587 Avonhead Road, a 360,000 square foot industrial building in Mississauga, Ontario, stands out not just for its impressive size, but also for its sustainability. As one of the first design-certified net-zero carbon industrial buildings in Ontario, it
combines both aesthetic appeal and eco-friendly features, making it a leader in sustainable design. The building's exterior envelope features insulated metal wall panels from Kingspan Insulated Panels.
The building was designed by Baldassarra Architects. To achieve goals related to both form and function, the firm utilized 6,100 square feet of Kingspan’s QuadCore® Optimo panels in Ascot White, along with an additional 94,000 square feet of
Kingspan’s KS Shadowline panels in the same color, and 7,200 square feet in Dove Gray.
The QuadCore Optimo panels from Kingspan provide a sleek, modern building envelope solution. Their use of pearlescent micas or metallic colors lends the structure a dynamic finish, while the KS Series panels offer a range of profiles and high thermal
performance. Adjustable module widths add distinct architectural flair, and trimless ends and pre-formed corners ensure a clean, finished appearance. This flexibility contributed significantly to the building’s overall design.
Given the scale of the project, IMPs provided an economical and efficient way to achieve both sustainability and design goals. Kingspan’s panels increased the effective R-value and minimized thermal bridging, which was essential for meeting the
Thermal Energy Demand Intensity requirements of the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building Design Certification.
These design and sustainability features also contributed to boosting the building’s LEED points under the optimized energy performance category, making 587 Avonhead one of the first industrial buildings in Ontario to achieve the ZCB Design Certification.
This marks a significant step toward more sustainable industrial developments in the region.
Michael Baldassarra of Baldassarra Architects explains, “Achieving net-zero carbon is a newer system that the industry is trying to target by focusing on high levels of energy efficiency and embodied carbon. Using insulated metal panels is really
the way to go when you're trying to create net-zero carbon buildings – they make satisfying the criteria much easier.”
The design of 587 Avonhead also incorporates Kingspan’s IMPs to meet specific aesthetic requirements, particularly around the corner entrance of the building, where a mirrored structure will be built just to the south.
According to Baldassarra, the corner entrance was a focal point of the design process. “This is where most of the effort was put cost-wise, as it was really important to spruce up this corner entrance. We went with horizontal IMPs to frame the entrance
and give it that nice, clean look. We generally use horizontal IMPs when we have a little more of an aesthetic requirement.”
As you move beyond the corner entrance, IMPs continue to add visual interest across the length of the warehouse. The varied gray and white colors in a vertical orientation break up the long wall and enhance the massing of the building. The flexibility
of the IMPs made them an ideal choice for these design elements.
Baldassarra notes, “If you look at the elevations, there are these thin vertical windows on multiple sides of the building embedded within the IMPs. In most of our buildings, this is vision glass, bringing natural light into the warehouse. On this
building in particular, it is actually all built-in solar panels incorporated to achieve the net-zero carbon certification. It was easy to incorporate them with IMPs compared to other building materials because they fit easily within the modules of
the panels. With concrete and other materials, you wouldn’t have the same level of flexibility.”
587 Avonhead Road sets a high standard for the future of sustainable industrial buildings, blending energy efficiency, aesthetic appeal, and advanced building materials to create a model of modern construction.