Shape Architecture Completes Menno Hall at the Gateway to UBC
Shape Architecture is pleased to announce the completion of Menno Hall, a new mixed-use project in the University Endowment Lands, directly across from the gateway to the University of British Columbia.
Conceived as a place where living, learning and community overlap, Menno Hall brings together Pax House student housing, additional rental housing, and the Peacebridge Institute, which includes lecture and administrative spaces. The project’s varied programs are unified through a clear architectural language, creating a cohesive new presence at this important threshold between the University Endowment Lands and the UBC campus.
Materiality and environmental performance are central to the design. The building incorporates cross-laminated timber, bringing warmth, texture and a strong expression of structure to the project while supporting a lower-carbon approach to construction. Designed to meet BC Energy Step Code 4, Menno Hall pairs high-performance building systems with passive and landscape-based strategies.
The project’s relationship to water and landscape is expressed through a rainwater collection grotto and green roof, both of which contribute to stormwater management while enriching the experience of the site. These elements move beyond purely technical performance, becoming part of the architectural character of the project and reinforcing a close connection between building and landscape.
At the urban scale, Menno Hall responds to its prominent gateway location with a strong civic presence while maintaining a sense of warmth and domesticity appropriate to its residential uses. The composition of academic, administrative and housing programs creates activity throughout the day and supports a layered community of students, residents, educators and visitors.
Rather than treating sustainability as a separate system, the design integrates structure, envelope, landscape and water management into a unified architectural approach. The result is a project shaped equally by performance, material expression and the social life it supports.
Shape is proud to have collaborated with an exceptional team in bringing Menno Hall, the Peacebridge Institute and Pax House to completion.
