MacIsaac Health Building Opens at UBC Vancouver

The MacIsaac Health Building, which opened last week, will create a new arrival experience for the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The landmark building establishes a clear and welcoming entrance to the campus while reflecting the university’s commitments to sustainability, Musqueam engagement, and student wellbeing.

The approximately 25,000 m² facility brings together a diverse mix of academic and research functions related to health sciences. The design encourages movement, social interaction, and interdisciplinary collaboration through its open circulation network and six-storey skylit atrium, that serves as the vibrant social heart of the building. Access to daylight, views to landscape, healthy materials, and a variety of formal and informal gathering spaces support the wellbeing of students, faculty, staff, and visitors.

Sustainability was a foundational ambition of the project, and mass timber plays a central role in the building's low-carbon strategy. Beyond reducing embodied carbon, the exposed timber structure reflects the Pacific Northwest's rich building traditions and contributes warmth, character, and a strong connection to place. 

The UBC Vancouver campus is located on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. In recognition of this, Musqueam representatives helped shape the design and landscape of the MacIsaac Health Building.

“As a new front door to the UBC campus, the MacIsaac Health Building demonstrates how architecture can express institutional values while enriching human experience. Bringing together learning, research, sustainability, and wellbeing, it creates a welcoming destination for the university community and future generations,” says Kasper Heiberg Frandsen, Partner at Schmidt Hammer Lassen.