M’Akola TS’I’TS’UWATUL’ LELUM Residence

The Opportunity

The Ts’i’ts’uwatul’ Lelum (pronounced Ts-ee-tsu-wa-tul Lay-lum) residence, located on Cowichan Band land, south of the City of Duncan, is a 52,000 square foot residence constructed by the M’akola Housing Society, BC Housing and Vancouver Island Health Association.

The Approach

The Ts’i’ts’uwatul’ Lelum (pronounced Ts-ee-tsu-wa-tul Lay-lum) residence, located on Cowichan Band land, south of the City of Duncan, is a 52,000 square foot residence constructed by the M’akola Housing Society, BC Housing and Vancouver Island Health Association.

The name Ts’i’ts’uwatul’ Lelum is Hul’qumi’num for, “home for helping each other”, and the residence was built to serve people with disabilities as well as Band Elders in a culturally-sensitive environment.

The building was designed to a LEED® Silver standard and contains 50 residential units, dining rooms, a craft room, outdoor gathering space, laundry facilities, as well as lounge and theatre.

Westbrook provided the detailed design of the site servicing, site grading, and storm water management for this LEED® project.

The soil conditions on the site are such that a high level of infiltration can be achieved, and thus, Westbrook designed a storm water management system that allowed all of the runoff from the site to be directed into the ground. Rain water runoff from the roof is directed to a pond, located behind the building, where it infiltrates to the ground below. Runoff from the parking area is directed to permeable pavers, which treats the hydrocarbons in the runoff through microbial digestion before infiltration.

The project was completed in 2012.

Key Personnel: Bruce Crawshaw; Phil Cerrer