Alecsandru Vasiliu will present the game-changer project Mosaic Centre for a Conscious Community and Commerce at GIS

Alecsandru Vasiliu is an architect at LATITUDINE 53 by MANASC ISAAC and is ivited to be a GUEST SPEAKER at the International interior architecture and design expo conference GIS – part of the largest event dedicated to architects, engineers, contractors that will take place on March 21-22 at JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel. The tickets at The International Forum of Architecture and Engineering SHARE Bucharest can be booked here.

The Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce is more than an office building, it is a game-changer, and its corporate home is, too. This new, 3000 m2 building is located at the threshold of a commercial strip and the emerging Edmonton community of Summerside.

The facility houses the Mosaic Family of Companies, a unique and progressive organization with a strong commitment to doing business better: “doing good while doing well”, providing its staff with important amenities which include a child-care facility, wellness centre, lounge area, game rooms and even a restaurant. Every detail of the building works together to promote a healthy collaborative work environment that resonates with the unique ethos of its occupants.

One of the primary goals was to create a Net Zero Commercial building – a building that will generate as much energy on site as it will consume in a year. That isn’t the only green goal – this building hopes to be the first Living Building Challenge petal certified building in Alberta.

Additionally, small leasable office space, called “the beehive,” has been set up with the objective of assisting local businesses and start-up companies to grow. The child-care centre, restaurant and wellness centre facilities is available to the Mosaic staff, neighbourhood residents and  workers in the surrounding commercial buildings. This will engage the Centre’s surrounding residents, making the building a gathering place and solidify its role as a community hub.

Mosaic´s aim is to make the building less of an object and more of a system. This collection of elements will function in a way that parallels biology, as the design creates interdependence between the disparate elements of the Centre’s programme. Three levels match the three categories of space that are required: public, private and shared space, expressing the relationship between the programmes, while a central, shared atrium provides an incidental meeting area-as-common space.

Like a biological system, the Centre is sustaing life, with light, water and spatial systems creating a connective tissue along which programme needs would be met and energy requirements would be achieved. As a progressive organization, the Mosaic Family of Companies expressed that sustainability would be a fundamental consideration for the facility. Setting net zero energy as the goal, holistic sustainability strategies have been employed at every level of design, even if a net zero is challenging to achieve in a northern climate.

”However, by implementing key strategies, we hope to achieve Living Building as well as LEED Platinum certification. These strategies include the provision of a high- performance building envelope and minimal mechanical/electrical systems that will work together to form an integrated response to the building’s physical environment”-said the architects.

About the speaker

Alexandru Vasiliu graduated Ion Mincu University of Architecture in 2011 and began working in the field of social architecture in Romania while attending the anthropology master degree at SNSPA. Starting 2016, Alexandru is a phd. candidate at Ion Mincu University in Bucharest.

In 2013 he starts working for Manasc Isaac Architects in the Edmonton and Galgary offices on projects such as the Mosaic Centre for a Conscious Community and Commerce, Flotek ULC., Myntex etc. Working and learning in an office that shares the same core values: an integrated approach, focused on sustainability and the design of engaging, dynamic environments and acquiring the knowledge to do so while being frugal with resources, Alecsandru returned to Romania where he, alongside Ana-Dora Matei, founded Latitudine 53 by Manasc Isaac. Since 2015 Alexandru is a licensed architect in Romania.

The first Romanian project – the interior design of their Bucharest office, which brought to life an old apartament in the centre of Bucharest using very few resources and exploring the spaces and textures offered by simple and cheap materials, won a nomination at the Bucharest Architecture Biennale in 2016.  Since then the office is working on various projects in Romania and abroad using the same design philosophy.

AWARDS

• Nomination to the section of Architecture interior to Architecture Biennale, Bucharest, 2016 (for Latitudine 53 office)
• Consulting engineers of Alberta Ahowcase Award of Excellence 2016 (for pcl builiding one)
• Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (cisc-icca) Collaboration Award at the 2015 Alberta Steel Design Awards (for mosaic centre for a conscious community & commerce)
• 2015 Cansia Game Changer Award – solar pv project of the year (for mosaic centre for a conscious community & commerce)
• Alberta Construction Magazine Top projects 2014 – Sustainability Award (for Mosaic Centre for a Conscious Community & Commerce)
• Alberta Construction Magazine Top Projects Award, commercial design category (Eastgate Offices for Environment Canada)
• Prairie Wood Design Award, jury’s choice (for the net-zero-ready Beverly Heights House)