Capilano University in North Vancouver, Canada, has completed construction of the groundbreaking Fulmer Family Center for Childhood Studies, a 2,092-square-meter facility designed by Public Architecture that represents a new paradigm in early childhood education architecture. The project, completed in 2025, demonstrates how biophilic, mass-timber design can embody the pedagogical principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach while achieving Step Code 4 performance standards for environmental sustainability.
The innovative facility serves as a living classroom where 74 children, 125 future educators, and the surrounding coastal forest ecosystem learn from one another in an integrated educational environment. The center functions as a shared home for children across four cohorts while simultaneously providing Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teaching areas, creating a seamless relationship between care and education that addresses a critical regional gap in child care capacity.
The architectural design team, led by Brian Wakelin and including Neil Aspinall, Sasha McWilliam, Shane O'Neill, and Yiyi Zhou, created a structure that integrates licensed child care spaces with advanced educator training facilities. The building's most distinctive feature is the Strada, a central, interconnected space that serves as a communal hub supporting daily routines, hosting all-cohort activities, and providing dedicated areas for displaying children's artwork—a core element of the Reggio Emilia educational approach.
On the second floor, the Strada connects to ECCE teaching and faculty spaces through an open design that maintains visual and auditory links between educators and the child care environment below. This configuration enriches opportunities for experiential learning while allowing natural light to filter down from skylights above, creating a bright and welcoming atmosphere throughout the facility.
The building's relationship with its forested landscape represents a masterful example of biophilic design principles. Set within a mature coastal forest, the structure preserves the existing northern forest as an outdoor play area, featuring small structures constructed from materials cleared during site preparation. All child care cohorts face the forest through floor-to-ceiling glazing that effectively blurs the boundary between indoor and outdoor learning environments.
The second-floor ECCE teaching spaces continue this forest connection through continuous glazing systems that provide views of the tree canopy through the skylight monitor positioned above the central Strada. This design approach ensures that the natural environment remains an integral part of the educational experience at all levels of the building.
From an exterior perspective, the building reflects its local Pacific Northwest context through its linear form and expressive mass timber structural system, which are regionally distinctive architectural elements. The center successfully balances its dual function as both a nurturing home for early learners and a sophisticated hub for advanced educator training, with all design decisions rooted in respect for place and community.
The building's scale has been carefully considered for its young occupants. Along the building's edges, low rooflines and prominent drip lines create an appropriate scale for children while promoting solar access for the north-facing outdoor play areas. Generous timber overhangs drop steeply to the south to provide shade for office windows and extend broadly northward to shelter outdoor areas from the frequent North Shore rainfall.
The extensive use of wood throughout the building serves both aesthetic and functional purposes. At the building's heart, Douglas Fir glue-laminated timber (glulam) dendritic columns branch out in tree-like formations, rising to the clerestory glazing and framing dramatic views of the surrounding treetops. This structural system draws direct inspiration from the natural forest setting while providing the warm, tactile materiality that research shows benefits children's development and well-being.
Douglas Fir panels and custom millwork line the child care spaces, providing durable wall protection while creating visual connections between interior and exterior play areas. Throughout the central Strada, Douglas Fir pickets partially conceal sound-absorptive insulation batts, contributing to optimal acoustic conditions for learning and play. Overhead, wood fiber sound-absorbent panels fill the coffered spaces between the mass timber floor and roof systems, demonstrating the project's commitment to both sustainability and performance.
The building's exterior cladding tells a unique story that connects architecture with pedagogy. The use of durable charcoal-tinted cedar was directly inspired by the children's exploratory art curriculum, which involves creating charcoal through controlled burning and drawing exercises. This everyday material has been transformed into an architectural expression that reinforces the building's educational mission and creates a tangible connection between learning activities and the built environment.
The project team included landscape architecture by PFS Studio and Chris Phillips, with comprehensive engineering services provided by WSP (civil engineering, Jennifer Nam), WHM Structural Engineers (structural engineering, Dan Wicke), AME Consulting Group (mechanical engineering, Patrick Stewart), AES Engineering (electrical engineering, Victor Lü), RDH Building Science (building science consulting, Warren Knowles), and Village Consulting (environmental sustainability consulting, Kiefer MacKenzie).
Key manufacturers and suppliers for the project included Bothwell-Accurate, Canex2, Kalesnikoff, Kawneer, and Mondo, reflecting the project's commitment to supporting regional suppliers and sustainable building practices. The facility's achievement of Step Code 4 performance standards represents a significant milestone in sustainable institutional architecture, demonstrating that high-performance environmental design can be successfully integrated with innovative educational programming.
The Fulmer Family Center for Childhood Studies represents more than just a new educational facility—it embodies a vision of how architecture can support both individual learning and community development while maintaining deep respect for natural environments. Through its innovative integration of child care and educator training, its sophisticated use of sustainable materials and systems, and its seamless connection to the surrounding forest ecosystem, the project establishes new standards for educational architecture in Canada and beyond.
The project's completion marks a significant investment in early childhood education infrastructure, addressing critical regional needs while pioneering approaches that other institutions can adapt and implement. As universities and communities across North America grapple with child care shortages and the need for improved educator training facilities, the Fulmer Family Center provides a compelling model for how thoughtful design can address multiple challenges simultaneously while creating beautiful, functional spaces that serve their users and communities for generations to come.
