Canadian Architect August 2017 by IQ Business Media

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NIC LEHOUX

RECREATION CENTRES

CANADIAN ARCHITECT

AUGUST 2017

6 VIEWPOINT

Editor Elsa Lam on the perceived conflict between preserving heritage properties and constructing new buildings.

11 NEWS

National Arts Centre opens new addition; Harriet Burdett-Moulton, FRAIC receives honorary doctorate; Moriyama RAIC International Prize Scholarship winners announced.

13 RAIC JOURNAL

22 GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS AQUATIC CENTRE HCMA Architecture + Design creates a pool with a long-spanning, wave-like roof

made of slender wood beams. TEXT Deborah Niski

30 CONESTOGA COLLEGE STUDENT RECREATION CENTRE A renovation and addition by MJMA transforms a barrel-vaulted 1970s arena into a light-filled gymnasium. TEXT Chloe Town

Moriyama RAIC International Prize shortlist announced; panelists at the 2017 RAIC/OAA Festival of Architecture weigh in on the future of urban design in Canada.

43 INSITES

Shannon Moore travels to GrandMétis, Quebec, to report on new installations at Reford Gardens’ annual International Garden Festival.

47 BOOKS

Marie-Josée Therrien reviews Many Norths, by Lola Sheppard and Mason White, MRAIC .

49 CALENDAR

38 BOULEVARD CLUB WEST WING REPLACEMENT SCOTT NORSWORTHY

SHAI GIL

Teeple Architects updates a century-old private club with a sculptural contemporary addition. TEXT Samantha Armitage

Architectural tours in Winnipeg; a Vancouver exhibition pays homage to Bing Thom.

50 BACKPAGE

Garth Norbratan, MRAIC reflects on an exquisite abbey complex near Winnipeg.

COVER Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre, by HCMA Architecture + Design. Photo by Nic Lehoux.

V.62 N.08 THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE / THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE RAIC

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VIEWPOINT

LEFT From left to right, host Paul Kennedy moderates a CBC Ideas panel with Julia Gersovitz, Elsa Lam, Brian MacKay-Lyons and Jean Carroon.

Building Tension In the public imagination, heritage and contemporary architecture are at perpetual loggerheads. It’s a familiar battle: old versus new, preservationists versus bulldozers, Jane Jacobs versus Robert Moses. And it’s seen in the title of a CBC Ideas panel that I participated in, recorded during the ICOMOS Canada conference in Halifax last May. The panel—“Building Tension: Preserving the Past and Constructing the Future”—implies an opposition of past versus future. Which one will win out? As practitioners working with the built environment know, things are rarely so straightforward. Buildings are complex, and so are their contexts: urban, economic, societal and otherwise. Pure preservation is at times warranted, as is complete demolition of older structures. But often, there are other options that merit consideration—solutions that include some elements of both the past and future. This flexible attitude is exemplified in the work of the Ideas panelists. Jean Carroon, principal at Goody Clancy, is among America’s premier heritage architects. Among other projects, she’s known for her ongoing work at Boston’s Trinity Church. The multi-stage renewal process has prioritized the conservation and restoration of H.H. Richardson’s masterwork. But in the process, it’s also underpinned the basement to create a suite of new gathering areas and classrooms, upgraded mechanical systems, added a geothermal heat exchange field, and integrated new life-safety solutions—renovations that ensure the church’s longevity and help it better serve present-day congregants. Julia Gersovitz, FRAIC, principal of Montreal-based EVOQ (formerly FGMDA), started her career working on the Maison Alcan with ARCOP. Her work focused on preserving a set of historic buildings that were linked to a new aluminum-clad tower by a common atrium. The strategy marked a new approach to architectural heritage in Montreal. Currently, Gersovitz is working on the rehabilitation of Parliament Hill’s West Block—a complex project that includes inserting a contemporary,

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skylit interim House of Commons into the building’s large central courtyard. As a contemporary architect, Brian MacKayLyons, FRAIC retains many ties to the past. His houses embody the “critical regionalism” championed by architectural historian Kenneth Frampton, an approach that draws on a regional vernacular and reinterprets it in contemporary form. In McKay-Lyons’s work, this means looking to use local materials, siting strategies, and craft techniques. The resulting projects have a timeless quality: they are very much of the present as well as being grounded in the past. While Canada is a relatively young country, our stock of older buildings is increasingly coming up against contemporary realities of maintenance costs, societal changes, and development pressures. Each site has its own story. The broader our toolkit for dealing with older buildings, the greater the chance we will have for finding solutions that accommodate both the heritage past and the changing future. Listen to the CBC Ideas episode at: bit.ly/ CdnArchCBC As this issue goes to press, I am preparing to go on maternity leave. Adele Weder, Hon. MRAIC will be taking the position of editor of Canadian Architect during my absence. Weder has been a long-time contributor to Canadian Architect, and is the magazine’s regional correspondent representing Vancouver. Trained in journalism and architecture, her experience in the field goes back to being editor for Insite: Architecture + Design magazine. She is a contributor to numerous publications, and is the co-author of books on B.C. Binning, Selwyn Pullan, and Ron Thom. She recently curated the exhibition Ron Thom and the Allied Arts, which toured venues across Canada. Weder and I have been working closely to transition editorial responsibilities and processes, and she will be leading the magazine starting with the September issue. Elsa Lam

EDITOR ELSA LAM, MRAIC ART DIRECTOR ROY GAIOT ASSISTANT EDITOR SHANNON MOORE EDITORIAL ADVISOR IAN CHODIKOFF, OAA, FRAIC CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ANNMARIE ADAMS, FRAIC ODILE HÉNAULT DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB, MRAIC REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS HALIFAX CHRISTINE MACY, OAA REGINA BERNARD FLAMAN, SAA MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, MRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, MRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER, HON. MRAIC VICE PRESIDENT & SENIOR PUBLISHER STEVE WILSON 416-441-2085 x105 SALES MANAGER FARIA AHMED 416-441-2085 x106 CUSTOMER SERVICE / PRODUCTION LAURA MOFFATT 416-441-2085 x104 CIRCULATION CIRCULATION@CANADIANARCHITECT.COM PRESIDENT OF IQ BUSINESS MEDIA INC. ALEX PAPANOU HEAD OFFICE 101 DUNCAN MILL ROAD, SUITE 302 TORONTO, ON M3B 1Z3 TELEPHONE 416-441-2085 E-MAIL info@canadianarchitect.com WEBSITE www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published monthly by iQ Business Media Inc.. The editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and authoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose. Subscription Rates Canada: $54.95 plus applicable taxes for one year; $87.95 plus applicable taxes for two years (HST – #80456 2965 RT0001). Price per single copy: $6.95. Students (prepaid with student ID, includes taxes): $27.00 for one year. USA: $105.95 US for one year. All other foreign: $125.95 US per year. Single copy US and foreign: $10.00 US. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Dept., Canadian Architect, 101 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 302 Toronto, ON M3B 1Z3. Postmaster: please forward forms 29B and 67B to 101 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 302 Toronto, ON M3B 1Z3. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner. From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Telephone 416-441-2085 x104 E-mail circulation@canadianarchitect.com Mail Circulation, 101 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 302, Toronto, ON M3B 1Z3 MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN BUSINESS PRESS MEMBER OF THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #43096012 ISSN 1923-3353 (ONLINE) ISSN 0008-2872 (PRINT)

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Bill Fisch Forest Stewardship and Education Centre York, Ontario Arctitect: DIALOG

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George George Brown Brown College College

SAS SAS

School School ofof Architectural Architectural Studies Studies

THETHE POWER POWER OF OF DOING DOING TOGETHER. TOGETHER.

CO-OPERATIVE CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING LEARNING PROGRAM PROGRAM

architectural architectural technology technology co-op co-op program program at SAS at SAS allows allows students students to to TheThe participate participate in ain 4-month a 4-month work work experience experience made made possible possible by industry by industry partners partners willing willing to host to host andand mentor mentor students students in ain paid a paid work work term. term.

Thirty Thirty (30)(30) co-op co-op students students accepted accepted in the in the co-op co-op program program have have qualified qualified by way by way of aofcompetitive a competitive divisional divisional select select process. process.

SASSAS offers offers an excellent an excellent hands-on hands-on curriculum curriculum withwith thethe ideal ideal mixmix of design of design thinking, thinking, technical technical abilities abilities andand workplace workplace skills. skills. Combining Combining architectural architectural andand team team skills skills withwith a strong a strong work work ethic, ethic, co-op co-op opportunities opportunities allow allow SASSAS students students to apply to apply school school knowledge knowledge in practical in practical work work settings, settings, hone hone important important work work skills, skills, andand begin begin to develop to develop their their career career goals. goals. Together Together withwith a strong a strong knowledge knowledge of building of building code code andand building building science, science, SASSAS students students alsoalso possess possess a robust a robust fluency fluency in AutoCad® in AutoCad® andand Revit®. Revit®.

Co-op Co-op students students areare in their in their 3rd3rd andand final final yearyear of of studies. studies.

Benefits Benefits to employers: to employers: • • • • • •

• Access to a pool of technically skilled and highly motivated Access to a pool of technically skilled and highly motivated individuals individuals • A cost-effective way to manage seasonal demands and A cost-effective way to manage seasonal demands and project-oriented project-oriented work work • Low risk opportunity to “test out” students for potential fullLow risk opportunity to “test out” students for potential fulltimetime hirehire upon upon graduation graduation • Pipeline for developing a diverse workforce Pipeline for developing a diverse workforce • Connect to institutions of higher learning Connect to institutions of higher learning • Government Government tax tax credit credit for eligible for eligible businesses. businesses.

Work Work withwith thethe School School of Architectural of Architectural Studies Studies to support to support youryour business business andand helphelp ourour students students gaingain valuable valuable work work experience. experience.

Students Students must must work work a minimum a minimum 560560 hours hours in in order order to earn to earn their their co-op co-op credit credit Students Students must must be in betheir in their co-op co-op placement placement no no later later than than FallFall 2017 2017 semester. semester. Upon Upon completion completion of required of required 560560 hours, hours, students students areare available available for for a “Flexible” a “Flexible” work work term term through through thethe months months of January of January to April, to April, by way by way of an of arrangement an arrangement directly directly between between thethe student student andand thethe employer employer to work to work part-time part-time while while completing completing their their final final semester semester courses courses online. online. TheThe Government Government of Ontario of Ontario allows allows a tax a tax credit credit for for eligible eligible businesses businesses thatthat hirehire students students from from George George Brown Brown College’s College’s Co-operative Co-operative Education Education Program. Program. TheThe co-operative co-operative education education taxtax credit credit reimburses reimburses businesses businesses up up to atomaximum a maximum of $2000 of $2000 for for each each work work placement. placement.

SASSAS Co-op Co-op opportunities opportunities available available Contact: Contact: ilotech@georgebrown.ca ilotech@georgebrown.ca

INDUSTRY INDUSTRY LIAISON LIAISON OFFICEOFFICE

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Co-op Co-op students students areare available available for for a 15-week a 15-week work work term term from from September September to December. to December.

More More taxtax credit credit infoinfo at. at. http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/credit/cetc/ http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/credit/cetc/

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PROJECTS

On July 1st, the National Arts Centre (NAC) inaugurated a new building wing by Diamond Schmitt Architects. The addition includes public spaces and an entry that connects the NAC to Confederation Square and the Parliamentary Precinct in Ottawa. The transparent architecture of the new wing stands in contrast to the fortress-like mass of the existing structure. Designed by Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold & Sise in the late 1960s, the NAC was originally intended to face the Rideau Canal, and to be accessed primarily by car. The addition includes an exposed wood structure, with Douglas fir ceiling coffers and a custom glass curtain wall system. The Kipnis Lantern, a luminous beacon at the entry, is digitally enabled to live-stream artistic productions from the NAC as well as from across Canada. Public spaces for education, pre-concert gatherings and small concerts occupy the new north atrium. An upper level lounge takes in views of Confederation Square and Parliament Hill. Renovations were also completed to the main auditorium, and the canal-facing Panorama Room has been expanded. A transformed Fourth Stage, which serves as an incubator for theatre and music, will be completed in the autumn. www.dsai.ca

AWARDS Winners of New Brunswick 2017 Lieutenant Governor Awards in Architecture announced.

The New Brunswick 2017 Lieutenant Governor Award of Excellence in Architecture has been presented to Acre Architects for their design of Into the Wild, a house in Saint John. The Award of Excellence in Architecture is given every three years. It celebrates outstanding architectural design in recently completed projects by New Brunswick architects and recognizes the important role architecture has in building and inspiring communities across the province. A jury of local, national and international experts selected this year’s recipients from the 13 submissions received. Awards of Merit were presented to exp. Architects Inc. for their renewal of the C.E. (Nick) Nicolle Community Centre, Saint John; Design Plus Architecture Inc. for their design of CBC Radio Canada, Moncton; and to Acre Architects for their design of Tinkers Apple Orchard, Kingston Peninsula. The

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LISA LOGAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Renovated National Arts Centre by Diamond Schmitt Architects opens in Ottawa.

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

NEWS

ABOVE A new addition by Diamond Schmitt reorients the landmark National Arts Centre to face Confederation Square and the Parliamentary Precinct.

awards ceremony was held at Government House in Fredericton, New Brunswick. www.raic.org

Call for submissions to Municipal Urban Design Awards programs.

The National Urban Design Awards of the RAIC, the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) will recognize excellence in urban design and demonstrate its importance to the general public. The Urban Design Awards program was established in 2006 to acknowledge individuals, organizations, firms and projects that have contributed to the quality of life and sustainability in Canadian cities. The two-tiered program is a co-operative venture between the RAIC, CIP, CSLA and Canadian municipalities. In the first year of a two-year cycle, Canadian municipalities are administering local Urban Design Award Programs. In the second year, the RAIC, CIP, and CSLA will conduct a National Urban Design Awards program. Participants will include the winners from Canadian municipalities as well as an open competition, so that worthy initiatives undertaken in other communities across Canada may also be recognized. The following cities have established local urban design award programs which are currently open for submissions: Ottawa (deadline August 10), Edmonton (August 15), Calgary (September 5), Vaughan (September 22), Niagara Region (October), Vancouver (December), Surrey (December 22), Mississauga (May 14, 2018). Deadlines have already passed for competitions in Hamilton, London, Mount Pearl and Toronto. Competition dates are yet to be announced for municipal competitions in Brampton, Kitchener, Oakville, Oshawa, Richmond and Waterloo. www.raic.org

WHAT’S NEW RAIC Indigenous Task Force says that former U.S. Embassy is not culturally appropriate for Indigenous Centre.

The former United States Embassy building in Ottawa is not a culturally appropriate space for an Indigenous Centre, says the Indigenous Task Force of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). “Indigenous people always get the handme-downs: the buildings and land that settlers no longer have a use for,” says the task force, comprised of about 30 architects, architectural students, interns and academics, most of whom are Indigenous. “Canada’s Indigenous communities have, for too long, been forced into leftover spaces that fail to connect in any meaningful way to their cultures.” On National Aboriginal Day, June 21, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the former embassy will become a space dedicated to Inuit, Métis and First Nations communities. The heritage building at 100 Wellington Street, located directly across the street from Parliament Hill, has been empty for 18 years. “On a positive note, the site is one of powerful significance and symbolic of a maturing nation-to-nation relationship built on mutual respect,” says the task force. “However, there is also an equally significant discord between the building itself and the values of Canada’s Indigenous communities.” Classical revival is perhaps the architectural style most identified with colonization. The building, which references governmental architecture in Washington, is laid out with formal rooms and offices, echoing structures of European authority. “It is not the first choice of Canada’s First People,” says the task force. However, if the federal government moves forward with the idea, the task force suggests

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

NEWS that the site, with vacant land on both sides, may offer an opportunity to either construct a new purpose-built structure or repurpose the existing building. “We invite Canada to open a meaningful dialogue, one which recognizes the sacredness of the land and place, and which begins with a vision of what an Indigenous Centre in the nation’s capital might be.”

Thom’s original design while working within the client’s limited budget. Burdett-Moulton was born and raised in Labrador and was the second female graduate architect from Nova Scotia Technical University. Currently living full-time in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, she continues to work remotely with Stantec’s Iqaluit office. www.ocadu.ca

www.raic.org

OAA launches call for presenters. Harriet Burdett-Moulton receives honorary doctorate from OCAD University.

Architect Harriet Burdett-Moulton, FRAIC received an honorary doctorate from OCAD University at their convocation ceremonies at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on June 9. Burdett-Moulton is a Métis architect with primarily Inuit and Montagnais roots, whose work in Northern Canada has used an approach that involves and educates clients in the design process. Her extensive portfolio includes Piqqusilirivvik Inuit Cultural Learning Facility in Clyde River on Baffin Island, and St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit, for which she led the redesign after a fire in 2005. For St. Jude’s, she aimed to maintain the cathedral’s cultural heritage and Ron

CA Aug 17.indd 12

The Ontario Association of Architects invites individuals and organizations to submit proposals for continuing education sessions and tours for the 2018 OAA Conference. The three-day annual conference will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from May 23-25, 2018. Presentation and tour proposals are due by September 29, 2017. www.oaa.on.ca

Three students win Moriyama RAIC International Prize Scholarships.

The RAIC and the RAIC Foundation have announced the three winners of the 2017 Moriyama RAIC International Prize Scholarships. They are Osman Bari of the University of Wat-

erloo; Alykhan Neky of Ryerson University; and Tanya Southcott of McGill University. Each has won a $5,000 scholarship for writing an illustrated 1,000-word essay on the moment that they decided to become an architect, or that they knew their decision to become an architect was the right one. The scholarships are presented in conjunction with the Moriyama RAIC International Prize, the winner of which will be announced in September. www.raic.org

TO DO calls for exhibitors and speakers.

The Toronto Design Offsite Festival has launched calls for exhibitors and speakers for its annual event, which takes place in Toronto from January 15-21, 2018. Exhibitors are invited to create independently produced events, displays, and window installations during the festival week. Designers and artists can make submissions for Matter, a curated group exhibition held at Craft Ontario Gallery that considers the long life of materials, and qualities such as reuse and endurance. Submissions are also open for speakers for a symposium that considers the future landscape of work. Submissions are due September 22, 2017. www.todesignoffsite.com

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Tickets are on sale for the 2017 Moriyama RAIC International Prize Gala. Architects and industry professionals from across the country will come together in Toronto on September 19 to honour the winner of the Moriyama RAIC International Prize and to celebrate the prize’s values of social justice, respect and inclusiveness. Visit Moriyama.raic.org for details and to purchase a ticket. Les billets pour assister au gala du Prix international Moriyama IRAC 2017 sont maintenant en vente. Des architectes et des membres de professions connexes de tout le pays se réuniront à Toronto, le 19 septembre, pour rendre hommage au lauréat du Prix international Moriyama IRAC et pour célébrer les valeurs de justice sociale, de respect et d’inclusitivé qui sont rattachées à ce prix. Pour un supplément d’information et pour acheter un billet, visitez le site Moriyama.raic.org

The RAIC Emerging Practitioners group is offering webinars in September and October on Bidding and Contract Award, Contract Administration and the National Building Code Sections 6 & 9. Register at www.raic.org Le groupe Relève professionnelle de l’IRAC offre des webinaires en septembre et octobre sur l’appel d’offres et l’attribution du contrat; l’administration du contrat; et les sections 6 et 9 du Code national du bâtiment. Pour s’inscrire : www.raic.org

Save the date! The 2018 Festival of Architecture will take place May 30 to June 2, 2018, in Saint John, New Brunswick. Details are coming soon at festival2018.raic.org Notez la date! Le Festival d’architecture 2018 aura lieu du 30 mai au 2 juin, à Saint John, NouveauBrunswick. Visitez régulièrement le site festival2018.raic.org pour connaître les dernières nouvelles sur cet événement.

The RAIC Journal is produced by the RAIC and published by Canadian Architect. Le Journal de l’IRAC est produit par l’IRAC et publié par Canadian Architect.

The RAIC is the leading voice for excellence in the built environment in Canada, demonstrating how design enhances the quality of life, while addressing important issues of society through responsible architecture. www.raic.org L’IRAC est le principal porte-parole en faveur de l’excellence du cadre bâti au Canada. Il démontre comment la conception améliore la qualité de vie tout en tenant compte d’importants enjeux sociétaux par la voie d’une architecture responsable. www.raic.org/fr

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RAIC Journal Journal de l’IRAC

Kateri LucierLaboucan is a member of the Little Red River Cree Nation in Northern Alberta. She is an architectural technologist and is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in architecture and Indigenous studies at the University of Toronto.

Alors, ils nous ont rendu une partie de nos terres ... Ils auraient pu enlever leur emblème! Le paradoxe du 100 Wellington : réconciliation sans consultation Kateri LucierLaboucan est membre de la Little Red River Cree Nation dans le nord de l’Alberta. Elle est technologue en architecture et elle poursuit actuellement des études de premier cycle en architecture et études autochtones à l’Université de Toronto.

Maria Cook Editor, RAIC Journal Rédactrice en chef, Journal de l’IRAC

In a recent survey, RAIC members told us that we can’t leave business out of the practice of architecture. Almost 80 percent said they want business and career support from the RAIC, including continuing education in project management, business development and staff retention. The RAIC’s next step is more analysis and in-depth study of this data. It will influence the board’s approach to both strategic and programming decisions, as well as investment. A snapshot of preliminary results: • Members place high value on the designation, quality education and practice support like the CHOP and practice documents; • Almost 90 percent of respondents agreed the RAIC should create service offerings that correspond to members’ needs at each stage of their career; • A third of non-member respondents said career support would be a reason for becoming a member.

Dans un récent sondage, les membres de l’IRAC nous ont dit que nous ne pouvions exclure les aspects administratifs et financiers de la pratique de l’architecture. Près de 80 pour cent ont déclaré qu’ils souhaitaient un soutien à l’entreprise et à la carrière de la part de l’IRAC, notamment par de la formation continue en gestion de projet, en développement des affaires et en rétention du personnel. Dans les prochaines étapes, nous procéderons à une analyse plus approfondie des résultats de ce sondage qui influenceront l’approche du conseil d’administration par rapport aux décisions stratégiques, aux programmes et aux investissements. Voici un aperçu des résultats préliminaires : • les membres accordent une grande valeur à la désignation, à la formation continue de qualité et aux divers outils d’aide à la pratique, comme le MCPA et les documents d’aide à la pratique; • près de 90 pour cent des répondants conviennent que l’IRAC devrait créer et offrir des services correspondant aux besoins des membres à chaque étape de leur carrière; • le tiers des répondants non membres de l’IRAC ont déclaré que le soutien à la carrière serait une raison qui les inciterait à devenir membres.

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RAIC Journal

Journal de l’IRAC

On September 19, one of four shortlisted projects will be named winner of the 2017 Moriyama RAIC International Prize at a gala in Toronto. Visit Moriyama.raic.org for details and to purchase a ticket. Le 19 septembre, l’un des quatre projets finalistes sera nommé lauréat du Prix international Moriyama IRAC, lors d’un gala qui se tiendra à Toronto. Pour un supplément d’information et pour acheter un billet, visitez le site Moriyama.raic.org.

Fuji Kindergarten Tokyo, Japan École maternelle Fuji Tokyo, Japon

Katsuhisa Kida/FOTOTECA

L’école maternelle Fuji est un bâtiment d’un étage situé dans la banlieue tokyoïte de Tachikawa qui accueille des enfants de deux à six ans. Sa toiture de forme ovale entoure une cour intérieure et sert d’aire de jeu où les quelque 600 enfants peuvent courir, parfois même jusqu’à six kilomètres par jour. Les enfants grimpent dans les arbres zelkovas qui poussent à travers la structure et une glissoire les ramène au niveau du sol.

Tezuka Architects Date of occupancy: 2007 Site: 4,790 square metres Building: 1,420 square metres Construction budget: $4 million CAD Fuji Kindergarten is a one-storey kindergarten for children aged two to six, located in the Tokyo suburb of Tachikawa. The oval-shaped rooftop encloses an internal courtyard and serves as an open-air play deck where up to 600 youngsters race around, some covering six kilometres a day. They climb the three pre-existing Zelkova trees that grow through the structure, and can descend from the roof to the ground on a slide. The building is designed to support the Montessori education method which encourages independence and freedom. There are no inner walls or clear boundaries between classrooms —1.8-metre-high panels indicate different areas and boxes are used as furniture. Instead of outer walls, there are glass doors that are open for two-thirds of the year, permitting free access in and out.

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In what is one of the largest kindergartens in Japan, the principal reports that the school’s approach encourages calmness and focus, including in children with behavioural disorders. The architects say: “We want the children raised here to grow into people who do not exclude anything or anyone.”

Jury Comments “This is an extraordinarily positive place—a giant playhouse filled with joy and energy, scaled to a broad range of the human condition.” “This architecture in its simplicity and uniqueness embodies a pedagogical ideology of early education.” “The limitless structure of the space liberates the child’s imagination.” Tezuka Architects

Le bâtiment est conçu en appui à la pédagogie Montessori, une méthode d’éducation qui favorise l’indépendance et la liberté. Il ne comporte aucun mur intérieur ou limites claires entre les classes—des panneaux d’une hauteur de 1,8 mètre indiquent les différentes zones et des boîtes servent de meubles. Plutôt que des murs extérieurs, le bâtiment comprend des portes coulissantes vitrées qui sont ouvertes huit mois par année et permettent de circuler librement entre l’intérieur et l’extérieur. Le directeur de cette école maternelle, l’une des plus grandes du Japon, souligne que l’approche de l’école favorise le calme et la concentration, y compris chez les enfants atteints de troubles de comportement. « Nous voulons que les enfants éduqués ici deviennent des êtres humains qui n’excluent rien ni personne », disent les architectes.

Commentaires du jury « C’est un endroit extraordinairement positif— un terrain de jeu géant empli de joie et d’énergie, adapté à une grande diversité de la condition humaine. » « Cette architecture, dans sa simplicité et sa particularité, incarne une idéologie pédagogique d’éducation préscolaire. » « L’espace ouvert à l’infini libère l’imagination des enfants. »

Date d’occupation : 2007 Emplacement : 4 790 mètres carrés Bâtiment : 1 420 mètres carrés Budget de construction : 4 millions $ CA

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Journal de l’IRAC

Jens Lindhe

8 House Copenhagen, Denmark Complexe 8 House Copenhague, Danemark

BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)

Jury Comments

Date of occupancy: 2011 Size: 62,000 square metres Construction budget: $107.9 million CAD

“This is a bold and beautifully integrated mix of multi-generational housing and universally accessible design.”

The 8 House is a mixed-use development in the suburb of Ørestad outside of Copenhagen. It is situated beside parkland and the Copenhagen Canal, where residents can skate and kayak. The building’s 475 residential units, both rental and owned, offer a range of apartments of varying sizes, from penthouses to townhouses, to accommodate young and old, growing and shrinking families, as well as singles. Housing rests above public, commercial and retail programs—such as offices, a kindergarten and a café— which unfold at the base of the building. A universally accessible, continuous public path stretches from street level to the penthouses, allowing people to walk or bike from the ground floor to the top and providing a place for neighbourly interactions.

“8 House is a worthwhile experiment in the development of a new typology to create a vertical mixed-used community.”

The bow-shaped building creates two interior courtyards, separated by the centre of the cross, which houses communal facilities, including a library, an atrium with a grand stair, and a terrace. The shape also allows apartments to benefit from sunlight, air and views. A nine-metre wide passage penetrates the building, giving access through the site and connecting the park area to the west and the channel area to the east.

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“The proposed socio-spatial concept offers a more durable way of densifying housing while maintaining a human scale.” BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) Date d’occupation : 2011 Superficie : 62 000 mètres carrés Budget de construction : 107,9 millions $ CA Le 8 House est un complexe à usage mixte situé dans le quartier Ørestad, en banlieue de Copenhague, à proximité d’un parc et du canal Copenhague, sur lequel les résidents peuvent patiner en hiver et s’adonner au kayak en été. Avec ses 475 logements locatifs et de propriété, le complexe offre des appartements de dimensions et d’aménagements variés, des penthouses et des maisons en rangée pour répondre aux besoins des célibataires, des jeunes et des aînés, des familles en croissance et de celles dont la taille diminue. Les logements sont aux étages supérieurs, le rez-de-chaussée abritant

des bureaux, une garderie et un café et d’autres espaces publics et commerciaux. Un trottoir pour piétons et cyclistes s’étend du niveau de la rue jusqu’aux penthouses et favorise les relations de voisinage. La forme en huit crée deux cours intérieures séparées par le centre de la croix qui abrite des installations communes, dont une bibliothèque, un atrium avec grand escalier et une terrasse. La forme en huit permet aussi aux logements de profiter de la lumière et de l’air naturels et de vues sur l’extérieur. Un passage de neuf mètres de largeur donne l’accès au site et relie le bâtiment avec le parc à l’ouest et le canal à l’est.

Commentaires du jury « C’est une combinaison harmonieuse et joliment intégrée de logements multigénérationnels et de design universel. » « Le 8 House est une expérience très intéressante de développement d’une nouvelle typologie pour créer une communauté verticale à usage mixte. » « Le concept sociospatial du complexe offre une façon plus durable de densifier l’habitation tout en conservant une échelle humaine. »

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Peter Bennetts

Melbourne School of Design University of Melbourne, Australia École de design de Melbourne Université de Melbourne, Australie

John Wardle Architects and NADAAA Date of occupancy: 2014 Size: 14,320 square metres Construction budget: $132 million CAD The project brief for the Melbourne School of Design was to deliver a living pedagogical building exemplifying sustainable design and “transformative teaching.” Home to the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, the entire building is designed as an education tool through the clarity of its materials, tectonics and organization.

The dramatic four-level atrium that rises from the first floor is surrounded by flexible, open studios and is designed to encourage collaborative activities and exchange of knowledge between students, teachers and researchers. Wide corridors provide work spaces and the opportunity for students to see each others’ work. The result of an international competition, the building invites interaction with campus life. A pedestrian thoroughfare crosses the ground floor and open spaces on all four sides have been enhanced. The building received the highest Green Star rating (six stars) not only for its environmental performance but also its societal engagement and project delivery. The building has become the most popular on campus and the atrium is regularly filled with several hundred people, including students from

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all disciplines. The school has become a place where anyone can come to learn about design, education, and sustainability.

de connaissances entre les étudiants, les enseignants et les chercheurs. De larges corridors offrent des espaces de travail et permettent aux étudiants d’observer les travaux des autres.

Jury Comments “The spatial concept of an architecture school has become the social focus of the campus for all students.” It is “a beautifully orchestrated space, thoughtfully detailed and well crafted.” It “redefines the educational mission by engaging students with the entire building as a collaborative learning environment.” John Wardle Architects et NADAAA Date d’occupation : 2014 Superficie : 14 320 mètres carrés Budget de construction : 132 millions $ CA L’énoncé de projet de l’École de design de Melbourne était de réaliser un bâtiment pédagogique vivant qui illustre la conception durable et « l’enseignement transformateur ». Le bâtiment qui abrite la faculté d’architecture, de construction et d’urbanisme est entièrement conçu comme un outil éducatif par la clarté du langage exprimé par les matériaux, la tectonique et l’organisation.

Le spectaculaire atrium qui s’élève sur quatre étages est entouré d’ateliers ouverts et flexibles et vise à favoriser la collaboration et le partage

Résultat d’un concours international, le bâtiment invite à l’interaction avec la vie sur le campus. Une voie piétonne traverse le rez-de-chaussée et les espaces ouverts sur les quatre côtés du bâtiment ont été mis en valeur. Le bâtiment a reçu la cote Green Star la plus élevée (six étoiles) pour sa performance environnementale, son engagement social et son mode de réalisation. Il est devenu le plus populaire sur le campus et l’atrium accueille régulièrement des centaines de personnes, y compris des étudiants de toutes disciplines. L’école est devenue un lieu ou quiconque peut venir apprendre sur le design, l’éducation et la durabilité.

Commentaires du jury « Le concept spatial d’une école d’architecture est devenu l’orientation sociale du campus de l’Université de Melbourne pour tous les étudiants. » C’est « un espace joliment orchestré, judicieusement détaillé et bien exécuté ». Il « redéfinit la mission éducative en mettant les étudiants en contact avec tout le bâtiment dans un milieu d’apprentissage collaboratif ».

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The Village Architect Shobac Campus, Upper Kingsburg, Nova Scotia, Canada L’architecte du village Campus Shobac, Upper Kingsburg, Nouvelle-Écosse, Canada Le campus Shobac s’est créé sur une période de 25 ans dans la région de l’Upper Kingsburg, le long de la côte atlantique pour abriter une école, une ferme et un centre communautaire. Avec l’aide d’amis, de voisins et de collègues, Mackay-Lyons a nettoyé la forêt et découvert des ruines couvrant 400 ans d’histoire agraire.

James Brittain

En 1994, il y a réuni un groupe d’étudiants en architecture pendant deux semaines dans un objectif de rétablir la tradition du maîtrebâtisseur et d’insister sur les valeurs intemporelles du paysage, du bâtiment et de la communauté. Les étudiants ont bâti le premier bâtiment du campus, à l’image de l’archétype d’une maison de ferme. La tradition s’est poursuivie pendant douze années consécutives. Au fil des ans, de nouveaux bâtiments se sont ajoutés, y compris une école des années 1860 et une résidence communautaire. Des bâtiments historiques recyclés côtoient des bâtiments modernes dans une harmonie créée par la palette des matériaux.

Today, Shobac Campus is a vessel for community events, a living school, and a laboratory for the critical study of vernacular building practice.

Aujourd’hui, le campus Shobac est un lieu d’activités communautaires, une école vivante et un laboratoire pour l’étude essentielle des pratiques de construction vernaculaires.

Jury Comments

Commentaires du jury

Over the course of 35 years of practice, Brian MacKay-Lyons, operating as “the village architect,” has built more than 40 houses in the Kingsburg community.

“This campus of simple buildings and complex program commits to a simple yet compelling value system that connects us as equal human beings—a return to basics.”

« Ce campus aux bâtiments simples et au programme complexe établit un système de valeurs simples, mais convaincantes qui nous rapprochent en tant qu’êtres humains égaux— un retour à l’essentiel. »

Shobac Campus in Upper Kingsburg, along the Atlantic coastline, has formed over 25 years, emerging as a school, farm and community centre. With the help of friends, neighbours and colleagues, MacKay-Lyons cleared the forest, revealing historic ruins and uncovering 400 years of agrarian history.

“In this age of specialization, this contrarian initiative questions the architect’s accepted role, and instead suggests a broadening rather than a narrowing of the current scope of practice.”

MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Date of occupancy: 1994 – ongoing Size: Varies Budget: Extreme frugality

In 1994, he gathered a group of architecture students for a two-week event with the aim of reconnecting with the master builder tradition and focusing on the timeless values of landscape, building and community. They erected the first building on the campus. This tradition continued for 12 successive years. New structures have been added over time, including an 1860s schoolhouse. Reclaimed historic structures sit next to modern buildings, unified by their material palette.

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“This is a manifestation of a contemporary vernacular building practice, born out of a deep and lifelong commitment to architecture as a counterpoint to globalization.” MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Date d’occupation : depuis 1994 – en continu Superficie : variée Budget : frugalité extrême

« En cette ère de spécialisation, cette initiative qui va dans le sens contraire remet en question le rôle admis de l’architecte et suggère un champ de pratique qui s’élargit plutôt que de se rétrécir. » « C’est une expression d’une pratique de construction vernaculaire moderne, née d’un engagement profond de toute une vie visant à faire de l’architecture un contrepoint à la mondialisation. » Texts by Maria Cook Textes par Maria Cook

En 35 ans de pratique. Brian MacKay-Lyons, « l’architecte du village », a construit plus de 40 maisons dans le village de Kingsburg.

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Journal de l’IRAC

Festival of Architecture—Urban Design Panel Festival d’Architecture—Panel sur le design urbain Last May at the Festival of Architecture in Ottawa, Roger du Toit, FRAIC, a pioneer of urban design, was named the posthumous recipient of the 2017 RAIC Gold Medal. In his honour, four distinguished panelists discussed the state of urban design in Canada. Here are some of their remarks. With thanks to Alex Bozikovic, of the Globe and Mail, for serving as moderator. Pendant le Festival d’architecture qui s’est tenu à Ottawa en mai dernier, Roger du Toit, FRAIC, un pionnier du design urbain, a reçu à titre posthume la Médaille d’or de l’IRAC 2017. En son honneur, quatre panélistes de renom ont discuté de l’état du design urbain au Canada. Voici certains de leurs commentaires. Nos remerciements à Alex Bozikovic, du Globe and Mail, qui a agi comme modérateur.

Architect and urban designer Renée Daoust, FIRAC, together with her partner Réal Lestage, founded Daoust Lestage in 1988. Architecte et urbaniste Renée Daoust, FIRAC, et son associé Réal Lestage ont fondé la firme Daoust Lestage en 1988.

responsabilité civique associée aux interventions qui façonnent nos villes et qui se déploient sur des kilomètres? Le défi n’est-il pas encore plus grand lorsque les systèmes sont visibles au niveau du sol ou qu’ils sont surélevés?

Urban transit in Bordeaux and Toronto Transport urbain à Bordeaux et à Toronto

Renée Daoust I would like to share some thoughts about transportation projects. To me, these represent an incredible opportunity in Canada to showcase, now and in the years to come, state-of-the-art urban design—considering the significant amount of money that will be invested in the future in all major Canadian cities. Successful infrastructure projects are not only about engineering. They should also be about civic statement at all scales; they should be about urban design and place making. They should also be about questioning and redesigning purely engineering works to make them a richer component of the civic space. But are we as architects sufficiently challenging this engineering world and its technology? Are we embracing the civic responsibility associated with city-shaping interventions deployed across kilometres of our cities—a challenge even greater when the systems are visible at ground level or elevated? As architects, are we in the position to do so in a lowest bid environment, with the P3 process being the chosen implementation strategy of these transportation projects? Yes, but awareness is crucial.

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These are major urban design opportunities, and architects should have a say at all levels: from capital cost decisions and the bidding process to the production of the design and the realization of the interventions. The equation of cost versus quality has to be changed and properly balanced. Metrolinx in Toronto, for example, allocates a minimum 20 percent of the score to architectural and urban design quality. Commission processes should aim for this and more. J’aimerais partager quelques réflexions sur les projets de transport qui offrent à mon avis une occasion incroyable au Canada de présenter du design urbain de pointe, dès maintenant et dans les prochaines années—dans le contexte des sommes importantes qui seront investies dans toutes les grandes villes canadiennes. La réussite d’un projet d’infrastructure va au-delà de l’ingénierie. Elle devrait être liée à un énoncé civique à toutes les échelles; elle devrait aussi être liée au design urbain et à la création de lieux.

En tant qu’architectes, sommes-nous en position de relever un tel défi dans un PPP axé sur la plus basse soumission, sachant que ce mode de réalisation est la stratégie de mise en œuvre de ces projets de transport? La réponse est oui, mais il faut absolument sensibiliser les parties intéressées. Les projets de transport offrent d’importantes occasions de design urbain et les architectes devraient avoir leur mot à dire à toutes les étapes des projets, allant des décisions sur les coûts d’investissements et le processus d’appel d’offres jusqu’à la production du design et à la réalisation des interventions. Il faut changer l’équation coût–qualité pour atteindre un juste équilibre. À titre d’exemple, mentionnons Metrolinx, à Toronto, qui a attribué au moins 20 pour cent de la note à la qualité de l’architecture et du design urbain. Les processus d’approvisionnement devraient viser un tel objectif et même augmenter ce seuil.

On devrait par ailleurs se questionner sur les ouvrages existants et réaménager ceux qui sont essentiellement des ouvrages d’ingénierie pour qu’ils puissent contribuer à l’enrichissement de l’espace civique. Mais en tant qu’architectes, remettonsnous en question ce monde d’ingénierie et sa technologie? Assumons-nous la

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RAIC Journal

du travail de Roger, joliment exprimée dans son plan directeur pour l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique où il a proposé un réseau harmonieux d’espaces intérieurs et extérieurs communs. Il serait fier de voir les nombreux bâtiments qui illustrent ce concept et apportent de la vitalité au campus de cette université.

Edmonton Redevelopment (Blatchford) Réaménagement à Edmonton (Blatchford)

Joyce Drohan It is heartening to see the strong focus on urban design at the 2017 RAIC/OAA Festival of Architecture and the Gold Medalist plenary honouring Roger du Toit. Architecture plays a powerful role in shaping urban environments—from individual buildings to whole communities. It is most successful when consciously designed to support public life. This was a hallmark of Roger’s work, beautifully demonstrated in his 1992 master plan for the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he proposed a seamless network of indoor and outdoor common spaces. Roger would be encouraged by the many buildings which reflect this concept and bring vitality to the UBC campus. My experience designing urban environments has taught me that a strong public realm is key, but it is not enough. Real urban vitality happens when citizens experience human activities both on the sidewalk and within buildings. That is the thinking behind three urban design strategies I guided while leading Perkins+Will Vancouver’s Cities + Sites practice: the Edmonton Redevelop-

Humber River Bridge: Tom Arban/Courtesy of Montgomery Sisam Architects

Anne McIlroy As cities across Canada evolve to meet the changing dynamic of life, we are obliged to tell our country’s rich and diverse story. This year, as the country celebrates 150 years, we’re reminded of our deep 14,000year history of First Nations. How can urban design reflect our rich cultural history, so that everyone, including new and established Canadians, can feel part of our country’s continuum? Toronto’s Humber Bridge, completed in 1994 was, in many ways, ahead of its time in reflecting the potent value of Canadian urbanism. As both a place and path, the bridge is designed to connect pedestrians and cyclists over the mouth of the Humber River, a river whose settlement history dates to 10,000 BC.

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ment, which reimagines a 530-acre municipal airport as a mixed-use community invigorated by a highly integrated mobility network; the concept for Winnipeg’s True North Square, which transforms a downtown city block into an entertainment and commercial hub; and Ryerson’s Student Centre, which organizes campus life vertically, with public circulation, lounges, study spaces and common areas in the residence tower. As critic Paul Goldberger put it: “Buildings are not just inanimate objects; they are occasions for human contact, they frame our understanding of place, and this makes them a living part of our world.” Il est encourageant de voir l’importance accordée au design urbain lors du Festival d’architecture IRAC/OAA de 2017 et de la plénière en l’honneur du Médaillé d’or Roger du Toit. L’architecture joue un rôle puissant pour modeler les milieux urbains—allant des bâtiments jusqu’à des collectivités entières. Elle y parvient mieux lorsque la conception vise consciemment à soutenir la vie publique. Or, c’était là une marque de commerce

J’ai appris de mon expérience en conception de milieux urbains qu’un solide domaine public est un élément clé, mais qu’il ne suffit pas. La vraie vitalité urbaine se manifeste lorsque les citoyens prennent part à des activités humaines sur le trottoir autant qu’à l’intérieur des bâtiments. C’est l’idée derrière les trois stratégies de design urbain que j’ai orientées lorsque j’ai dirigé le département Cities + Sites du bureau de Vancouver de Perkins+Will : le réaménagement d’Edmonton, qui convertit un aéroport municipal de 530 acres en une communauté à usage mixte revigorée par un réseau de mobilité très intégré; le concept du True North Square à Winnipeg, qui transforme un quadrilatère du centre-ville en un centre d’affaires et de divertissements; et le Centre étudiant de Ryerson, où la vie sur le campus s’articule à la verticale, la circulation publique, les salons, les espaces d’étude et les aires communes se trouvant dans la tour d’habitation.

After more than six years as Director of the Cities + Sites practice at Perkins+Will Vancouver, Joyce Drohan, MRAIC, recently joined the City of Vancouver as Special Advisor, City Design Studio. Après avoir travaillé plus de 6 ans à titre de directrice de Cities + Sites au bureau de Perkins+Will de Vancouver, Joyce Drohan, MRAIC, s’est récemment jointe à la Ville de Vancouver à titre de conseillère spéciale, City Design Studio.

Comme l’a dit le critique Paul Goldber ger : « Les bâtiments ne sont pas seulement des objets inanimés; ils sont des occasions de contact humain, ils définissent notre compréhension du lieu, et c’est ce qui en fait une partie vivante de notre monde. » [Trad.]

Humber River Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge Pont piétonnier et cycliste de la rivière Humber

The design process was a true collaboration of many, including architects, engineers, and a First Nations art consultant. Design Architects David Sisam, FRAIC, and Robert Davies, FRAIC, of Montgomery Sisam Architects created a bridge that honours First Nations through consultation with the Woodland First Nations of Brantford. The cross-bracing of the

Journal de l’IRAC

overhead tied arch structure is an abstraction of the Thunderbird symbol—Ruler of the Heavens. Other animal symbols are discovered near the underside of the deck on the thrust blocks. The elegant white bridge is seen from the water and the city as a marker of our place and a testament to the true depth of our culture.

Anne McIlroy, FRAIC, is a Principal of Brook McIlroy, and has over 30 years of experience as an urban designer. Anne McIlroy, FRAIC, est une associée principale de la firme Brook McIlroy, et elle cumule plus de trente ans d’expérience en design urbain.

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Les sociétés évoluent sans cesse pour s’adapter à la dynamique de la vie et cela nous oblige à raconter l’histoire riche et diversifiée de notre pays. La célébration du 150e anniversaire du Canada nous amène à nous rappeler la longue histoire de 14 000 ans des Premières Nations. Comment le design urbain peut-il refléter notre riche passé culturel pour que chacun d’entre nous, y compris les nouveaux arrivants et les Canadiens établis, puisse sentir qu’il fait partie du continuum de notre pays? Le pont de la rivière Humber à Toronto, terminé en 1994, était à plusieurs égards

en avance sur son temps, et il révélait la force de l’urbanisme canadien. Le pont, qui est à la fois un lieu et une voie de circulation, permet aux piétons et aux cyclistes de franchir l’estuaire de la Humber, une rivière aux abords de laquelle l’histoire du peuplement remonte à 10 000 ans avant Jésus-Christ. La conception de ce pont a fait l’objet d’une réelle collaboration entre les architectes, les ingénieurs et un consultant en art des Premières Nations. Les concepteurs David Sisam, FRAIC, et Robert Davies, FRAIC, de la firme Montgomery Sisam Architects ont

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Centre métropolitain de Vaughan

Donald Schmitt What is the power of urban design to support positive change in a city context? Deep community consultation was instrumental in defining, with clarity and simplicity, the principles which are transformative for the 69-acre Regent Park neighbourhood redevelopment in Toronto. Here, reconnecting with the surrounding 19th-century street network was essential to achieve an accessible, porous integration with the city. Active frontages on the civic realm—the street with diverse tenancies and market housing, varied built form and residential frontages—created the conditions for community and safety. The strategic inclusion and location of new institutions for arts and culture, recreation and park space, urban agriculture, and gathering areas complete the community. In Vaughan Metropolitan Centre—a 100acre, 20-million-square-foot development in suburban Toronto—urban design underpins a dense, pedestrian-oriented community, without the infrastructure constraints of older urban contexts. A public-private partnership undertook the delivery and integration of subway, light rapid transit, and municipal bus ser-

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vice. The master plan and design delivered the beginning of community, social and employment infrastructure, including office and employment space, a YMCA, municipal library, dance centre and onekilometre-long park. The simultaneous delivery of 1,600 units for residents rounds out a mixed-use community. At the Ryerson Image Centre, a dynamic display of multi-coloured lights acts as a beacon, connecting Ryerson University with the city and creating a threshold and place of gathering as it illuminates and defines the adjacent public square, Gould Street and the waters of Lake Devo. Quelle est la capacité du design urbain de soutenir un changement positif en contexte urbain? La consultation exhaustive avec la collectivité a été déterminante pour définir avec clarté et simplicité les principes transformateurs sous-jacents à la revitalisation du quartier Regent Park de Toronto qui s’étend sur 69 acres. Dans ce cas-ci, il était essentiel de rétablir les liens avec le réseau environnant de rues du 19e siècle pour assurer l’accessibilité et la porosité de l’intégration.

créé un pont qui rend honneur aux Premières Nations après avoir consulté des représentants des Premières Nations des forêts de Brantford. L’entrecroisement des haubans de la structure en arc est une abstraction du symbole de l’oiseau-tonnerre—un symbole puissant du maître des cieux. D’autres symboles animaliers ont été découverts près de la face inférieure du tablier, sur les butées. L’élégant pont blanc est visible de l’eau et de la ville. Il est un marqueur de notre lieu et un témoignage à la réelle profondeur de notre culture.

Des façades actives dans le domaine public —des bâtiments de divers usages et des logements du marché, une variété de formes bâties et de façades résidentielles — créaient les conditions propices au réaménagement du quartier et à la sécurité. De nouvelles institutions pour les arts et la culture, des lieux de loisirs et des parcs, des zones agricoles et des aires de rassemblements situés à des endroits stratégiques se sont ajoutés au quartier. Dans le centre métropolitain de Vaughan, un projet d’aménagement urbain de 20 millions de pieds carrés sur 100 acres, en banlieue de Toronto, le design urbain renforce un quartier dense axé sur les piétons, sans les contraintes d’infra structures des contextes urbains plus anciens. Un partenariat public-privé s’est chargé d’intégrer le métro, le transport par train léger rapide et le service d’autobus municipal. Le plan directeur et le design ont offert un début d’infra structures communautaires, sociales et professionnelles, qui comprennent notamment des bureaux, des espaces de travail, un centre YMCA, une bibliothèque municipale, un centre de danse et un parc qui s’étend sur un kilomètre. La construction simultanée de 1 600 logements en a fait un quartier à usage mixte.

Donald Schmitt, FRAIC, principal of Diamond Schmitt Architects, is engaged in the master planning, urban design and architecture of several dense, pedestrian-oriented mixed-use urban communities. Donald Schmitt, FRAIC, de Diamond Schmitt Architects, participe à la planification directrice, au design urbain et à l’architecture de plusieurs collectivités urbaines à densité élevée, à usage mixte et axées sur les piétons.

Au Ryerson Image Centre, un assemblage dynamique de lumières multicolores agit comme un phare et relie l’Université Ryerson à la ville tout en créant un lieu de rassemblement lorsque ces lumières s’illuminent et définissent la place publique adjacente, la rue Gould et les eaux du lac Devo.

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CANADIAN ARCHITEC 7-7-2017.pdf

7/7/17

11:32

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

GROUND FLOOR 1 LOBBY 2 VIEWING AREA 3 ADMINISTRATION 4 CAFÉ 5 CLASSROOM 6 UNIVERSAL CHANGE ROOM 7 WOMEN’S CHANGE ROOM 8 MEN’S CHANGE ROOM 9 LEISURE POOL 10 HOT TUB 11 LAP POOL 12 SAUNA 13 STEAM 14 RETRACTABLE SEATING 15 STORAGE 16 WATERSLIDE 17 SPRING BOARDS 18 DIVE TOWER

5 4

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Main Level Plan

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RIDING THE WAVE

A NEW AQUATIC CENTRE PROVIDES THE RAPIDLY EXPANDING COMMUNITY OF SURREY WITH A WORLD-CLASS SWIMMING FACILITY TOPPED BY A DRAMATIC ROOF.

Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre HCMA Architecture + Design TEXT Deborah Niski PHOTOS Nic Lehoux PROJECT

ARCHITECT

When Vancouver firm HCMA Architecture + Design started designing the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre in 2011, the site was practically rural, with acreage-lot homes dotting pasture lands in every direction. Today, the surrounding landscape is rich with housing subdivisions under construction, racing to meet growing demands. “Surrey is an incredibly interesting context to design public buildings. The scale and diversity of the city—and the fact that it is growing at a very rapid pace—presents a unique challenge to create public buildings that provide stability and civic focus,” says HCMA principal Darryl Condon, FRAIC.

Responding to the City’s ambitious brief, HCMA created a landmark—an aquatic centre with a roofline reminiscent of a wave in motion— designed to anchor a much larger collection of future civic buildings and amenities on the site. The sculptural form of the roof is counterbalanced by strong concrete buttresses, creating an effect that is both elegant and playful. Programmatically, the centre is equally robust, deftly balancing the requirements of both recreational and competition-level users. A largescale leisure pool—featuring a waterslide, lazy river and extensive water-play areas—appeals to families, while a 10-lane, 50-metre Olympic-sized lap pool and dive platforms meet the needs of athletes and club swimmers. This second pool is built to stringent FINA standards, so that the community can host diving, swimming and water polo events at all competitive levels, with seating for up to 900 spectators.

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

The sweeping profile of the new aquatic centre creates a strong presence along 24 Avenue in Surrey, B.C. ABOVE The roof assembly uses a catenary structure, but with wood members in place of metal cables. Concrete columns provide vertical support at the two ends of the building and at its midpoint. OPPOSITE Within the centre, central columns create an informal division between the leisure and competitive pool areas.

OPENING SPREAD

“The leisure pool and the lap pool are set end to end, making this a long facility,” says project architect and HCMA principal Melissa Higgs. “Often these pools would be put side by side, but since there’s such a focus on training and hosting here, we wanted to separate the two areas to give a bit more quiet, especially to the diving platforms. Also, when they hold a competitive event, there’s an ability to divide the space and put cameras and lights into action, while still allowing the community component to function undisturbed.” While the building’s strong street presence might be daunting to some potential users, a glass curtain wall provides an inviting transparency that demystifies the world within. On warm days, large glass doors retract so that activity can spill out from the leisure pool onto a paved deck. The natural grade of the landscape is used to create a semi-private feel. At street level and above, translucent polycarbonate cladding screens views while allowing for an abundance of natural light that’s diffuse enough to avoid glare during competitions. The most daring move at Grandview Heights is, of course, its roof structure. As in all Olympic-sized swimming pools, one of the greatest

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challenges is achieving the necessary structural span. Designers often opt for solutions that cross the short span of the pool. Instead, HCMA and its long-time collaborator, structural engineer Fast + Epp, worked to find a solution that would underscore the elongated form of the centre by spanning in the same direction as the long side of the Olympic pool. Inspired by the City of Surrey’s “wood first” policy, the team designed a two-part cable hung roof structure—but made with timber members instead of metal cables. A first catenary roof spans the leisure pool area, while a second spans the length of the 50-metre pool and sweeps high above the dive platforms. At 65 metres in length, this second section is the longest spanning timber catenary roof ever constructed. To create each “cable,” prefabricated, regionally sourced 5x10 inch Douglas fir laminated beams were coupled into pairs using a steel knife plate and wooden fasteners. These were then crane-lifted into position. The roof structure was completed in an extraordinary eight days. It may have been technically possible to use these timber “cables” to span the entire length of the building. But anyone who’s been on a suspension bridge knows how cables f lex and bounce, and the

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

ABOVE The leisure swim zone includes a waterslide, lazy river, spray feature, and tots’ area, making it a hub for local families. OPPOSITE, LEFT TO RIGHT Above the change rooms, a fitness room looks out towards a leafy residential area; coloured balustrades animate the diving platforms at the end of the Olympic-sized competition pool.

same is true of the timber version: the roof is a dynamic structure that moves with wind and snow-loads. An intermediate structure—the concrete spine that effectively separates the leisure and lap pools—was introduced to reduce deflection to a maximum of six to eight inches. The curtain wall is supported independently of the roof, and the top of wall connection that accommodates the deflection and maintains the integrity of the envelope is a silicone gasket. The anodized aluminum seen on the exterior moves independently with the roof itself. The wooden roof brings warmth to the interior and provides an intrigue that is rarely present in stark modern pool complexes. Its uninterrupted spans and gentle curves are memorable. The big move of the roof is also supported by detail at a finer-grained level. From the restrained colour palette in the leisure pool tiling to the self-contained changing cubicles that give universal access to all-comers, there’s plenty to satisfy the sensory needs of pool goers. “Pools are really challenging because the

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chlorinated environment is tough,” says Higgs. “If it’s a popular place, it gets so much use that things need to be bulletproof, but you also want it to be fun, playful, light and bright. We wanted this to be like a public spa, with a Scandinavian feel.” Belying the sleek interiors, the centre has a wide range of high-tech features that increase its functionality. Most notable is an adjustable f loor section in the lap pool that moves vertically, allowing the pool depth to be configured for different users. This feature works in conjunction with two moveable f loating bulkheads that can be used to divide the pool to accommodate diverse programming. A complex air extraction system draws air from the pool’s surface, helping to quickly remove the chlorinated air that can cause respiratory issues for people who swim often. If a building’s success can be judged by its usage, Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre is a runaway hit. Since opening in March 2016, the

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

SINGLE PLY TPO MEMBRANE COVER BOARD TAPERED INSULATION AS REQ’D R24 MIN. POLYISO INSULATION SELF-ADHERED AIR/VAPOUR BARRIER PLYWOOD DECK, 2 LAYERS GLULAM STRUCTURE CLEAR PENETRATING SEALER

facility has received upwards of 2,500 visits per day. “We are thrilled with the result,” says Condon. “We believe that it ref lects upon our commitment to continuous evolution and challenging the boundaries of conventional practice.” Higgs agrees. “Knowing that we’ve met the sports need, but also met the needs of the community—drawing in everyone from seniors to athletes—that’s really very satisfying.”

BEAM

Deborah Niski is a Vancouver-based writer and production director.

CLIENT CITY OF SURREY | ARCHITECT TEAM DARRYL CONDON, MELISSA HIGGS, AIDEN CAILLSON,

ALEXANDRA KENYON, STEVE DIPASQUALE, CRAIG LANE, CRAIG SIMMS, NICOLAS WORTH | STRUC-

TURAL FAST + EPP | MECHANICAL AME CONSULTING GROUP LTD. | ELECTRICAL AES ENGINEERING

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25 MM VENTED AIR SPACE

50 MM WIDE X 25 MM THICK ACOUSTIC WOOD FIBRE PLANK FURRING STRIPS

DISCONTINUOUS WOOD BLOCKING 19 X 100 X 100 @ 400 MM O.C.

25 MM ACOUSTIC INSULATION

DETAIL

38 MM, 2440 MM LONG ACOUSTIC WOOD FIBRE PLANK PANELS WITH SQUARE EDGES (NO BEVELS)

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

BRINGING THE PAST TO LIGHT

THE RENOVATION AND EXPANSION OF A COLLEGE RECREATION CENTRE UNVEILS THE STRUCTURAL INGENUITY OF THE EXISTING BUILDING. Conestoga College Student Recreation Centre, Kitchener, Ontario ARCHITECTS MJMA (existing building by Strasman Wagman Partnership, now Strasman Architects Inc.) TEXT Chloe Town PHOTOS Shai Gil PROJECT

The clients couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been more clear: tear down their existing ice arena, because only about one percent of Conestoga College students used it, and replace it with new gym and recreation facilities. But when the team at MJMA began to consider the design brief, they soon realized that the building slated for demolition had a quiet elegance that deserved closer inspection. Located in Kitchener, Ontario and designed by Strasman Wagman Partnership (SWP) in 1978, the original recreation centre consisted of two barrel vaulted sheds resting on wide swaths of bermed grass. It was an unusual move to crest the volume upon sloped earth. Although several new buildings were added to the campus in the intervening

years, the vaults have remained prominent from the main road. According to Jim Strasman, FRAIC, he and Keith Wagman didn’t want to just place a box on the flat site, but to build something that reached the ground “quietly, logically and organically.” To the south side of the building, one of the barrel vaults housed the ice arena in question. The north vault contained a “gymnatorium” shorter in length by about 20 metres. Between the two, a f lat-roofed concourse tethered the two forms together. Because the vaults were structurally connected, MJMA recognized that demolition of one half of the building would greatly compromise the integrity of the whole. Blackwell—the structural engineers for the project—advised that tearing down one vault while supporting the remaining one could be fussy to implement and would drive construction costs upwards.

MJMA communicated to Conestoga College that they could do better by adaptive reuse. Aside from the obvious advantage of cost-savings, MJMA’s winning proposal consisted of three main ideas. First, they sought to retain as much of the existing structure as possible. Second, they wanted to bring natural light into the old arena space. And, third, with judicious new construction and a gut-renovation to the central concourse, they wanted to bring a fresh vitality to the entire recreation centre. It was thanks to this vision—an approach with “sensitivity and creative thinking”—that the old building could be saved, says Strasman. But what exactly was worth saving, the clients might ask? The sheet metal shell and concrete bleachers had the utilitarian, vernacular charm of a small-town, minor league hockey rink. A Canadian classic, perhaps, but not exactly a showcase that would attract students to the school.

ABOVE Instead of demolishing and replacing a 1970s arena as originally mandated, MJMA advocated for adaptively reusing it. Glazing was added to the sides and end of the barrel-vaulted volume, maintaining its structural integrity while bringing daylight to the interior.

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

8 11 6

9 1 12

GROUND FLOOR

An addition gives a fresh face to the building, while reorienting its main entrance to face the campus. The addition includes a wellness centre on the ground floor, along with an open-plan fitness centre and multi-purpose studios above. ABOVE The bar creates a sheltered pedestrian path alongside the recreation centre. OPPOSITE An intricate steel ceiling structure—part of the original design—is showcased in the arena-turned-gymnasium. TOP

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1 NEW ENTRANCE 2 TRIPLE GYMNASIUM (ADAPTIVE REUSE OF ARENA) 3 MECHANICAL 4 EXISTING SUBSTATION 5 RENOVATED GYMNASIUM 6 MEN’S CHANGE ROOM 7 WOMEN’S CHANGE ROOM 8 UNIVERSAL CHANGE ROOM 9 DIVIDERS FOR CONVERSION TO VARSITY ROOMS 10 WELLNESS CENTRE 11 WELCOME DESK 12 STORAGE

20M

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For MJMA partner David Miller, FRAIC and his team, the architectural strategy was uncomplicated. They removed all of the metal cladding from one end of the arena, and replaced the faรงade with a glass curtain wall. Then, along the length of the building, where the vault once met the top of the berm, they extended the angle of the roof so that the building could accommodate a new ribbon of glass. This decision was transformative. The roof now appears to float like an open parachute that has not yet touched the ground. When the building was originally constructed, SWP included a fall arrest system of harness clips along the bottom chord of the joists, so that students could walk halfway along the underside of the vault and scrutinize the steel up close. Today, stripped of plywood cladding at the base and painted white, the structural ingenuity of the system is fully exposed. Light streams in from all sides and users can appreciate what had always been there: an atypical three-dimensional steel lattice spanning the open space. Each rib consists of two trusses that form a V in section and, as they extend downward, the structure splays into two billowing legs that taper like MC Hammer pants. Bringing the form down to a point allows for more occupiable f loor area. Where SWP had once extended permanent spectator seating

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

down to the ice (a sensible move for a hockey arena), MJMA removed the concrete bleachers to provide an upper-level running track. New seating is the collapsible kind, stored behind a discreet datum of doors around the perimeter. Where there was once a skating surface, there is now a sprung-wood f loor, a second gym for the students. The older gym has a fresh coat of paint, but the adaptively reused hockey arena, which is larger and airier, has become the preferred spot for pick-up games. A new monolithic volume runs perpendicular to the two gyms and includes a wellness centre at grade, with a 580-square-metre fitness area and 280 square metres of multi-purpose spaces cantilevered above. This bar obscures the two barrel vaults from the campus sidewalk edge, but does the critical job of identifying the new front entrance, which was previously on the opposite side of the building. It also envelops the concrete mass of an electrical substation that could not be relocated. Equally important, the horizontal band of glass and sections of brick along the entryway complement the institutional language of the rest of the campus. From within the bar are new views to the tree canopy of a nearby woodlot. As in the new gym, the continuous floor-to-ceiling window

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

wall of the addition’s second storey makes the interior feel spacious, clean and contemporary. Bright orange flooring ties together the running track and the exercise rooms, but mostly the palette is either white or shades of grey, offset against the reflectivity of glass and sheen of metal. The decision to paint all of the brick white on the inside and black outdoors helps disguise the seam between old and new construction. The design further obscures the line between the existing building and new interventions through a series of voids that open up long sightlines. In the lobby, a double-height incision cuts across the interior, providing views of the two programmatic halves floating above. Down the hall, instead of doors, the entrances to change rooms are marked by sheets of frosted glass with large pictograms. This widens the corridor visually and spatially. Similar to other recent MJMA projects, the change rooms are mostly open-plan locker corridors with smaller, private changing stalls to the side. From a heritage and environmental perspective, the decision to preserve rather than to demolish the existing structure was wise. But the real success of the project is in the vibrant spaces that it creates. The renewed recreation centre is a welcoming place for students to work out, play team sports, or enjoy a game of Ping-Pong. In the hands of MJMA, the original barrel vaulted sheds by SWP have once again taken pride of place on Conestoga’s campus. Chloe Town is an instructor and lecturer at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto.

CLIENT CONESTOGA COLLEGE | ARCHITECT TEAM DAVID MILLER, ROBERT ALLEN, ANDREW FILARSKI, VIKTORS JAUNKALNS, TED WATSON, DAN KRONBY, TYLER ISAAC NEIL WALKER, OLGA PUSHKAR, TARISHA DOLYNIUK, TIMOTHY BELANGER, DARLENE MONTGOMERY, MITCHELL MAY, KRISTIN BEITES, RAZMIG TITIZIAN, KENYON JIN, WOOSUK AN, KATYA MARSHALL, JASON WAHM | STRUCTURAL BLACKWELL ENGINEERING | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL SNC- LAVALIN | LANDSCAPE MJMA | INTERIORS MJMA | CONTRACTOR MELLOUL-BLAMEY CONSTRUCTION INC. | AREA 11,794 M2 (EXISTING—9,562 M2; NEW—2,232 M2) | BUDGET $17.8 M | COMPLETION JUNE 2016

TOP Adjacent the fitness area, a running track encircles the gymnasium. ABOVE Transparent walls lend a sense of spaciousness to the change room access corridors. OPPOSITE TOP The running track features panoramic views of the campus and a nearby woodlot. OPPOSITE BOTTOM Orange flooring and an open-web steel joist ceiling in the new addition tie it together with the existing building.

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

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Early-Bird Deadline: August 17th, 2017 ($120 entry fee*) Regular Deadline: September 21st, 2017 ($175 entry fee*) Projects must be in the design stage, scheduled for construction or under construction but not substantially complete by September 21, 2017. All projects must be commissioned by a client with the intention to build the submitted proposal. All building types and concisely presented urban design schemes are eligible. Awards are given for architectural design excellence. Jurors will consider the project’s physical organization and form, response to context, innovation, and demonstration of exemplary environmental or social awareness. Winners will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2017. Submissions will be accepted in PDF format, up to 12 pages with dimensions no greater than 11” x 17”. Total file size is not to exceed 25MB. There is also the option to submit a video up to two minutes in length. For more details and to submit your entry, visit: www.canadianarchitect.com/awards/ * PLUS APPLICABLE TAXES

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WINNERS OF 2016 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE, FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: BARRY JOHNS (ARCHITECTURE) LIMITED, KANVA, GH3 WITH MORRISON HERSHFIELD, KANVA.

CANADIAN ARCHITECT INVITES ARCHITECTS REGISTERED IN CANADA AND ARCHITECTURAL GRADUATES TO ENTER THE MAGAZINE’S 2017 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE.

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Architecture Construction Design Engineering Property Renovation

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November 29-30 Metro Toronto Convention Centre North Building

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

WEST WING REPLACEMENT

EXISTING CENTRE BLOCK

EXISTING EAST WING

10M

MAR

TIN G

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TR A IL GA

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ILW AY ER T E X R AC PR KS ES SW AY LA

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LAKE ONTARIO

SITE PLAN 6 POOL 1 PROJECT SITE 7 TENNIS COURTS 2 EXISTING CENTRE BLOCK 1 3 Project Site 6 Pool 8 BUDAPEST PARK EXISTING EAST WING 2 4 Existing Centre Block 7 Tennis Courts 9 PALAIS ROYALE EXISTING BOAT HOUSE 3 5 Existing East Wing LAKESHORE BOULEVARD PARKLANDS MEMBER DOCKS 8 Budapest10Park 4 5

Existing boat house Member docks

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PAVILION ON THE LAKE A SWOOPING ADDITION TO TORONTO’S STORIED BOULEVARD CLUB IS A SCULPTURAL PRESENCE ON THE LAKESHORE. Boulevard Club West Wing Replacement, Toronto, Ontario Teeple Architects Inc. TEXT Samantha Armitage PHOTOS Scott Norsworthy PROJECT

ARCHITECT

An aluminum-clad addition lends fresh energy to Toronto’s lakeside Boulevard Club. The curving façade wraps around ground floor locker rooms and lounges, along with upper floor sports courts.

ABOVE

When you walk into the main lobby of the Boulevard Club, you are immediately surrounded by its history. Dark wood. Trophies. Old photos. It’s everything that you would expect from a social and athletic club that’s more than a century old. It’s difficult to imagine the expansion to this building delivered by an architect with more respect for its history. As Martin Baron, partner at Teeple Architects, walks me through the club, he speaks with reverence about the various phases of the building’s design. There’s the original clubhouse, a mid-century wing with an iconic zigzag roof, a timber-lined addition from the early 2000s by Ian MacDonald Architecture. And now, Teeple’s West Wing: the highly anticipated replacement of an old, barn-like, seasonal structure that housed badminton courts. The club’s history and architecture reads like a perfectly constructed story. Its traditional origins are still central to the plot, but walking into the West Wing feels like a fresh new chapter. “Each phase is very much a reflection of its time,” says Baron. It’s also difficult to imagine designing for a more constrained site. Located along Lakeshore Boulevard, the new West Wing is tucked amongst tennis courts on the north and west sides, an existing building on the east side, and Lake Ontario immediately south. Because of the lake and tennis court exposures, there’s nothing about the building

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

Clerestories and a slice of windows bring natural light into the upper floor gymnasium. BELOW The locker rooms are finished in a neutral palette of maple and white surfaces. OPPOSITE TOP A second storey lounge offers views across the lake. OPPOSITE BOTTOM The building’s layered façade is revealed at the south entry, where a ramp leads into the main lounge. ABOVE

that’s hidden from view. Striking angles evoke an origami swan—if the paper were replaced by white aluminum standing seam installed on a T-clip system. “That system minimizes cold bridging, and makes the effective R-value really close to the nominal value,” says Baron. Openings in the envelope are minimized, with judiciously located windows to the north and the south. During the day, these reveals appear almost solid. At night, the interior LED lighting provides glimpses of a crisp, welcoming atmosphere—a magnetic sight for the Parkdale community to the north, and a beacon for anyone out on the lake to the south. Tania Bortolotto, FRAIC, an architect and Boulevard Club member who sat on various committees related to the expansion, describes the massing as one of the most challenging pieces of the project. “The building program essentially requires three large, boxy containers,” explains Bortolotto. “Teeple was very successful at breaking down the massing and creating a cohesive, elegant sculptural mass.” Two of these three containers—the locker rooms on the ground floor and the badminton courts on the second floor—had to be completely closed off from the outside. From the beginning, Teeple faced the task of creating connections between these isolated areas in order to avoid making them read as boxes—all in the spirit of designing an open, 21stcentury building that would be welcoming to families. To accomplish this, the badminton courts, which had previously run east to west, were turned 90 degrees. This new configuration allows for the inclusion of two additional courts, with a slight overhang on the

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

south side. V-shaped supports beneath this overhang frame (rather than impede) ground floor views. Everything in the badminton courts—from the height and structure of the roof, to the colour of the courts and surrounding walls—complies with regulations set forth by the Badminton Association of England. The rotation of the badminton courts also allowed for the addition of a gym on the second floor. Since the gym had to be acoustically separated from the courts on the west, the design team seized the opportunity to bathe the room in natural light from the east. Using Solera— an insulated, light-diffusing glass system—daylight is captured and dispersed across the gymnasium. One would think the locker rooms on the ground floor would be the easiest piece of this jigsaw puzzle, but the intensity of designing for a membership-based club was evident here. One of the most debated decisions during the lengthy design process was the colour of the lockers. “I completely understand it,” Baron says. “There’s a real sense of ownership there—each member has their locker that they’ve paid for. Why shouldn’t it be the colour they want it to be?” Following many collaborative sessions, the final result is a spa-like white-and-maple colour scheme across five separate locker rooms. After resolving these three containers, Martin and his team focussed on details which would make a critical difference to members. Durable, high-quality materials were chosen. Floor-to-ceiling windows along the perimeter of the ground f loor were introduced to reinforce connections

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

1 2

SECTION 1 BADMINTON COURTS 2 CORRIDOR 3 CHANGE ROOMS 4 SPORTS LOUNGE 5 LOCKERS 6 EXISTING CENTRE BLOCK

10m

SECTION A

6 8

3 6

SECOND FLOOR

Samantha Armitage is a writer and marketing professional based in Toronto.

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10m

SECOND FLOOR PLAN

1 1

5 5

1 3

GROUND FLOOR 1 LOCKER ROOM 2 SPA 3 SPORTS LOUNGE 4 MECHANICAL 5 LAUNDRY 6 EXISTING CENTRE BLOCK

between the lake and social areas. A light well captures daylight from a sun-soaked second-floor seating area overlooking the water, sending the light directly into an otherwise closed-off ground-floor sports clinic. Each detail was suggested and confirmed through an iterative design process. “The club was highly involved and demanding, and the Teeple team was professional, thorough and responsive from the beginning right through to the end,” Bortolotto recalls. Ultimately, the building’s exterior is its most striking feature—and the only aspect that most people will ever see. In keeping with the tradition of white pavilions on Toronto’s waterfront, the building creates formal and informal connections to the lake and the sky. “We started to play around with how to achieve an exterior which conceals the look of the badminton court’s barn-like roof line,” Baron says. “We ended up with this swooping motion, which starts at the same level as the adjacent building, and then just takes off.” At the east side of the building, a square corner juts out from the wing-like form. This is the edge of the gymnasium—a move that skillfully maximizes space through what Baron describes as “the dormer window trick.” The grey terracotta applied to the north and south façades elegantly adds depth and breaks up the solid white aluminum. The grey inset on the north side is reminiscent of the blade of a rower’s oar catching in the water; the south side inset recalls an image of the same rower’s powerful extension and release. Striking a balance between form and function, Teeple’s design artfully ushers in a new era for the Boulevard Club—creating an open, light-filled waterfront landmark, and a totem for the future.

ABOVE The roof’s sculptural sweep continues on the west elevation, where it is visible from tennis courts and the public park beyond.

1 BADMINTON COURTS 2 BADMINTON VIEWING 3 MULTI-PURPOSE ROOM 4 LOUNGE 5 DECK 6 STORAGE 7 MECHANICAL 8 GREEN ROOF 9 EXISTING CENTRE BLOCK

10m

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

10M

CLIENT THE BOULEVARD CLUB | ARCHITECT TEAM STEPHEN TEEPLE, MARTIN BARON, CHRIS RADIGAN,

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THE PRACTICE OF PLAY TEXT

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

INSITES

Shannon Moore Martin Bond

PHOTOS

Ninety-two years ago, Ontario-born Elsie Reford (1872-1967) transformed her fishing camp along the St. Lawrence River into an impressive garden. Encouraged to take up horticulture following a bout of appendicitis, Reford spent the following three decades nurturing a landscape replete with rare species, such as Himalayan blue poppies, which she gradually adapted to the Quebec climate. Since 1962, Reford Gardens—also known as the Jardins de Métis—has been a National Historic Site of Canada, open to the public. Reford’s legacy lives on across twenty acres of lush and scenic land, home to more than 3,000 species of plants from different locations worldwide. There’s a family legacy, too. In 2000, Elsie’s great-grandson, Alexander Reford, co-founded an International Garden Festival to bring contemporary installations to the site, as a way of presenting both a complement and counterpoint to the historic gardens. (Reford is currently director of both the Gardens and the Festival). The Festival is a showcase for the creative talent of architects, landscape architects and designers. For its 18th edition, the Festival has added six new installations, chosen from 162 submissions received from 30 countries. The call for proposals invited candidates to put the concept of “play” into practice—resulting in interactive pieces that inspire visitors to engage with nature. Together with projects retained from past editions, this year’s Festival presents 26 installations that encourage visitors to pause and reflect— or get moving and play. The following projects are new or revamped for 2017, and are on view until October 8.

SOUNDCLOUD

LA CHRYSALIDE

Johanna Ballhaus and Helen Wyss

Gabriel Lacombe and Virginie Roy-Mazoyer

Soundcloud invites visitors to lie down on a soft, circular bed in a forest clearing, surrounded by bells planted in the ground and hung from trees. “It’s a little bit like meditation,” says Ballhaus. “It stimulates your senses. As you close your eyes and open your ears, you’ll start smelling the f lowers and hearing the bells, and will become more conscious of what’s going on around you.” The idea is to establish a dream world, where the artificial and natural collide, says Wyss.

Inspired by a cocoon and constructed directly around a tree, La Chrysalide beckons to visitors to escape from their surroundings. “Our installation ref lects the pause in time between childhood and adulthood,” says Lacombe, describing the metaphor of a cocoon as a place where caterpillars become butterflies. “It invites you to climb inside and experience a moment of ref lection and introspection.” La Chrysalide is a place to dream, reflect and focus on your feelings.

Ballhaus is a landscape architect from Montreal. Wyss is an architect from Switzerland,

assistant at the University of British Columbia. Roy-Mazoyer is a landscape architect

who also works as a guide at the Museum of Art in Basel.

at Lemay in Montreal.

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Lacombe is a landscape architect and co-founder of Atelier MAP. He is also a teaching

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

THE WOODSTOCK Atelier YokYok (Steven Fuhrman, Samson Lacoste, Luc Pinsard, Laure K. and Pauline Lazareff)

Located deep within a forested setting, The Woodstock is an unconventional playground made of wooden logs set vertically into the ground. Intended to make children feel like giants as they walk and jump among the stumps, The Woodstock encourages visitors to contemplate the world at their feet. Taken in its entirety, the installation also reflects on our ecological footprint. Atelier YokYok is a group of architects, designers, creators, teachers and architectural engineers from Paris, France.

HAIKU

L’ESCALE

Francisco A. Garcia Pérez and Alessandra Vignotto

Collectif Escargo (Pierre-Yves Diehl, Julie Parenteau and Karyna St-Pierre)

Conceived as the materialization of a short poem, HAIKU is a simple swing suspended over a flooded footpath. Accessible by a single stepping-stone, the installation “expresses the cycle of time between rainfalls,” says Garcia Pérez. HAIKU allows visitors to pause and swing for a moment between storms, the latter represented by the footpath that continually fills and drains over time.

Presented as a collection of small mobile gardens, L’Escale invites visitors to “approach and discover the vegetation of its little worlds,” says St-Pierre. Users grab hold of plant-filled wagons and move freely around the site with them, establishing a dialogue with nature that is at once intimate and public. “We wanted to make mobile gardens that are both precious and personalized,” says Parenteau.

Architect Garcia Pérez teaches at the University of Granada in Spain, and with architect

Collectif Escargo is a group of artists, designers and landscape architects based

Vignotto founded the research group GRAVE in 2015.

in Montreal.

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

INSITES

PAYSAGE EUPHONIQUE MANI (Maud Benech and Claudia Campeau)

Celebrating colours, shapes and sounds, Paysage Euphonique is a set of devices that facilitate communication and expression. Visitors are encouraged to play with speaker-like devices and spread sounds throughout their environment, allowing others to listen in. Euphony—or the harmonious combinations of sounds—is the desired result. Benech is a designer, architectural coordinator and artistic director on various projects in Quebec. Campeau is an architect with Paul Bernier Architect in Montreal.

VERTICAL LINE GARDEN

LA MAISON DE JACQUES

Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster

Romy Brosseau, Rosemarie Faille-Faubert and Émilie Gagné-Loranger

First exhibited in 2014, Vertical Line Garden has been transformed each subsequent year. “In architecture, you don’t get a chance to redo or change anything,” says Jamrozik. “Every year, the Festival has provided us with an interesting opportunity to adapt.” This year, the team has lifted their installation entirely from the ground, creating lounge spaces under canopies of colourful ribbons that ripple in the breeze. “We’ve created abstract geometric patterns that evoke some of the language of traditional landscape design,” says Kempster. The installation tempts visitors to travel inside and experience the installation’s intricacies, instead of simply circling it from outside.

Drawing on the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, La Maison de Jacques —first presented in 2016—is a house made of wood and beans. This year, the designers have introduced new beans that will bloom in red and yellow tones. “The idea is to encourage people to think about the story of Jack in another way,” says Brosseau. The house has nine rooms that twist and turn in seemingly unplanned ways, allowing children to play hide-and-seek in an imaginative setting. For adults, the installation hints at how culture and architecture fit into nature. “It’s about the historic gardens and contemporary gardens meeting at the same place in time,” says Brosseau.

Jamrozik and Kempster are Canadian designers and artists, as well as professors

Brosseau, Faille-Faubert and Gagné-Loranger are Masters in Architecture graduates

in the Department of Architecture at the University of Buffalo.

from the Université Laval in Quebec City.

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Join Canada’s A & D community for an evening of celebration @

CANADIANARCHITECT

Awards of excellence

BestofCanadaAwards

Canadian Architect and Canadian Interiors magazines are marking the 50th Awards of Excellence and the 20th Best of Canada Awards and are holding an Architecture & Design Party – a PARTi – to celebrate! PARTi will be an exclusive gathering of architects and interior design professionals: a chance to celebrate, network, reconnect and mingle with industry peers and colleagues.

7 – 11 pm, November 29 after Day 1 of The Buildings Show The Storys Building 11 Duncan Street, Toronto There are a limited number of tickets to PARTi – Order yours today at:

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www.parti2017.com

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Many Norths: Spatial Practice in a Polar Territory By Lola Sheppard and Mason White. Actar, 2017.

Writing on the Arctic is no small feat, and assembling the wealth of information present in the latest book by the principals of Toronto’s Lateral Office is a remarkable undertaking. The appearance of Many Norths: Spatial Practice in a Polar Territory is also timely, arriving at a moment when Arctic communities are facing many challenges and opportunities. This deftly crafted book should be mandatory reading for students in architecture and architects interested in developing a practice above the Canadian tree line. The book advances research developed for the 2014 exhibition Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15 at the Venice Biennale in Architecture, and is divided into five sections: Urbanism, Architecture, Mobility, Monitoring and Resources. The first sections focus on the building and settlement types that have resulted from the traditional nomadic and semi-nomadic lives of Indigenous peoples. The later chapters detail actions taken in response to geopolitics, survival and the exploitation of resources. Each section includes a timeline and essay, along with interviews with scholars, architects, resource managers and members of Inuit communities, as well as case studies abundantly supported with maps, graphics, tables and photos. These graphic components enable the Southern reader to visualize the vastness and harshness of the polar context, and familiarize themselves with technical solutions devised by architects and engineers who have wrestled with the specifics of this region. Sheppard and White align themselves with sympathizers who are shedding light, without judgement, on the diversity of Arctic practices—whether those of the Qallunaat (White people) or the Indigenous populations. They do not shy away from controversial aspects of history or current affairs, but often elect to address these issues through the voices of interviewees. Embedded in the essays and interviews, the reader will discover, sadly, how fraught with trauma the Arctic can be. Writing on the Arctic with Southern notions can be hampering. For instance, the concept of public space that is generally understood in relation to dense urban environments does not quite ref lect the social structures of hamlets, where private and public realms are sometimes intertwined. Still, the concept has relevance, and the authors and interviewees provide examples of indoor public spaces that, out of necessity, serve many functions. The broader concept of the “public sphere” is astutely reinterpreted. Combining insights from Jürgen Habermas, Hannah Arendt, and

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anthropologist Claudio Aporta, Sheppard and White argue that the “trail,” as a connector of communities, is to be considered “the public sphere of the Arctic.” This conclusion is supported by descriptions of mobility patterns that are deeply connected to the land and to seasonal cycles, and which have profoundly shaped the identity of the Inuit to this day. Beyond its theoretical content, the case studies in the fascinating chapter on mobility introduce the reader to multiple modes for transporting goods—from skidoo trails, ice roads and roads on permafrost to sea and airlift processes. The well-documented section on architecture is chronologically organized from precontact to today, allowing the reader to appreciate the ingenuity of traditional dwellings and the current challenges of building. Through interviews with some of the veterans of Arctic architecture, the reader catches a glimpse of the tensions between governmental agencies, clients and architects, and the progress that has been made in the last two decades because of better-structured consultation processes. This is indirectly shown through a close reading of the case studies, which mostly look at education buildings from the 1970s to 2012. Essays and interviews in the sections on monitoring and resources reveal much about the challenges at stake in today’s Arctic lands, including the questions of sovereignty and the impact of climate change. The book is not without its limitations. For instance, the “many norths” here covered are mostly to be found in the Western and Central Arctic, with a few incursions in Nunavik and almost none in Nunatsiavut. Curiously, there is one major missing element in the visuals: a map of the four regions of Inuit Nunangat using the terminology officially adopted by its Indigenous peoples—Inuvialuit, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut. The authors’ attempt at defining the term “vernacular” is also somewhat muddy. Between qualifiers such as polar, nascent, suppressed, northern, emerging and modern, the reader is left with a rather confusing picture of what vernacular design might look like in this remote region. Nonetheless, Many Norths is an important and informative addition to the small body of literature on the built environment of the Arctic. It draws our attention not only to the critical issues of the past and present, but also to the huge potential that the region holds.

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

BOOKS

Architectural historian Marie-Josée Therrien is an associate professor at OCAD University.

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Broadway Modern Tour

Cersaie

National Precast Day

CAPITALizing on HERITAGE

August 16, 2017

September 25-29, 2017

October 2-6, 2017

October 11-14, 2017

www.cersaie.it

www.cpci.ca

This tour focuses on the post-1945 development of Winnipeg’s premier business district. www.winnipegarchitecture.ca

Building Beyond Buildings To August 21, 2017

This exhibition at the AIBC ’s Architecture Centre in Vancouver pays tribute to architect Bing Thom, who passed away in 2016. www.aibc.ca

Unbelievable To September 24, 2017

Created with HCMA Architecture + Design, this Museum of Vancouver exhibition features contested objects and storied replicas. www.museumofvancouver.ca

This annual trade show in Bologna, Italy showcases ceramic tiles alongside a seminar series that includes lectures by Sebastián Irarrázaval, Elisa Valero Ramos and Diébédo Francis Kéré.

To September 24, 2017

This exhibition at CCA Montreal examines Kenneth Frampton’s role in architecture curriculum changes at Columbia University. www.cca.qc.ca

This conference in Ottawa will explore how people, policy and preservation practice intersect to renew landmarks sustainably and create vibrant places. www.nationaltrustcanada.ca

World Design Summit EDIT Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology September 28-October 8, 2017

Located in Toronto’s former Unilever Soap Detergent Factory, this expo-meets-festival presents interactive experiences, immersive exhibits, and a program of talks by international designers.

Green Building Festival

October 16-25, 2017

Focused on net-positive energy developments, this one-day festival in Toronto explores the processes, problems and solutions that result in projects that do more good than harm.

This cross-disciplinary congress and expo includes keynote speaker Alejandro Aravena. The event culminates in a summit of 50 international organizations that aims to develop an action plan for solving global issues through design.

International Garden Festival

The Evidence Room

To October 8, 2017

To January 28, 2018

www.refordgardens.com

www.rom.on.ca

October 5, 2017

www.sbcanada.org

www.worlddesignsummit.com

www.editdx.org

Cool Gardens To September 30, 2017

Educating Architects

Taking place across Canada, this series of open plant tours hosted by the Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute and its members is open to construction industry professionals and students.

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

CALENDAR

This exhibition of contemporary garden and art installations, located throughout downtown Winnipeg and in Brandon, Manitoba, offers spots for chilling out over the hot summer. www.coolgardens.ca

This annual festival at Jardins de Métis in Québec features conceptual gardens by architects and artists. Six gardens are new this year. The installations are presented alongside the historic gardens planted by Elsie Reford.

Originally constructed for the Venice Biennale of Architecture, this exhibition at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum examines the chilling role architecture played in constructing the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

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PRAIRIE AGRI PHOTO, CARMEN, MANITOBA. COURTESY OF TRAPPIST MONKS OF OUR LADY OF THE PRAIRIES.

GARTH NORBRATEN

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/17

BACKPAGE

OUR LADY OF THE PRAIRIES TEXT

Garth Norbraten A view of the barn-like chapel. The rigorously composed complex is shown in a vintage postcard.

ABOVE LEFT

AN HOUR FROM WINNIPEG, A FORGOTTEN ARCHITECTURAL GEM IS SET ON THE CANADIAN PRAIRIE. From the exterior, the 2,200-square-metre building is an enigma. Surrounded by the grid of prairie fields, it is an austere, somewhat Corbusian, rectangular volume, set beside neatly ordered but absolutely ordinary barns and outbuildings. Today, its façade is partially hidden by 40-yearold trees: tan-coloured, clad in brick and rough stucco, with a staccato scattering of rectangular windows and some deeply cut openings, as well as a few geometric projections beyond the perimeter walls and protruding above its parapet. The building’s story dates back to the mid 1970s, when the expansion of Winnipeg’s southern suburbs threatened the seclusion of the Trappist farmer-monks at St. Norbert. The brothers made the decision to move to a large farm an hour east, near Holland, Manitoba. Unsure how to engage an architect, the cloistered, French-speaking monks sought advice from the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture. They were introduced to one of the school’s professors—French born and trained Jacques Collin (1921-2001)—a gifted teacher and superbly talented designer, but an architect who had built relatively little. Completed in 1978 with Smith Carter as architect of record, Collin’s remarkable build-

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ing remains largely undocumented and unpublished. Despite the modernist abstraction of the exterior, Our Lady of The Prairies faithfully adheres to 11th century planning principles, as set out by the first Cisterian monks (from whom the Trappists descend). This monastic tradition called for durable architecture that is simply detailed, unadorned, and constructed of local materials. Accordingly, the abbey is largely made of ordinary, local wood frame construction. But it is in the careful attention to the materials and modular logic of this type of construction that Collin made something extraordinary. The entire complex is organized on a rigorous 8’ x 8’ square grid, with walls sitting on the grid or on 2’ and 4’ subdivisons of it. All openings are related to the grid and ordered by the standard 8”, 12” and 16” modules of frame construction. On the upper floor, which houses the chapels, chapter house, library and refectory, materials are left in their natural state, with only oak millwork and doors clear-coated. Walls are rough, unpainted cement plaster, floors are concrete, porcelain tile or linoleum, window frames are clear anodized aluminum, with fittings in stainless steel. Yet the importance of these spaces

ABOVE RIGHT

is highlighted in the precise detailing of the wood ceilings and exposed roof framing. These elements are carefully crafted from unfinished, fir shiplap and dimension lumber, with exposed galvanized joist hangers and cross bridging. Throughout the building, Collin draws on local agricultural building types and barely abstracts them. The beautiful main chapel is a paraphrase of a barn or a grain elevator, the space flooded with light from high clerestories supported on rough, built-up 2” x 12” columns and diagonal beams that cast shadows of the cross on the walls. The dormitory wing that projects from behind the main body of the building is almost literally a cattle barn with stalls, like those just across the road: an extruded volume with a 4-in-12 slope roof, cells partly lined with wood salvaged from the old barns at St. Norbert. Our Lady of the Prairies is a work of great subtly and poetry, where the ordinary has been made extraordinary, set down in quiet isolation on the Canadian prairie. Garth Norbraten, MRAIC is a Toronto-based architect who trained at the University of Manitoba. He has taught design studios at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University.

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