
