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he proposed architectural design for a new community college on the Silicon Island site seeks to confront the challenge of a tight, restrictive site, and effectively address the Public’s shifting attitude towards the role of community colleges in the New Economy. The architecture of the proposed design attempts to establish new relationships between the IT industry, the Silicon Island Centre - Phase Two project, and the provincial community college. By creating a dramatic collage of volumes, sweeping curves, and translucent and provocative shapes, the proposed campus design strives to encourage energetic and innovative thinking amongst its users. By rejecting the conventional, and avoiding modest interpretations, the architecture pushes the envelope of the public’s perception of IT and education for the new millennium.

A triangular, sail-shaped footprint of 30,000 square feet, occupies the southern half of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality/Silicon Island high-tech zoned site. The design incorporates up to five storeys of new, campus floor space, with below-grade parking. A sweeping, curved, facade fronts an elevated, drop-off plaza; and is oriented towards the harbour view. There are numerous, vertically-expressed, daylight-penetration devices, such as a rooftop, conical, skylight cylinder; a wedged-shaped, glass-curtained, atrium; and glass stair towers. These devices all serve to introduce daylight into the heart of the building.