PROJECT Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Sports Park, Mississauga, Ontario

ARCHITECT MJMA Architecture & Design

TEXT Elsa Lam

Photos Scott Norsworthy, unless otherwise noted

Toronto-based MJMA has steadily evolved the typology of the aquatic centre since its competition win for the Grand River Aquatic Centre in Kitchener, Ontario, in 1988. In the 36 years since, the firm has been awarded three Governor General’s Medals in Architecture for pool buildings. And this spring, one of its recent projects cinched Ontario’s top architecture prize: the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Architecture went to Churchill Meadows Community Centre, located at the suburban western edge of Mississauga, Ontario.

The new facility shows how MJMA is not content to rest on its laurels, but rather, has been continuing to innovate from the basis of its successes. Churchill Meadows Recreation Centre shares a similar planning approach to MJMA’s Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre in Toronto’s Regent Park, which was acclaimed for its generous natural light and new-to-Canada introduction of universal change rooms. Both facilities have window-ringed pools, flanked by a block of universal change rooms, and edged with an access corridor set alongside a glazed façade; to this parti, Churchill Meadows adds a triple gymnasium and partial second floor. 

But here the similarities end. Churchill Meadows has decisively raised the bar for design excellence. This was in part enabled by MJMA’s wide scope on the project: the firm was responsible not only for the building, but for its surrounding landscape and for the masterplan of the 50-acre park in which it sits. Instead of sinking the rec centre to the back of the site, behind a sea of parking, the designers decided to rotate it 45 degrees relative to the urban grid, so that the building faces the cardinal directions. As a result, parking is pushed to two corners of the site, and the building becomes a focal point for the surrounding park.

Led by MJMA principal Chris Burbidge and design architect Tyler Walker, the team next opted to design the rec centre as a long, skinny rectangle, ringed by covered walkways. The most spectacular of these is a 130-metre-long promenade that stretches alongside the building’s western edge, facing the park. The two-storey outdoor space is topped by a sculptural parade of V-shaped glulam rafters edged with expanded metal mesh, providing a snow-free promenade in the winter, and a shady respite in the summer. Many recreation centres boast an outdoor public promenade of some type—a kind of enlarged version of a home’s front porch—but few achieve the combined sense of both intimacy and grandeur that is present at Churchill Meadows.

The creation of this promenade, explains Walker, stems from the core idea of the project: “pulling the façade apart and making it do as much as possible,” in order to blur the boundary between inside and outside. “The hope was that it would wrap the building in this kind of ‘sticky’ space where people gather, pause, and socialize—the idea of social infrastructure—while simultaneously shading the building and interiors.”

A highly efficient building section was developed with Blackwell Structural Engineers’ Ian Mountfort to work within the project’s tight budget, while maximizing visual impact. A series of glulam columns supports the building’s roof, and is the main support for the façade panels. To avoid diagonal members detracting from the rhythm of the columns, lateral bracing was moved into the core of the building, which was possible because of the volume’s thin proportions. 

The glulam columns are remarkably slender—just 136mm wide and 450mm deep. This is because they work in triads, with each steel roof truss supported by three columns tied together at their top, middle, and bottom points for stability. 

The steel angle tying the columns together at their bottom point supports a bench that extends the length of the building’s interior and exterior. Air supply vents and radiators are tucked under this bench, out of sight and safe from kicking feet chasing stray balls. In the gym and pool areas, the generous ledge is a convenient place for depositing backpacks, water bottles, and swim towels. Outside, it welcomes lingering—a sheltered place to sit, chat with friends, or watch playing kids.

On the east façade, the second floor volume cantilevers out to create extra-deep window alcoves on the upper floor—favourite activity nooks for children attending programs in the community kitchen and multi-purpose studios. On the lower floor, the projecting volume forms a canopy that creates a sheltered approach to the centre. The long bench makes an appearance here, too, providing indoor and outdoor amenity. 

If the short section of the project is an essay in maximizing the function and efficiency of a structure and its façades, the long section tells a story about inviting in light. Seven north-facing skylights, arrayed along the length, mark out the functions of the building: three skylights illuminate the three sections of the gymnasium, one crowns a central atrium, and three mark the pool. 

While the ceiling is shaped over each program space to support lighting, acoustics, and ventilation, the most dramatic sculpting happens over the warm water leisure pool, where the ceiling dips down to create a more intimate interior space. This continues an exploration of shaped roofs from the firm’s aquatic centre at the University of British Columbia, completed with Acton Ostry Architects, where a lowered ceiling caps and frames the leisure pool. “Pools are grand rooms and they want ceilings to define the space,” says Burbidge.

Both views and light are carefully considered in the natatorium. Swimmers enjoy park vistas to the west and to the north of the pool; a strategically located hill brings extra green into the view and conceals sports fields and a distant highway. 

“The quality of light that’s captured in this building is one of the most successful parts of the project,” says MJMA partner Ted Watson. Daylight is carefully filtered and balanced to cut glare, minimizing the need for the City operators to lower sun-blocking blinds. From the west, the expanded metal mesh and glulam struts provide shade without impeding the sense of openness between indoors and out, while the 450-millimetre-deep glulam columns act like giant venetian blinds, lowering heat gain. The use of a universal change room, equipped with individual and family-sized privacy cubicles, allows for daylight to enter through glazing to both sides of the change area.

The inclusion of a mass timber feature stair in the main atrium is audacious for a project that aims to be as open and transparent as possible. But it works, in part because it’s treated like a freestanding sculptural element. The upper portion of the stair is supported by 20-metre-long CLT beams—the longest self-supporting mass timber members available from Nordic Structures at the time of manufacturing. These eight-foot-wide, one-foot-thick beams land on delicate V-shaped steel supports, while the rest of the stair is supported by glulam hangers that integrate with the west wall. Beyond its impressive structural gymnastics, this serves to maintain a clear view corridor from the main entrance through to the park beyond. The only point of visual friction is the rough quality of the mass timber—because of the way that large CLT members are manufactured, it can have visible cracks and inconsistencies, unlike the more polished look one has become accustomed to with glulam.

The project began in 2016, before embodied carbon was a widespread topic of discussion, but the building has also proven progressive in this aspect. The optimized structure means that there is no secondary steel, reducing a major contributor to a building’s embodied carbon footprint. MJMA recently undertook a carbon analysis of 14 projects in its portfolio, and found that Churchill Meadows’ embodied carbon intensity of 435 CO2e/m2 put it at the lower end of its buildings with concrete pool basins. 

The learnings from this internal embodied carbon study, as well as from the design of Churchill Meadows, are already informing MJMA’s next set of buildings, particularly several mass timber buildings on its drawing boards. But while all recreation centres are similar in program, the buildings are also distinct—reflecting the diversity of individual communities. The unique identity of Churchill Meadows is perhaps most evident on Friday evenings, when the gymnasium hosts Muslim prayers, a function facilitated by foot baths built to the sides of the gym’s twin access corridors. “It’s amazing when you see it—they come up and set up all of the prayer mats straight to Mecca,” says Burbidge. Basket hoops pulled up and pickleball nets tucked away, with sunset colours framed by the wood structure to the west, the architecture gracefully transforms from a sports facility to a place of worship—a building truly at the heart of its community.

CLIENT City of Mississauga | ARCHITECT TEAM David Miller (FRAIC), Chris Burbidge (MRAIC), Tyler Walker (MRAIC), Ted Watson (FRAIC), Tarisha Dolyniuk (FRAIC), Tim Belanger, Andrew Filarski (FRAIC), Robert Allen (FRAIC), Obinna Ogunedo, Leland Dadson, Kris Vassilev, Darlene Montgomery, Jasper Flores, Caleb Tsui, Natalia Ultremari, Jeremy Campbell, Caileigh MacKellar, Kyung-Sun Hur | STRUCTURAL Blackwell | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Smith + Andersen | CIVIL EMC Group | LANDSCAPE MJMA Architecture & Design | INTERIORS MJMA Architecture & Design | CONTRACTOR Aquicon Construction | EXPERIENTIAL GRAPHIC DESIGN/SIGNAGE & WAYFINDING MJMA Architecture & Design | AREA 7,000 m2 | BUDGET $48  (Community Centre & district park) / $61.8 M (2023 escalated) | COMPLETION October 2021

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 570.2  kWh/m2/year

As appeared in the June 2024 issue of Canadian Architect magazine

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ARCHITECT Hemsworth Architecture Ltd.

TEXT Sean Ruthen

PHOTOS Ema Peter

Comparisons between architecture and medicine are frequent: we talk of sick buildings, the heart of a community, and healing the city. But seldom is there opportunity to write of a direct link.

Earlier this year, the new Upper Skeena Recreation Centre—a project championed by a national and local leader in rural medicine—opened to great fanfare, serving three townships and eight First Nations communities near the confluence of the Skeena and Bulkley Rivers in Central BC. “Our whole diverse community has come together in an unprecedented and determined way to offer new hope—in the creation of the Upper Skeena Recreation Centre—to our children and young people,” said Dr. Peter Newbery, a rallying force behind the project. “In this Hemsworth-designed recreation centre we have a spectacular resource to contribute to the health and well-being of our community.”

Newbery is a respected figure throughout Central BC, where he has served as a family physician and helped to recruit and support healthcare professionals for decades—work that garnered him the Order of Canada.

A few years ago, Newbery and Vancouver architect John Hemsworth met by chance. Hemsworth was engaged in research for BC Wood on wood arena prototypes, and chose to visit Hazelton for its average BC snow loads—only to discover on arrival that the community’s well-loved ice rink was reaching the end of its life cycle.

Hemsworth’s long work in promoting wood use and Passive House design was recognized by a 2016 Governor General’s award, bestowed for a Passive House-standard factory for manufacturing mass timber panels. In Hazelton, Hemsworth set to work with structural engineers Equilibrium and contractors Yellowridge, demonstrating that a new rec center could be built in wood for roughly the same cost as a fabricated steel structure.

Hemsworth discussed other advantages of using wood with Newbery, the elected and traditional hereditary chiefs representing both the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en nations, and the representatives of the municipalities. The wood would be a renewable resource, harvested from BC forests, and construction could be completed by local trades.

The town of Old Hazelton, established pre-Confederation in 1866, is located near the site of an 8,000-year-old Gitxsan village, and sits in the shadow of the kilometre-high Stegyawden Mountain. In the 1860s, the Omineca Gold Rush brought prospectors by sternwheeler; later, the Grand Trunk railroad brought even more people. Eventually, two more towns were established nearby: New Hazelton and South Hazelton.

The area’s townships and Indigenous villages have comprised Newbery’s catchment for some 42 years, and he is well known by the 7,000 people that call the region home. With the support of local representatives, he rallied official and informal resources together behind this important project. Funding for the building came from federal and provincial governments, who provided $8 million and $4 million respectively for the project. The doctor and his team were also able to secure private donations, including an anonymous $3-million gift.

As is the case with any project, the course did not always run smooth. What were thought to be the foundations of an old hospital next to the existing ice rink turned out to be extensive bedrock. The increased cost of blasting for the new foundations was offset by eliminating a planned kitchen. Despite this, the basketball courts and fitness centre were saved, such that the 5,000-square-metre facility can host hockey and basketball events at the same time. It can also be open year-round—a significant benefit, as the original program had only called for a seasonal facility.

As part of his research for BC Wood, Hemsworth priced out three different options for constructing a standard ice rink from timber: using truss, arch, and clear-span-and-bracket systems. In the version chosen for Hazelton, the clear-span-and-bracket, two cantilevered beams splice into a third to complete an almost 40-metre span. The bracket beams greatly reduce the bending moment, resulting in an efficient and cost-effective structure. The roof is set at a gentle five percent slope, and glulam beams and columns are exposed throughout the facility.

Opposite the bleachers, a mural by Gitxsan artist Michelle Stoney pays tribute to the local hockey teams, figure skating organizations, and athletes that have used Old Hazelton’s arena over the past 40 years. A traditional cedar pole—donated by Symoget Niisnoolh and Ray Jones and enhanced by Symoget Delgamuk and Earl Muldoe of Gitsegukla Nation—will soon be raised at the recreation centre’s entrance.

Hemsworth recalls how the original arena had to be evacuated for fear of structural collapse. When visiting the existing A-frame structure with structural engineer Robert Malczyk, the two discovered that the 42-year-old building—then open and filled with people—was unsafe. “I’m philosophical, and in some other world we didn’t show up that day and there was a disaster,” says Hemsworth. “But that didn’t happen—and instead, we have this wonderful new arena.”

The community was initially devastated by the closing of the rink. To respond, they decided to use $250,000 of the new building’s budget to demolish the unsafe structure and refurbish the existing rink for outdoor use during the new building’s construction.

Newbery says that the new building is much beloved, and was well used for five-and-a-half months prior to the onset of COVID-19. The eight villages in his catchment are now under strict lockdown measures. Old, New, and South Hazleton used to host visitors who would travel to see the 8,000-year-old Gitxsan village at the fork of the two rivers; they have all but seen their tourism industry disappear this past summer.

Nonetheless, the recreation centre endures as a symbol of widespread support and future hope for the communities. During the fundraising efforts for the centre, the Vancouver Canucks sent three NHL heavyweights—Dave Babych, Kirk McLean, and Jyrki Lumme—to skate on the newly restored outdoor ice. As a facility shared across multiple communities, Old Hazleton’s new recreation centre brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, adults, and Elders, supporting inter-generational inclusion and diversity.

The importance of the facility, in particular for the youth in these remote communities, cannot be over-stated. In BC and across Canada, such buildings keep youth healthy and engaged, working together through sport in ways that few other places in their communities can offer.

Hopefully, the centre is only the first of its kind. In tandem with the centre’s completion, Hemsworth released his white paper on behalf of BC Wood detailing how similar wood structures could replace other arenas. According to Hemsworth, close to 200 arenas in the province are nearing the end of their life cycles. New wood versions—especially if they are as handsome as the Upper Skeena Recreation Centre—will surely be embraced as the hearts of their respective communities.

Sean Ruthen, FRAIC, is a Metro Vancouver-based architect and the current RAIC regional director for BC and Yukon.

CLIENT Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine | ARCHITECT TEAM John Hemsworth (RAIC), Dean Shwedyk, Alvin Martin, Stephanie Matkuluk | STRUCTURAL Equilibrium Consulting | MECHANICAL MCW Consultants | ELECTRICAL NRS Engineering | CONTRACTOR Yellowridge Construction | REFRIGERATION JS Refrigeration Engineering | AREA 5,100 M² | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION September 2019

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TEXT Darryl Condon, Managing Principal, and Melissa Higgs, Principal, HCMA

For many neighbourhoods, community centres are the single most important space for residents to gather, learn, play and celebrate together. Community centres also provide a key venue to support inclusion and diversity, providing an opportunity for us to break down systemic racism. 

One of the primary roles of our community centres—to bring us together—is directly at odds with the current need to maintain physical distance. While some things about our community spaces will change in reaction to the pandemic, our goal, as architects, should be to keep up their key mandate of fostering social unity.

Some of the changes in community spaces will be temporary, while we anticipate that other changes may become permanent.

In the short term, while public safety guidelines are in seemingly constant flux, community centre operators are challenged to find different ways to engage with their communities. This has meant shifting more activities outdoors, limiting class sizes and implementing tight operational protocols.

The longer term is harder to predict, but we do anticipate some lasting, positive impacts on how we design community facilities. One of these changes is the design of the in-between spaces. Currently, spaces such as corridors and lobbies are not valued at the planning stage in the same way as revenue-generating areas. However, communities are built precisely in these unprogrammed spaces, through informal interaction and socializing. The in-between spaces that connect the core spaces in the building also connect us.

Circulation spaces that are too often small and narrow will need to be reconsidered to address physical distancing requirements for COVID-19 and possible future pandemics. We believe that wider corridors and larger gathering spaces that do not require a fee to enter, will, over time, also result in greater opportunities for informal social connections, creating more vibrant and diverse community facilities. 

Pre-COVID, many existing public facilities had consolidated their operations, reducing public access to a single point of entry to create the perception of added security, even when additional entries were part of the original design. This had an unintended consequence of disconnecting facilities from the surrounding community fabric. Operators—and architects—will need to find other ways to manage the comings and goings within facilities, so as to re-open entry points and allow for the separation of entry and exiting during COVID. Ultimately, creative approaches to this issue will have the added long-term benefit of creating stronger linkages to communities, as multiple entries are able to address pedestrian and cycling connections from various directions.

We believe that the public’s expectations for cleanliness will remain high in the future. This has significant design implications on spaces such as changerooms and public washrooms. It will support the current trend towards the use of universal changerooms and washrooms, which better facilitate regular monitoring and cleaning that can be performed by staff of any gender. These service spaces will need to become larger to accommodate current expectations of usage and an increased level of staffing.

From a diversity and inclusion perspective, gender-neutral facilities offer a range of community benefits. They provide greater privacy and accessibility for many users—including children and the elderly who may require assistance from someone of a different gender, those who have personal health requirements or mobility challenges, and those who are transgender or transitioning. Universal facilities reduce barriers to access and provide greater inclusion, providing an opportunity to break down societal biases based on ability, gender-fluidity, and other perceived differences.

We expect the needs of personal wellness to drive many decisions moving forward. Throughout community centres, material selection will become even more critical as ease of cleaning and the perception of cleanliness will be greater considerations. Multipurpose spaces will likely increase in size to allow for greater spacing of participants. All spaces—whether formal or informal—will benefit from greater access to outdoor space, daylight, fresh air and operable windows.

As designers of these facilities, we should see the pandemic’s challenges as an opportunity to design more resilient, responsive facilities—with the added benefit of better supporting social closeness, even in the midst of social distancing.

• Michel Broz (Jodoin Lamarre Pratte) on hospital design
• Darryl Condon and Melissa Higgs (HCMA) on community centres
• Robert Davies (Montgomery Sisam) on long-term care homes
• Jason-Emery Groen (HDR) on team structure
• Susan Gushe and Kathy Wardle (Perkins and Will) on the climate crisis
• Bruce Kuwabara, Mitchell Hal, Kael Opie and Geoff Turnbull (KPMB Architects) on academic facilities
• Matthew Lella (Diamond Schmitt) on theatre design
• Caroline Robbie (Quadrangle) on office design
• Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto (ERA) on housing retrofits
• Vincent Van Den Brink (Breakhouse) on retail and hospitality
• Betsy Williamson (Williamson Williamson) on social and gender equity

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WINNER OF A 2020 GOVERNOR GENERAL’S MEDAL IN ARCHITECTURE

LOCATION Vancouver, British Columbia
ARCHITECT MGA | Michael Green Architecture
PHOTOS Ema Peter Photography

Located on Jericho Beach in Vancouver, the Dock Building serves a large marina of sailboats. The facility provides washrooms and showers, offices for the Harbour Master, instruction space for children, and a variety of workshops to maintain boats, sails and gear.

The project’s practical working needs, modest budget and prominent siting required a simple solution that honoured the cannery and industrial heritage of waterfront buildings that were found on the site a half-century earlier.

The massing is simple: two intersecting wedge volumes mirror each other to create a lantern to the sea and a lantern to the land. Facing land, a glulam-and-translucent-polycarbonate wall brings light into the workshop spaces and glows along the beach at night. Facing the sea and the marina, a series of garage doors opens to the shop bays, and glazed offices serve for the management of the docks.

A back-lit wood screen above the offices hides the mechanical systems in the high volume of the water-facing wedge. A knife-edge gutter provides an overhang for the shop doors, mimicking the razor-edge forms of the racing sailboats that line the dock.

The building resides on the water’s edge, just where high tide meets the beach. Almost half of the project budget went to the foundation and piles, leaving the design team with the challenge of meeting the project’s functional needs on a tight budget, while delivering a meaningful place to the community.

To meet this challenge, the designers selected economical, yet robust, materials. White standing-seam panels are used for the exterior, harmonizing with the forms and colour of the boats and their sails. The structure is primarily composed of durable, long-lasting timber, including glulam posts and beams, and light timber infill decking and walls. The interior is predominantly construction-grade fir plywood, providing a tough, easily replaceable interior finish. The extensive use of wood makes the most of the budget, but more importantly, demonstrates the benefits of using this flexible, carbon-capturing, sustainable material. Throughout, the project has modest, practical details.

The design team aimed to demonstrate that all projects—from boutique museums to working industrial buildings—can, and should, be realized with grace and architectural dignity. While museums are few and far between, practical buildings like recreational support facilities are a common part of our communities. The designers believe in the importance of celebrating the common: delivering architecture on a shoestring is always possible.

:: Jury Comments ::  This practical facility sits very lightly among the docks, at rest on the Vancouver shoreline like a boat on the water. From its simple form and efficient organization arise an architectural experience that is both poetic and sensible. While modest, it exhibits careful thinking about composition and materials on almost every level. To coin a phrase, sometimes less is more than enough.

PROJECT TEAM Michael Green (FRAIC), Candice Nichol, Mingyuk Chen, Evelyne Saint Jacques, Justin Bennett, Winston Chong | CLIENT Royal Vancouver Yacht Club   | STRUCTURAL Equilibrium Consulting | MECHANICAL/ AME Consulting Group Ltd. | electrICAL Jarvis Engineering Consultants Ltd. | CIVIL/MARINE STRUCTURAL Worley Parsons | CONTRACTOR Heatherbrae Builders | envelope RDH Building Science Inc. | OCCUPANCY September 1, 2017   | BUDGET $3.5M

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MANITOBOGGAN, a toboggan shelter and set of slides at St. Vital Park in Winnipeg designed by PUBLIC CITY ARCHITECTURE, has won two awards for exemplary, accessible sports architecture.

The awards come from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS). They were announced at a ceremony in Cologne, Germany on November 5, 2019.

MANITOBOGGAN has been presented with an IPC IAKS Award of Distinction and an IOC IAKS Bronze Award.

The IOC IAKS Award recognizes exemplary sports buildings and complexes that integrate sensible sustainability and legacy considerations, strong functional planning and exceptional architectural design.

The IPC IAKS Award of Distinction recognizes facilities that increase the accessibility of sports, offering all people opportunities to practice and view sport freely and without barriers.

The awards competition is held every two years. This year, 22 international awards were presented to projects in 14 countries, including 5 IPC IAKS awards.

MANITOBOGGAN received the only IPC IAKS award for a project in Canada. It is the first universally-accessible toboggan slide structure in the country and represents the City of Winnipeg’s commitment to barrier-free, social infrastructure.

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Location Borden Park, Edmonton, Alberta

Architect gh3*

Photos gh3*

The Borden Park Natural Swimming Pool is the first chemical-free public outdoor pool to be built in Canada. The project replaces an existing pool and includes a seasonal pavilion and landscaped pool precinct for 400 swimmers.

The challenge was to create a large-scale pool with high-quality water control while also achieving an environmentally healthy and natural filtration process. The design process began with developing a pool technology that cleanses the water through stone, gravel, sand and botanic filtering processes. These processes inspired a materials-oriented concept for the change room facility, in which the gabion basket stone walls visually evoke the idea of filtration.

Canada’s guidelines for public pools are some of the strictest in the world. To realize the project, the architects needed to take a first-principles, science-based approach to the design challenge. By classifying the project as “recreational waters,” the building permit was issued as a “constructed beach with variances,” and the variances were the pools.

The pool involves a balanced ecosystem where plant materials, microorganisms and nutrients come together within a gravel and sand filtering process. Filtration is achieved in two ways: through a biological-mechanical system with a constructed wetland and gravel filter, and in situ, with zooplankton. It is an unsterilized system, free of chemicals and disinfectants. Isolating membranes contain water as it circulates and is cleansed through a natural process.

The cleansing takes place at the north end of the pool precinct. On the pool deck, water passes through a sand and stone pond and a planted hydrobotanic pond. Adjacent to these ponds, a granular filter PO4 adsorption unit is enclosed by gabion walls continuous with the change room facility.

In addition to universal change rooms and water filtration infrastructure, the seasonal building houses showers, washrooms and staff areas. The swimming facilities include a children’s pool, a deep pool, on-deck outdoor showers, a sandy beach, picnic areas and spaces for other pool-related recreational activities.

The project’s materiality creates a strong conceptual connection between the technical demands of the pool and the design of the built enclosure and landscape elements. The gabion walls’ dark, locally sourced limestone and steel elements define the enclosure’s vertical dimension as filter-like, breathable, granular and porous. The gabion walls of the low rectilinear building terminate with a lid-like flat roof that frames the tree canopy of the park beyond, and enhances the sensation of open-sky spaciousness within the pool precinct.

The pool precinct is defined by a planar landscape where flush-to-surface detailing creates seamless interfaces between the sandy beach, concrete pool perimeter and wood decking.

The elemental form and reductive materials enrich the narrative of bathing in the landscape. The juxtaposition of the constructed elements evokes comparisons with the geology of the North Saskatchewan River and the flat topography of the Prairie lands’ edge.

:: Jury ::   Richard Henriquez (CM, FRAIC), Sergio Morales (MIRAC), Johanna Hurme (FRAIC)

We have here a clear example in which technical innovation is serving the fabrication of an architecture that ultimately transcends it. As Canada’s first non-chemical pool with a natural water filtration system, the Borden Park Pool embodies the idea of innovation and results in an effortless and subtle architectural outcome. The strength of the simple, yet powerful architecture is beautifully integrated with the biological systems that provide healthy user experiences, both physically and psychologically.

CLIENT City of Edmonton, Robb Heit (Project Manager) | ARCHITECT TEAM Pat Hanson (FRAIC), Raymond Chow (MRAIC), John Mckenna, DaeHee Kim, Joel Di Giacomo, Bernard Jin (MRAIC), Nicholas Callies | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/CIVIL Morrison Hershfield | LANDSCAPE gh3* | INTERIORS gh3* | CONTRACTOR EllisDon | NATURAL POOL CONSULTANT Polyplan | AREA 770 m² | BUDGET $14.4 M | COMPLETION July 2018

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ARCHITECT P3Architecture Partnership

In a marginalized Regina neighbourhood known as North Central, the contemporary mâmawêyatitân centre stands out amid the humble vinyl-sided and eroded clapboard houses. Mâmawêyatitân (roughly pronounced mama-WAH-yah-tin-tin) is a Cree word meaning “let’s be all together.” In this case, the moniker is quite literal: the building is a conflation of high school, daycare, community centre, library and satellite police station. It’s a weave of wildly variegated, potentially conflict-generating programs within a single complex—which is why its strategic design is so crucial to its success.

Designed by Regina-based P3Architecture Partnership (P3A) and funded jointly by the Regina Public Schools (Province of Saskatchewan), City of Regina and Regina Public Library, the mâmawêyatitân centre was completed in 2017 after a long process of negotiation and consensus building. First, the architects and other stakeholders had to establish trust and buy-in from community members, largely Indigenous and lower-income, who had a right to be skeptical. Aside from belonging to demographic groups that have been systematically marginalized, they had endured vague (and then broken) promises about the proposed centre since the idea was first discussed in 2001. By the time design development finally got underway, the program faced serious provincial funding cuts and had lost two major components—a health clinic and a food store—that were originally supposed to be embedded within it.

When construction started, the project extracted some harsh trade-offs: the new construction obliterated all the existing buildings on the site, including a century-old brick high school. That particular building was arguably of heritage value, but also carried an unfortunate visual evocation of residential schools for its mostly Indigenous student body. The existing community centre, of more recent vintage, also had to be demolished in order to construct the new unified, multi-programmed building.

The centre aims to embody Indigenous principles in its materiality, by abstracting the Prairie locale’s wide horizons in its opaque sky-blue glass and Tyndall-stone base. “The building is about the place itself, but also everyone’s experience of the place,” says P3A principal James Youck.

In its programming, the centre goes far beyond the typical multifunctional building, where different users have separated zones, or distinct groups use a facility on weekdays and on weekends. The logistics of creating a deeply integrated space—that is, space that can instantly or in some cases simultaneously serve multiple purposes—required much research and many conversations.

The high school, for instance, needed to access the commercial kitchen, workshop, art studio, theatre and library—all spaces which would be available for community use as well. And yet certain zones—the after-school hangout room, councillor’s office, daycare (devoted strictly to students’ children) and faculty quarters—would be accessible only to the high school students and staff. The central administrative and reception area would be partially shared, partially integrated; that is, city and school staff would have their own specifically designated work stations, but both would share office supplies and equipment anchored in a back room.

The architects collaborated with the usual gaggle of government bureaucrats, but also with local residents and Indigenous Elders. The latter advised on everything from colours to the particular placement of the Elders and Ceremony Space, which they directed the architects to position prominently beside the main community entrance.

Walking through the mâmawêyatitân centre, I’m struck most of all by the deceptively complex floor plan. I say “deceptively” because on entering the building, it reads like a fairly standard (and slightly corporate) building. But a close analysis of the ingress and egress points, and the placement of the various multipurpose rooms bespeaks a highly strategic Rubik’s cube of transformable and interactive spaces. There are no demarcation lines between user groups; instead, spaces seep or surge into one another. Certain rooms, like the workshop and commercial-grade kitchen, serve different end users once the school day ends, and they are designed with embedded moveable walls to expand, contract and secure the spaces as needed. Other areas, like the library and the commons area, serve different user groups simultaneously. (The library is open to the public throughout the day, when it’s also used by students.) These zones have a different spatial strategy.

Architecturally speaking, each of these spaces is “non-binary,” as it were, projecting an identity like a hologram projects an image that is ever-changing as the viewer shifts position. The central commons area, for instance, reads much like a traditional community centre lobby when one approaches it from the building’s main public entrance. But from atop the bleacher steps of the second-storey high school zone, one’s view focuses on an installation of suspended bicycles hanging from the ceiling of the commons. It’s a youth-centric gesture that seems to “belong” to the high school while not seeming out of place for the larger community.

In the middle of the building is the largest space: the main multipurpose room, overseen and used mostly by the City of Regina as a community gymnasium. For performances and larger events, it can be rendered even larger by activating the attached stage and opening the room’s folding glazed doors to let it spill into the commons. The commons, in turn, opens onto the rear outdoor space, landscaped with Indigenous-inspired plantings. A rather stark paved area between the building and the landscaped zone was designed to be screened and visually enriched by a wood pergola, which has not yet been realized due to budget cuts during design development.

Be advised that the architectural firm’s name—derived from its earlier iteration as Pettick Phillips Partners Architects—bears no relationship to the notorious development process known as “P3”. And for sure, it would have been challenging—maybe impossible—to pull off a project with this degree of foresight and inclusivity under the standard P3 process, which blindly favours the immediate cost cut over the qualitative benefit. So much daylighting, so many entrances and exits? Not strictly necessary on a blindly functional basis, and yet crucial to delivering efficient, secure multipurpose programming. The building’s generous glazing and multiple access points allow users to instantly see if, when and how a space is occupied from their dedicated ingress point. For the neighbourhood outside, the transparency of the highly activated building also ensures that Jane Jacobs’s “eyes on the street” are present for the neighbourhood.

A thoughtful attention to spatial occupation and sightlines plays out throughout the building. Both the daycare and the satellite police station are tucked discreetly out of the sightlines of the high school entry zone—close by, but not overtly in the face of the students. The high school’s student washrooms are designed as a panoply of separate single-user rooms, rather than the near-universal communal washrooms. That strategy—though a little more costly in terms of space and dollars—avoids creating one of the most fertile grounds for bullying in a school.

Two years after completion, how is the approach of being “all together” working out? Inside and out, the structure still looks pristine, with virtually no traces of vandalism. That attests to its acceptance and embrace by the community, says Youck. But he also notes that the acceptance was hard won, and is an ongoing, ever-renewing process. An outdoor pergola, if and when it receives funding, will add much-needed organic warmth and a brise-soleil to the rear area. The centre’s highly flexible common spaces do allow for an informal pop-up grocery and periodic visits by a mobile health unit, but the loss of the on-site health clinic and food store remains Youck’s biggest disappointment about the project.

Both the architects and the community are cognizant of the need for more services, more resources and more time to overcome the disadvantages of long-standing marginalization, says Youck. The mâmawêyatitân centre is designed to facilitate this restorative process during adolescence and beyond. But Youck himself acknowledges that it will take years to know the true measure of the success for the building. “It’s really the next generation where we’ll see this come to full fruition.”

Adele Weder is an architectural curator and critic based in British Columbia.

CLIENT City of Regina, Regina Public Schools and Regina Public Library | ARCHITECT TEAM Chris Roszell (MRAIC), James Youck (MRAIC), Brenda-Dale McLean (MRAIC), Sherry Hastings, Nitish Joshi, Ashton Fraess, Rebecca Henricksen, Deb Christie | STRUCTURAL JC Kenyon Enegineering | MECHANICAL MacPherson Engineering | ELECTRICAL ALFA Engineering | CIVIL Associated Engineering | LANDSCAPE Crosby Hanna & Associates | INTERIORS P3Architecture Partnership | KITCHEN Burnstad Consulting | COST BTY Group | LEED/COMMISSIONING MMM (now WSP) | CONTRACTOR Quorex Construction Services | AREA 10,500 m² | BUDGET $32 M | COMPLETION September 2017

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For years, developers kept a close eye on Charron Island, a site of exceptional beauty a half hour’s drive from downtown Montreal. Nature lovers also watched, as the coveted land stands at the head of a unique archipelago of relatively intact islands in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. In 1975, a year before the city hosted the Olympic Games, a 130-room hotel was opened under the Sheraton banner, creating a major precedent for future development.

The mid-1970s was a time of widespread enthusiasm for road infrastructure, and the Quebec government failed to see the potential for irremediable damage to the islands’ unique ecosystem. Thirty years later, however, sensibilities had changed, and when a 2,500-unit condominium project was proposed for Charron Island, there was a public uproar. The Quebec government put a hold on the project, and in 2012, bought the island with the view of integrating it with the existing Îles-de-Boucherville National Park on four of the neighbouring islands. This major commitment also included funding for a new visitor centre, to be built and run by Sépaq (Société des établissements de plein air du Québec), the organization responsible for Quebec’s extensive park network.

At the time, Sépaq had already shown signs of wanting to give a fresh look to its parks as it upgraded its facilities. In 2013, it opened a visitor centre with a contemporary aesthetic in Mont-Tremblant National Park. The architects, Smith Vigeant, had welcomed the opportunity to steer their client away from stereotypes such as the oversized log cabins often associated with Canada’s and Quebec’s parklands.

For the Îles-de-Boucherville National Park, Smith Vigeant was again selected (through an RFP process) to design the facility. For the architects, however, this was an entirely different proposition from their earlier visitor centre. A far cry from Mont-Tremblant’s rugged, forested envi­ronment, the flat St. Lawrence River landscape is sprinkled with beautiful mature trees, including magnificent specimens of weeping willows. These trees became a leitmotif for the architects as they started their work, informing the sweeping forms and delicate exterior screens of the final project, which recently garnered an OAQ Award of Excellence.

The concept was developed through an integrated design process, which took place over the course of a three-day charette. The full-day workshops involved the client, professionals from a wide spectrum of design disciplines, and biologists from Sépaq. One of the first decisions that evolved from these meetings was to split the program into two separate components. The main pavilion—350 square metres in size—includes an arrival area, central reception desk, small cafeteria and family washrooms. A few staff offices, a boutique, a storage area and a mechanical room occupy the rest of the building. The second pavilion is a seasonal, 150-square-metre equipment rental facility, catering to the needs of campers, kayakers and cyclists.

Both buildings are striking curvilinear objects—a presence that is simultaneously surprising and harmonious, blending in with the meadow-like landscape of the islands. From the parking area, the buildings act as a gateway to the water beyond and to the activities taking place around the wharf. This visual link—from the parking area to the St. Lawrence River—was a must for Sépaq, a requirement that was elegantly resolved with the presence of two structures on either side of a central public area.

In keeping with the tree canopy narrative evoked by the architects, an overhang subtly signals the entrance to the main pavilion. Inside, the visitor’s gaze is attracted towards the ceiling, where a curvilinear shaft dominates the space. Architect Daniel Smith, who led the design of the project, recalls wanting to give the impression of “a break between trees, letting the sun in.” The more prosaic explanation is that the clerestory windows integrated in the lightwell are part of a carefully studied natural ventilation system, which cools the pavilion without mechanical air conditioning.

The client’s strong ecological agenda was key to all design decisions. As the architects write, “Each move was intended to contribute to the overall aesthetics of the pavilion, yet also play a role in the project’s sustainability.” A prime example is the lace-like wood slats on the exterior of the pavilions, reminiscent of willow branches. They act as a brise-soleil in the summer, while allowing the sunrays to penetrate deep in the building during the cooler seasons.

Exterior and interior finishes are mostly cedar. Various coatings were applied to the wood, according to its particular location and the effect desired. For instance, the exterior slats were treated with a coating that imitates the weathering process and will ensure a smooth transition in appearance as they age. Triple-glazed windows open up to the surroundings, while reflecting the natural beauty of the site when seen from the outside. It is to be hoped that birds won’t be fooled by the illusion.

The desire to use contemporary architecture to emphasize the individual identity of Quebec’s parks, rather than sticking to a nostalgic stereotype, is a welcome sign of evolving mentalities. Of interest as well is the freedom enjoyed by the architects, who were able to fully explore a conceptually driven approach, rather than just accommodating a set of functions.

There are a number of precedents for this creative climate in park and interpretive centre design. One of them is the Centre d’interprétation du Bourg de Pabos, built in the 1990s by Atelier Big City. Resulting from an early architectural competition, this modest, somewhat flamboyant pavilion set the tone for new directions in architecture and gave hope to generations of young architects in Quebec.

Traditional procurement methods are still all too prevalent for most building types in Quebec and in Canada. The incentive to come up with creative solutions is obviously not as strong for the architects as it is when they take part in a competition. In spite of this more constrained selection process, however, the jewel-like Îles-de-Boucherville pavilions are proof that, with the support of trusting clients, architects of talent such as Smith Vigeant can come up with surprising, wonderful solutions.

Odile Hénault is a Montreal-based architectural writer and communications consultant.

PROJECT The Discovery and Visitor Center of Îles-de-Boucherville National Park, Boucherville, Québec ARCHITECT Smith Vigeant architectes TEXT Odile Hénault PHOTOS Adrien Williams

CLIENT Sépaq (Société des Établissements de Plein Air du Québec) | ARCHITECT TEAM Daniel Smith RAIC, Stéphan Vigeant, Anik Malderis, Cindy Neveu, Mariana Segui, Maxime Varin, Karolina Jastrzebska, Jennifer Ashley Dyke | STRUCTURAL WSP (Nicol Girard) | MECHANICAL Bouthillette Parizeau (Jacques Lagacé, Michel Primeau) | ELECTRICAL Bouthillette Parizeau (Paola Borjas) | CIVIL WSP (Soheil Nakhostin) | LANDSCAPE Groupe BC2 (Carole Labrecque) | INTERIORS Smith Vigeant architectes | CONTRACTOR Construction R. Bélanger | AREA 510 m²| BUDGET $4 M | COMPLETION August 2017

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 238 kWh/m²/year | BENCHMARK (Natural Resources Canada, other commercial/institutional buildings from 2010 or later) 305 kWh/m²/year | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.38 m³/m²/year | BENCHMARK (RealPAC water benchmarking pilot, 2012) 0.98 m³/m²/year

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The newly named Zatzman Sportsplex has opened in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. A $28-million renovation and expansion designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects and Abbott Brown Architects adds new amenities and services to this major civic recreational facility.

“The role of a community sports centre has evolved to become a much more inclusive place,” said Jarle Lovlin, principal, Diamond Schmitt Architects. “We have not only added new program for community activities but also made it more welcoming.”

The design objective of the revitalization was to create activity, transparency, and connection. A more open plan within the facility and new views outside to the adjacent Halifax harbour and Dartmouth Common now connect this 100,000-square-foot facility. A central triangular atrium links the levels of the facility and provides natural light and focus on the range of available activities.

Principal features of the transformation include a new entry, a larger fitness and cardio area, and a new double gymnasium. A central café adjacent the gym, a childcare area with views to the Common, and new studios activate the core of the building. The aquatics area has added a splash area for kids, new water slides, a therapy pool, universal change facilities and accessibility improvements to the teaching pool.

“The fitness rooms now overlook the pool and the harbour,” said Lovlin, “so patrons engage with the facility on many levels, are aware of more activities, and ultimately make more connections within the community.”

“Improvements in infrastructure make the whole facility more energy efficient and accessible, with better wayfinding and circulation and much more natural light,” said Alec Brown of Abbott Brown Architects.

Zatzman Sportsplex, formerly named Dartmouth Sportsplex, also adds new artwork to enhance the visitor experience. A major mural by Mi’kmaw artist Jordan Bennett incorporates various metals, traditional Mi’kmaw motifs and colour and explores the histories, traditions and contributions to sport in traditional Mi’kmaw territory. A second installation by the artist is a design across 1,500 square feet of interior glazing.

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The first view you get of Edmonton’s latest outdoor pool is a long black gabion wall. But it’s no ordinary wall: it has a particularly even texture and refined construction that hints at something special on the other side. And indeed, there is. It’s the country’s first natural swimming pool—a system where plants, rather than chemicals, are used to treat the water.

It’s a sweltering hot August afternoon when we visit. Coming by transit from the north, the approach to the pool has no sidewalk, no signage, and no formal pathway, so it’s a bit disorienting to find our way to the entrance. But we hear the clear and familiar sounds of swimmers behind the wall, and eventually join a line of visitors. Admission is a thirty-minute wait—demand is high for this novel place—but the building is oriented to provide ample shade for waiting alongside the east-facing wall.

A swimming hole has long existed in Borden Park. In the late nineteenth century, residents enjoyed dipping into a pond in their dungarees; after the park was formally established in 1906, one of the city’s first three outdoor swimming pools was opened in the same spot.

In the 1950s, that simple structure was upgraded to a flat-roofed pavilion, with red brick walls and broad overhangs. Parts of the 1950s building are incorporated in the southwest corner of the current pool, designed by gh3*, a Toronto-based architecture and landscape architecture firm. The mid-century spirit also lives on in the new pavilion’s straightforward form: a simple rectangular bar, constructed from black limestone gabion. Occasional glazing slices reveal the full mass and thickness of the seasonal building’s envelope—which, unlike a typical layered building skin, is made solely of gabion. At the entry, a series of steel plates pivot open to reveal a through-space, leading directly past the admissions desk to the pool’s courtyard. Setting foot in this vestibule is akin to passing through a fortification into a spa-like club. The architecture is rigorous, regimented and elegant.

Height-wise, the new building and surrounding fence align with the original 1950s structure. This creates a continuous datum that lends the pool a clear feeling of “insideness,” while being open to the sky and overhanging trees above. The idea of expansive flatness is further emphasized at the ground plane. The sand, the flush edge of the pool water, the pool deck, and the wood shower deck are on a continuous level, creating an evenness that echoes prairie fields.

The pavilion is organized in a rational manner: inside its gabion walls, two circulation corridors run the length of the building. Distinct interior volumes include the admissions desk, changerooms and washrooms. Finished surfaces of marine-grade plywood were rubbed with black and white paints to expose the wood grain in high contrast, yielding a highly textured effect.

From the exterior gabion walls to the interior concrete floors and sinks, the most important material in the project is stone. “Everything is built on the idea of stone in its incremental forms,” says architect Pat Hanson, FRAIC. “When you think about clean water, you think about mountain water—water rolling over rocks and this relationship of cleanliness and hard mineralized surfaces.”

To preserve the integrity of the water, showers are mandatory. After soaking under sleek, cane-shaped on-deck showerheads, we enter the wading pool. The water has a soft quality to it, similar to a lake, and is perfectly cool on this blazing hot day. This natural, clean water is as much an achievement as the building itself, and as my infant son dips into it, I am glad for the designers’ efforts.

Swimming pools in Canada have typically been rendered safe through the use of harsh chemicals like chlorine. This sterilizing comes at the cost of red eyes and bleach-scented skin. The Borden Park Pool water is different. Before city-supplied water enters the closed loop system, it is dechlorinated and phosphates are removed. From the pool, water is continuously filtered through a three-chamber sedimentation system that removes large particles. It can then go one of two ways. In one direction, it gets sprayed onto specially selected aquatic plants at the top of a large Neptune sand filter. The plants remove microorganisms by absorbing them as nutrients. The water slowly filters through layers of granite rocks, which catch smaller dirt particles and microscopic impurities. The other pathway leads to the on-deck filtration system consisting of a sand-and-stone submersive pond and planted hydrobotanic pond. After travelling to a holding basin, the water can then move to heating, a UV purifier, and another phosphorous absorber. Rather than being sterile, this water is living and clean.

One of the project’s biggest achievements was getting Alberta Health Services and other authorities onside. Canada’s swimming pool regulations are among the world’s most stringent—much stricter than the regulations in Europe, where natural pools have existed for decades.

To operate this Canadian-first-of-its-kind pool, Borden Natural Swimming Pool was classified as “recreational waters,” like a lake. “In the end, we applied for the building permit as a ‘constructed beach with variances’. And the variances were the pools,” Hanson explains. “We had the potential to back up the system with chlorine if it didn’t work. And it has worked out, but it was a bit of a calculated risk.”

As in any lake, there are small amounts of algae in the water, which contribute to the feeling of softness. With more swimmers and the residual phosphor from their bodies, algae growth accelerates. Water samples are tested three times a week in collaboration with the University of Alberta; if the amount of algae is high, the water turns dark green and cloudy. While this is not a health hazard, lifeguards can’t see far into dark water and public safety becomes an issue. In these instances—as on the day of our visit—the pool’s deep end must be closed to the public.

From my vantage point on a floating pool noodle, this is a reasonable trade off for a chemical-free pool. The cloudiness of the water is a perfectly natural growing pain for an innovative idea in its debut season. I hold my baby while he splashes water in our faces, and we are happy.

Edmonton-based architect Cynthia Dovell, MRAIC is a principal at AVID Architecture. She sits on the Edmonton Arts Council’s public art committee and teaches design studios for the RAIC Centre for Architecture at Athabasca University.

CLIENT City of Edmonton, Robb Heit (Project Manager) | ARCHITECT TEAM Pat Hanson (FRAIC), Raymond Chow (MRAIC), John Mckenna, DaeHee Kim, Joel Di Giacomo, Bernard Jin (MRAIC), Nicholas Callies | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/CIVIL Morrison Hershfield | LANDSCAPE gh3* | INTERIORS gh3* | CONTRACTOR EllisDon | NATURAL POOL CONSULTANT Polyplan | AREA 770 m2 | BUDGET $14.4 M | COMPLETION July 2018

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In recent years, Calgary has built a large number of multi-purpose recreation and community centres, typically in partnership with a multitude of agencies. The latest iteration is the recently opened Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge, by GEC Architecture, on the outskirts of northwest Calgary: a spectacular curvilinear building inspired by the surrounding foothills landscape. Calgary-based GEC Architecture has a long history of designing sports and recreation facilities going back to the 1983 Saddledome and the 1987 Olympic Speed Skating Oval. The Shane Homes YMCA, programmed and built by the City of Calgary, sits on a 2.6-hectare site between a wetland and a hill that is the highest point in the city. The YMCA is the operator and long-term leaseholder; the Calgary Public Library, physio clinic, and vendors hold sub-leases with the YMCA. (The adjacent wetland and hill are outside of the YMCA lease, and maintained by the city’s Parks and Recreation department.) As key stakeholders, the YMCA and Public Library were part of the design process.

Like the Genesis Centre of Community Wellness in northeast Calgary (by Gibbs Gage with Quinn Young Associates) and the Reming- ton YMCA at Quarry Park in the southeast (by GEC Architecture), the projects are often sponsor-named after local developers and home builders. Shane Homes, the building’s main sponsor, is one of the largest home-builders in Calgary.

As a form in the landscape, the building presents a myriad of com- positions unveiling themselves as one moves around the building. The architects successfully created a shape that responds to both internal and external elements, and found appropriate ways to structure and fenestrate the form. The complex shape of the building is covered mainly in brass tiles that will weather to a warm brown; the skin covers a very large structural system that employs long span glulam beams supported on steel. Reportedly the largest YMCA in the world, with the largest roof of its kind in North America, the structure boasts a form created through parametric design. Benefits of this approach resulted in many design efficiencies, including using only one jig for shaping the large glulam beams.

“We used the Grasshopper plug-in for Rhino3D to parametrically develop the design, optimise the curvature deviation between each beam length, and control the amount of sacrificial lamination required for the glulam beam manufacturing,” says GEC associate Adrian Benoit. “The parametric modelling also allowed for real time exterior envelope calculations to run parallel to the design process to ensure we maintained as low an area as possible. These tools were extremely beneficial to the design process but also played a large role in delivering 3D geometric controls to the glulam and steel fabricators. The project was documented and delivered in Revit, with the parametric model information translated into the BIM model to produced the contract documents.”

This project thus represents the use of very up-to-date parametric and BIM software in the design and delivery of a large multi-function- al building. These tools enabled the architects to optimise a shape to cover the disparate elements of the program, allowing for a building that can be largely experienced as one big space.

The ability to work directly with the Penticton-based Structurlam, the manufacturer of the glulam beams, also allowed for the successful construction of an unconventional design. In describing the building, GEC Architecture partners David Edmunds and Andrew Tankard are justifiably enthusiastic about the process and completed building. The project has already won a number of design awards, including a 2013 Mayor’s Urban Design Award from the City of Calgary, and a 2018 Prairie Design Award of Excellence.

The result is a community facility that is strikingly different from a formal point-of-view, and already intensely busy with users. The building is accessed through two major entrances, and several secondary ones. The aquatic centre, fitness area, running track, hockey rink, leisure ice, outdoor paths, play areas, three gymnasia, and skatepark provide recreational uses. While the library/gallery, theatre, gathering spaces, art studios, youth centre, and meeting rooms support a range of community activities. Finally, a daycare, physio centre, and food services complement the rest of the program. Like other such complexes in Alberta, it is effectively the town centre for the surrounding neighbourhoods, a served population of 100,000 residents.

Despite a number of minor challenges resolving the numerous connections and the complex geometries of the design, the building is ultimately a remarkable work of architecture. The design features a surface topography that corresponds with the context and successfully houses a broad range of functions. The use of advanced software allowed the architects to rationalize the design in terms of volume and surface, and to resolve the structuring and technical aspects of the concept. The building is intended to meet LEED Gold requirements, and employs a co-generation system that also utilises waste heat.

As clients increasingly demand higher performing buildings, architects will have to be adept at using both industry-specific software packages, but also those that compliment and enhance the design of buildings. In the case of the Shane Homes YMCA the architects were able to demonstrate at an early stage in the process that they could design and deliver a unique project within the typical budget and constraints of a complex community project.

Graham Livesey, MRAIC is a professor in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Calgary.

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Roadways and railways carve long, sharp cuts through the vast Canadian landscape and are often the only mark of modern human occupation. For Vancouver-based Shape Architecture, working with Calgary-based Hindle Architects, a sliver of such infrastructure would serve as the conceptual touchstone throughout their design process for the Columbia Valley Centre in Invermere, British Columbia. A compact rusty-steel rail bridge just south of town echoes the hard line of the new building; both bridge and building presents a counterpoint in colour and form to the fortified mountains beyond.

Opened in the fall of 2017, the Columbia Valley Centre is an 1,672- square-metre multi-purpose hall and library for a district of roughly 3,000 people nestled between the Rocky and Purcell Mountains in the East Kootenays, 100 kilometres west of the Alberta border. The Centre replaces an aging community hall on a new site. Since 1947, the old hall had hosted theatre productions, weddings, ski swaps, Christmas concerts and craft fairs. It was long loved and well worn, lately suffering from structural problems and a failing roof. Practically, it offered little more than a heated room and a stage. A new hall would have to do much more. As one of the largest public buildings ever undertaken in Inver- mere, the Centre needed to function both as a resource for the local community and as a magnet for larger regional conferences and events.

The Centre has also become a benchmark for Shape Architecture, which, since its founding in 2007, has quietly built up a portfolio of community and recreation work across British Columbia. Beginning with the tiny renovation of the Pender Harbour Aquatic Centre, Shape has now completed nine municipal buildings of increasing scale, including the North Delta Recreation Centre and others in Surrey, Burnaby, and North Vancouver. Most have been renovations of additions to exist- ing buildings. The Columbia Valley Centre is one of Shape’s first standalone community building and exhibits some of the firm’s most finely wrought and fully realized work in this type. This accomplishment, in joint venture with Hindle Architect was recognized with a 2018 AIBC Lieutenant Governor Medal of Excellence.

Designing community facilities requires managing high social aspirations within tight budget constraints. Spaces have to be comfortable but bulletproof, flexible yet specific, in other words, esoteric architectural ideas about rusty rail bridges can easily fall by the wayside. Shape succeeds in delivering a coherent and generous piece of architecture in Invermere. This is a building that is modern and yet rooted in place, a contemporary form that draws specificity through its siting and formal expression.

From the rail bridge, a logical linear plan evolved with a library at one end and multipurpose hall at the other, the lobby holds them together in the middle. A commercial kitchen, storage, and offices surround three sides of the hall. A bank of washrooms is tucked into a berm underneath the library and a roof deck takes in sweeping mountain views from above. The scheme makes clever use of both landscape and building form to manage the jump in scale between the hall and library.

In plan, the west building skin is tweaked and stretched to connect a corner of the small single-storey library to that of the large double- height hall. Here, timber fins pull away from the envelope to create a deep sun shade and a covered west entry court. In section, the library sits on top of a berm, its narrow volume extends northward and, as the ground falls away to reveal a dark lower volume, the articulated upper floor appears to reach out across the site.

While a simple building, the designers employed plenty of invention through the procession and interplay between spaces and the modulation of light and views. The lobby forms the heart of the building. From an easy circulation f low down the stairs from the library to the large skylight that washes the doors of the main hall with light, it’s apparent that much care was taken in the design of this space. Functionally, the lobby acts as a plenum receiving exhaust air from the flanking hall and library. Opening large sliding glass doors naturally ventilates the building through an active fan at the roof.

Deft large-scale planning and the thoughtful resolution of details helps the project prevail against some unfortunate material decisions. At the best of times, given a half-decent budget and a game client, it can be difficult to realize poetic architectural ideas. Public clients can be laser-focused on the practicalities of building management, on eliminating unknowns and minimizing risk in an attempt to deliver the mythic no-maintenance building. At the beginning, the designers pro- posed a cedar cladding set off by fiery feature walls of weathered steel set on top of a char blackened base. In the end, the cedar was replaced with an orange-brown resin panel printed with the image of wood. The blackened base is finished in the same resin panel printed in grey.

These are pale substitutes for natural materials and less forgiving at the detail level. Where vertical wood fins intersect the resin panel, a fussy trim piece is fit on either side of each fin to conceal the joint. Corten accent walls are overwhelmed by the plastic sheen of the panels.

Cladding quibbles aside, this is an accomplished small building in its overall form, the generosity of spaces and its subtle programmatic sup- port. The flexible hall is stocked with just enough specific infrastructure to facilitate its transformation between a judo dojo, banquet hall and performance space. There are movable dividers and a large-scale theatrical curtain system that swings out to form a stage. Retractable theatre seating and a professional A/V booth complete the package. Even the library might easily transition easily into a youth centre, arts organization or cafe sometime in the future.

Whatever the next 70 years brings to Invermere, the Columbia Valley Centre is poised to absorb it. For Shape, the project advances their standing among the ranks of Canadian firms making good architecture from humble beginnings.

Courtney Healey is an architect and writer based in Vancouver.

Photography by Ema Peter.

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The new UBC Aquatic Centre is more than just a swimming pool: it’s a device for viewing the shifting architectural landscape at the University of British Columbia. Designed by MJMA with Acton Ostry Architects, it features a continuous ribbon of glass around the tessellated, all-white, sloped structure. Swimming in its 50-metre-long pool feels like being inside a giant oculus, where “see and be seen” takes on new meaning: you are not just an end-user but also an active participant in the broader visual environment.

Inside, that competition pool is delineated from the family and recreational areas by a giant, translucent Barrisol screen. As I paddle along its north-south axis, framed views of the surrounding built environment unfold before me. Historical context is writ large—from the still-hand- some midcentury War Memorial Gym to the south, to the mid-90s Student Recreation Centre to the north, with the edges of adjacent new student housing under construction and even an Edwardian mansion further on the horizon, peeking through the eastern skyline.

While the new 7,897-square-metre Aquatic Centre was designed to meet the needs of both UBC’s Olympian-level swim team and those of the burgeoning community of young families in the surrounding area, campus planners also envisioned it as a new anchor for the University Boulevard precinct, which is essentially the gateway to the campus.

“Pools and rinks don’t get as much attention as important civic spaces like concert houses or city halls,” says MJMA principal Ted Watson, “but they are very important community spaces.” It’s a program that’s becoming something of a specialty for MJMA: the firm helped transform Regent Park in Toronto with a new Aquatic Centre and is currently working on a pool in Longbridge Park, near the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

UBC’s campus is a mish-mash of styles and era, with the 2010 cam- pus plan generating what Watson likens to a “giant chessboard” with moving pieces. The Aquatic Centre sits on the site that was once used as a field for sports and ceremonies. At its southwest corner is a giant hole—the site of the old 1978 aquatic centre that I knew and loved from my time here as a student in the 1980s—that will soon become a new recreational greenfield. Also surrounding it are the original and the new Student Union Building (SUB), one a bunker-like hangout that now provides student orientation and services, and the other—officially called the Nest—an outward-looking contemporary building.

The element that promises to draw all these diverse buildings together is the enlightened landscape architecture done by MJMA’s in-house team in collaboration with PFS Studio. Their scheme features an “Athlete’s Way” pedestrian greenway between the old SUB and new Aquatic Centre planned to capitalize on existing old growth trees, and newly planted ones on the Aquatic Centre’s southern edge, mitigating the industrial feel of the new bus loop.

In such an architecturally busy environment, the elegant simplicity and restrained palette of the new Aquatic Centre makes sense. With the exception of speckled blue and occasional yellow interior elements referencing UBC colours, it is a mostly white, purist environment.

And just as its design speaks to the balance between public and private space, and between Olympian and community needs, so too does it play with the contrasting solidity and transparency of the surrounding environment. With the brutalist Buchanan Tower to the far northwest, the Brock Commons Tallwood House nearby and especially the adjacent Student Recreation Centre whose glazed north façade offers an un- expected viewing platform into the pool, there is a sense of dialogue rather than distance. This is a building that plays well with others.

Despite its neighbourly congeniality, the Aquatic Centre has a distinctive design that makes it a bright star in the current campus constellation. Its origami-like faceted standing-seam metal roof—designed for rain protection, solar shelter and the controlled admittance of day- light—generates the formal aspects of the design scheme. And yet the dramatically sloping shape is partly the result of financial constraints. “The triangular form of the building was inspired by the fact that we had no budget for a second floor or elevators,” says Watson. “So the internal topography and triangulated shape were part of our plan to make a reduced and simple building workable.”

The rooftop-façade is constructed of powder-coated metal, a humble material elevated to a higher use. “We started with a porcelain façade, which would have been really nice,” says Watson, “but through the value- engineering process, we ended up with the standing-seam metal, which is a more basic approach. By using the tessellated segments, with different orientations of the standing seam, we were capturing shadow and light at different times of day, which gives it a more interesting character.”

The result is a building largely defined by its sculptural roof—whose seams, to be sure, are noticeably not aligned. That was a conscious deci- sion, says Watson—in keeping with the project’s contrapuntal motif. “We felt that this dynamic kind of movement was pretty interesting, visually.” What’s more, to line up the seams would require a level of con- tractor-subcontractor coordination that would kick its budget off-kilter. “We wanted to make the clearest, most legible building possible,” adds MJMA partner and co-designer Viktors Jaunkalns with the goal of “removing as many barriers to participation, and getting as many people swimming and using the building as possible.”

Another distinctive element is the use of light. At the juncture delineating the family and recreational area to the west and the competition area to the east, a series of Y-shaped structural columns support a six- metre-wide skylight. The shifting sun casts patterns on the Barrisol screen, offering a textural element that helps mitigate any sense of sterility in the super white environment. The textile like feel of the material, as well as the humidity resistant large-scale tegular acoustic panelling system help to reduce noise and glare.

The entire building is effectively a tabula rasa, a screen reflecting the surrounding environment, and at night its interior illumination especially its suspended, indirect LED lighting—transforms it into an architectural lantern. Indeed, the Aquatic Centre is a suitable beacon for the re-invigorated University Boulevard precinct. But one hopes that the mildly antiseptic feel will be softened as burgeoning green space develops and landscape trees mature. Although the fabric-like Barrisol screen and acoustic paneling can lend a tent-like vibe to the space, at off-peak hours, when it’s relatively devoid of swimmers, its cavernous space evokes an aquatic airport.

This approach to transitions extends to the mix of gender-specific and universal change rooms, which feature see-through glass walls with strategic mottled patterning. “We wanted to make the clearest, most legible building possible,” says MJMA partner and co-designer Viktors Jaunkalns with the goal of “removing as many barriers to participation, getting as many people swimming and using the building as possible.” It’s an approach that he says is about “cultural openness and democracy of space.”

There was something undeniably cozy about the old aquatic centre, whose brutalism was mitigated by strategic glazing and tropical indoor plantings that lent its interior an aura of sky-lit arboretum, and whose bleachers became a popular student napping spot called “the womb.” It’s hard to imagine that the sheer transparency and openness of the MJMA Aquatic Centre would encourage any napping. The ghost of the former aquatic centre still evokes nostalgia for its relative intimacy; this writer, for one, appreciated its snug sense of enclosure.

Still, the birth of this brave, new LEED-Gold aquatic centre is a happy one. And for those who might yearn for a semiotic of the original aquatic centre, the giant diving board from the late, great outdoor pool, completed in 1954 for the British Empire Games, will soon become an installation piece in the new Athlete’s Way greenspace.

What the new and more extroverted Aquatic Centre lacks in intimacy, it makes up for in outreach. “The more spaces are transparent, clear and open,” observes Jaunkalns, “the more inviting they are as public spaces.”

Hadani Ditmars is a Vancouver-based journalist, author and photographer.
Photos by Ema Peter, except as indicated

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The Saint-Laurent Sports Complex is located between the existing Émile Legault School and Raymond Bourque Arena, both of which are horizontal in form and neutral in character. As a result, for this project, it became vital to create a strong visual and physical link between the Marcel-Laurin Park to the north and the projected green band that will run along Thimens Boulevard. The sculptural nature of the project creates a strong link between these two natural elements in the urban fabric.

Two angular objects—one prismatic, white and diaphanous, the other darker and stretched horizontally—embrace the specific programmatic functions of the project and simultaneously transcend them; they invite users and passersby from the boulevard while serving as a signal for the passage toward the park beyond. The two volumes appear to be shifting, activated by the kinetic energy emanating from the heart of the project, thereby evoking the dynamic nature of the activities taking place within, such as sports, athletics, and training. The volumetric approach is inspired by the tectonic forces that bend the surface layer of the site’s landscape.

The project contains an accessible green roof landscape that serveS as a continuation of the public promenade of pedestrian and bicycle paths that start at Thimens Boulevard. Leading through the outdoor public space and alongside the main entrance, this new topographic path continues over the sculptural architectural volumes toward the sports field and Marcel-Laurin Park beyond.

The main access to the sports complex is through a large triangle cut into the undulating plane of the site. Upon entering the complex, visitors find the café and the exterior terrace to the right as well as large openings to the interior soccer field. To the left, large portions of glass give onto the adjacent pools, over which the volumes of the palestra and the gymnasium hover, seemingly suspended inside the white angular prism.

A colourful sculptural staircase, visually connected to the volumes of the palestra, sinuously engages the structural elements of the building. The superimposition of the palestra and gymnasium above the pool area allows them to be connected directly to the multifunctional room and public hall, which are both essential to the intensive and varied uses of the building.

Sport and recreation facilities have become important gathering places and play a vital role in the development of both healthy communities and competitive athletes. As such, the Saint-Laurent Sports Complex is bound to become an essential community and social hub and serve as a leading-edge facility for recreation, sport, wellness and special events. To this end, the building has been rigorously designeD to perform to the highest calibre structurally, programmatically, functionally and aesthetically. To meet the wide range of community needs, the design is flexible and adaptive, both on a daily basis and over the lifespan of the building.

Jury: This project is distinctively stark and austere.The strategic manipulation of what is essentially two huge boxes and the ground-level glazing generate a dynamic tension that is palpable as one approaches the building and walks through it. There is a fearless confidence in the decision to reduce all the complex and varied activities and services of the programme into two stark, strong, sculptural forms and a very small number of strong colours. The architecture takes the human activities inside and transforms them into an abstraction of strength and energy.

Complexe Sportif Saint-Laurent

Le Complexe sportif Saint-Laurent est situé entre l’école Émile Legault et l’aréna Raymond Bourque, deux bâtiments horizontaux et plutôt neutres. Il fût essentiel de créer un lien visuel et physique entre le parc Marcel-Laurin, situé derrière le site, et le parc linéaire projeté le long du boulevard Thimens.

Le caractère sculptural du projet vient créer ce lien fort entre ces éléments naturels. Deux objets angulés, l’un prismatique, blanc et diaphane, l’autre plus horizontal et foncé, transcendent la fonction du bâtiment pour d’abord interpeller l’usager ou le passant, mais aussi annoncer le passage vers le parc Marcel-Laurin.

Les deux volumes paraissent comme soulevés par l’énergie cinétique émanant du cœur du bâtiment, évoquant ainsi la vocation sportive du lieu et son dynamisme. Cette approche volumétrique s’inspire des forces tectoniques qui déforment les couches superficielles du sol.

Elle requiert qu’une grande partie des espaces de services soient recouverts d’un toit végétal. Cette promenade permet un lien piétonnier ou cycliste depuis le boulevard Thimens, et à partir de l’espace public, près de l’entrée, entre les grands volumes sculpturaux et vers les terrains de sport et le parc Marcel-Laurin.

L’accès au centre sportif se fait par un large triangle lumineux, sorte de brèche dans le sol anguleux du site. L’espace public, au niveau de l’entrée actuelle de l’école Émile-Legault, relie visuellement et physiquement les deux grandes fonctions du site, l’école et le centre sportif. Un autre accès relie les terrains de sport, au Nord-Ouest du complexe, avec le volume de l’aire de soccer intérieur.

Au moment d’entrer dans le centre sportif, l’usager trouve sur sa droite le café et la terrasse extérieure, entre l’accès vers le passage au toit et la surface de verre, ainsi que de larges ouvertures sur l’espace du soccer intérieur et ses gradins. Sur la gauche, de grandes baies vitrées lui permettent de voir l’espace des piscines surplombé du volume du gymnase et de la palestre. Ce volume lumineux et coloré semble suspendu à l’intérieur du prisme blanc angulé. Ses parois intérieures, qui sont composées du plafond de la piscine, des murs extérieurs du gymnase et de la palestre sont recouvertes d’une matière acoustique colorée de tons de rouge et d’orangé; une matière appropriée a un fort usage et résistante aux variations d’humidité.

Un escalier sculptural coloré, relié visuellement aux volumes des palestres, s’insinue au travers des éléments structuraux du bâtiment. La superposition de la palestre et du gymnase au-dessus des piscines permet d’y insérer l’espace multifonctionnel ainsi qu’une salle des pas perdus essentielle à un usage intensif et varié étant donné la possibilité de modifier ces deux espaces en accord avec ses différents usages.

Les installations sportives et récréatives sont des symboles importants de la fierté d’une communauté et jouent un rôle vital dans la promotion de la santé et du bien-être des citoyens ainsi que dans le développement des athlètes. Nous comprenons le désir de créer les meilleures installations de sports et de loisirs qui agiront également comme des centres névralgiques de la vie communautaire. Nous partageons votre objectif de créer des installations hautement flexibles pour les loisirs, le sport, bien-être et événements spéciaux. Nous avons abordé ce projet avec rigueur, et conçu un bâtiment qui se démarquera au plus haut standard programmatique structural, fonctionnel et esthétique.

Notre proposition favorise le développement du sport, des loisirs, du bien-être et des activités spéciales. Nous envisageons cette installation comme un endroit pour jouer et où la communauté viendra interagir. Afin de répondre à la vaste gamme de besoins de la communauté, la conception est flexible et adaptative, à la fois sur une base quotidienne et à long terme pendant la durée de vie de l’installation.

CREDITS: Client Arrondissement Saint-Laurent | Architect Team GILLES SAUCIER, ANDRÉ PERROTTE, TREVOR DAVIES, DARRYL CONDON, MICHAEL HENDERSON, DOMINIQUE DUMAIS, YUTARO MINAGAWA, PATRICE BEGIN, MARIE EVE PRIMEAU, OLIVIER KRIEGER, JEAN-PHILIPPE BEAUCHAMP, KATE BUSBY, ANNA BENDIX, LIA RUCCOLO, CHARLES ALEXANDRE DUBOIS, GREG NEUDORF, VEDANTA BALBAHADUR, CARL-JAN RUPP, ADAM FAWKES, NICK WORTH, STEVE DIPASQUAL | Structural/Mechanical/Electrical SNC-Lavalin Inc. | Landscape Claude Cormier + Associés | Interiors Saucier+Perrotte Architectes / HCMA Architects | Contractor Unigertec| Area 14,300 m2 | Budget $42.9M | Completion 2017

Photos by Oliver Blouin

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Awarded through a national design competition in 2011, the Borden Park Pavilion attempts to recall the history of Borden Park through the reintroduction of the playful qualities of its status as an amusement park in the early 20th century.

The scheme makes overtly manifest the iconic geometry of classical parks and pavilions in its pedestrian design, comprised of axial and curving paths that merge into circuses at key points. This notion is further carried out by the circular form of the amenity pavilion itself, which also engages in a formal relationship with the park’s other geometric structures from past and present, such as the carousel, bandshell and Ferris wheel. Adjacent to the pavilion, a series of entry courts and seating patios emerge as soft and hardscaped rings – a trajectory of the building form into the landscape, as well as an expansion of its visual and useable footprint.

Primary functions of the amenity pavilion are confined to the core, allowing a complete 360-degree promenade around the building perimeter to maximize year-round engagement with the park and landscape through a fully transparent exterior skin. This skin, when viewed from the exterior in daylight, is visually impermeable and highly reflective. In mirroring the immediate landscape in striking triangular facets, the building seems almost to dissolve into its idyllic surroundings, lending a fleeting, ephemeral quality to the experience of the pavilion while encouraging a sense of liveliness and interactivity through the device of the façade as a fun-house mirror. Play, as a key conceptual driver of the project, draws on the park’s historic tradition as a popular Sunday attraction for thousands of residents who gathered to picnic, enjoy concerts and ballgames, and partake in rides on roller coasters and carousels. Fittingly, the pavilion’s form and expressive timber truss structure evoke the playful qualities of children’s toy drums and merry-go-rounds.

Material simplicity and structural uniqueness result in a building of studied minimalism. A distinct architecture is achieved through a seamlessly integrated building façade comprised of a glulam Douglas fir structural frame and an SSG (structural silicone glazed) curtain wall incorporating sealed glazed units. Both structure and cladding are triangulated and faceted, which allows the expression of the structural grid and pattern on the building’s exterior. The resulting floor-to-ceiling glazing provides captivating panoramic views from the pavilion while blurring the boundary between interior and exterior space and intensifying the sense of connection to seasonal dynamics and to the park itself.

An integrated approach to environmental sustainability is evident in the choice of materials: wood, concrete, and glass were selected for their durability, permanence, and timelessness. The structural ambition of the design emphasizes the use of rough whitewashed laminated timbers, whose rich patina and spatial arrangement recall the iconic structures and materiality of the park’s history while foregrounding the sustainable character of the pavilion. The building’s remaining palette consists of simple materials that, in character, emphasize the surrounding landscape, and in quality, ensure a robust and enduring building.

Jury: The pavilion gifts its community with a simple and joyous reductive architectural form. The integration of mullions and support framework, the triangular glazing units, and the circle-within-a-circle plan work together to generate a singularly powerful presence within a city park. It is the abstraction that would one would see at the level of art, but with which people can actually engage and play. Its character shifts diurnally, becoming nearly invisible at times as its mirrored facades reflect the surrounding trees, and then transforming into a lantern at sundown. It is a refreshingly well-considered and carefully designed object of fascination within what is the usually neglected programme of park infrastructure.

Pavillon du parc Borden

Réalisé à l’issue d’un concours de design national en 2011, le pavillon du parc Borden tente de rappeler l’histoire de ce parc en réintroduisant les qualités ludiques que lui conférait son statut de parc d’attractions au début du 20e siècle.

Le schéma illustre ouvertement la géométrie iconique des parcs et pavillons classiques dans son design piétonnier formé de voies axiales et de courbes qui convergent dans des ronds-points à des endroits clés. La forme circulaire du pavillon renforce cette notion et s’engage dans une relation formelle avec les autres structures géométriques du parc, anciennes et nouvelles, comme le carrousel, l’abri d’orchestre et la grande roue. Adjacents au pavillon, des cours d’entrée et des terrasses avec sièges émergent comme des anneaux souples et en matériaux inertes – une trajectoire de la forme du bâtiment dans le paysage et une expansion de son empreinte visuelle et utilisable.

Les fonctions principales du pavillon sont confinées en son centre, ce qui permet d’aménager une promenade à 360 degrés au pourtour du bâtiment pour optimiser pendant toute l’année le lien avec le parc et le paysage par une enveloppe extérieure entièrement transparente. Cette enveloppe, lorsqu’on la regarde de l’extérieur à la lumière du jour, est visuellement imperméable et grandement réfléchissante. En reflétant le paysage immédiat dans de remarquables pans triangulaires, le bâtiment semble presque se dissoudre dans son milieu idyllique, prêtant une qualité fugitive et éphémère à l’expérience du pavillon tout en favorisant une certaine animation et une interactivité par la ruse de la façade qui agit comme un miroir déformant. Le jeu, comme principal moteur conceptuel du projet, s’appuie sur la tradition historique du parc qui était un lieu de divertissement populaire le dimanche pour les résidents qui s’y rendaient pour pique-niquer, écouter un concert, jouer à la balle et faire des tours dans les montagnes russes et les carrousels. La forme du pavillon et sa structure expressive en bois d’œuvre évoquent avec pertinence les qualités ludiques des tambours et des manèges avec lesquels jouaient les enfants.

La simplicité des matériaux et l’originalité de la structure confèrent au bâtiment un caractère minimaliste étudié. L’architecture se distingue par une façade intégrée harmonieusement et faite d’un cadre structural en lamellé-collé de douglas vert et d’un mur rideau en vitrage silicone structural (VSS) qui intègre les unités vitrées scellées. La structure et le parement sont triangulés et à facettes, ce qui permet l’expression d’un réseau et d’un modèle structuraux sur l’extérieur du bâtiment. Le vitrage du plancher au plafond qui en résulte offre des vues panoramiques fascinantes à partir du pavillon tout en estompant la frontière entre l’espace intérieur et extérieur et en intensifiant l’impression d’être en lien avec la dynamique saisonnière et le parc.

Le choix des matériaux illustre avec éloquence l’approche intégrée à la durabilité de l’environnement : le bois, le béton et le verre ont été choisis pour leur durabilité, leur permanence et leur intemporalité. L’ambition structurale du design utilise le bois lamellé brut blanchi, dont la riche patine et l’organisation spatiale rappellent les structures iconiques et la matérialité de l’histoire du parc tout en mettant en valeur le caractère durable du pavillon. Les autres matériaux du bâtiment sont des matériaux simples qui mettent l’accent sur le paysage environnant et qui assurent la solidité et la permanence du bâtiment.

CREDITS: Borden Park Pavilion | ARCHITECT gh3 | CLIENT City of Edmonton | ARCHITECT TEAM Pat Hanson, Diana Gerrard, Louise Clavin | STRUCTURAL Chernenko Engineering Ltd. | MECHANICAL Vital Engineering Corporation | ELECTRICAL A.B. Electrical Engineering Inc. | LANDSCAPE gh3 | CONTRACTOR Jen-Col Construction Ltd.| AREA 245 m2 | BUDGET $2.1 M | COMPLETION March 2014

Photography by Raymond Chow.

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The history of the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex (SMEC) is mark­ed by radical changes and transformation. At first a quarry, then a dumping site, the SMEC is now being repurposed as one of Montreal’s biggest parks with a focus on the environment and sustainable living. Through these cycles, human intervention has taken a severe toll on the site’s topography and symbolism within the city.

The new soccer stadium emerges from the park’s artificial topography as a layer of mineral stratum recalling the geological nature of the site. The mineral stratum is articulated by a continuous roof which cantilevers over the entry plaza, folds down over the interior soccer field, and extends to the ground to accommodate spectator seating for the outdoor field. Simultaneously reacting to the site and the requirements of the program, the dramatic roof structure gives a distinctive and unified presence to the complex.

The park’s immense size called for an architectural intervention of grand scale and a truly unique gesture in the city. To ensure the formal unity of the project, the design has been developed as the transformation of a single expansive element: an innovative hybrid wood structure composed of both CLT and glulam elements. The structural grid forms a layered mesh which appears to be random at first sight, but which in reality becomes denser where added structural strength is needed.

Along Papineau Avenue, the architecture adapts itself to the existing landscape by embedding its supporting functions within the berm. This particular siting accommodates an elevated pedestrian path and preserves the existing trees. Along this edge, a series of glass boxes emerge from the augmented landscape to provide daylight and views for the administrative and public spaces. On the southern portion, a large crystal box which contains the main lobby signals the centre’s main entrance. Despite the magnitude of the project and its program, these luminous elements and the preserved vegetation give the architecture a critical human scale that respects the residential neighbourhood it faces. The transparency of the building also promotes a sense of openness.

The programmatic elements are organized efficiently by taking advantage of the linearity of the site as well as considering the circulation of different user groups, such as players, spectators and park visitors. The program is divided into two levels. Each level is organized using the main circulation corridor that links the interior to the exterior. On the public entrance level, the corridor is continuous from the plaza through the lobby and main public spaces, providing direct access to the stands. On the lower level, the corridor extends toward the exterior playing field and connects to the exterior stands.

“They tend to run around and pretend they’re famous football players,” says architect Gilles Saucier, FRAIC. “They do goal celebrations, shout and pretend they’re being watched by a huge audience. It’s fantastic to see how the splendour of the building can have this effect on them. That it can transport people to a different place, a different reality. The Stade de Soccer project makes them stars.”

Jury: This suburban soccer stadium is a powerful expression of athletic activity and energy as well a strong homage to the geology of its site. The triangular geometry of the structural framework is both ambitious and restrained; its oversized glulam beams a big gesture that is in appropriate scale to the quarry below. The dramatic roofline becomes the identity of the project, its muscularity uniting the discrete components and projecting a cohesive presence. The stadium’s positioning on the berm gives it a heroic presence and celebrates it as a civic landmark.

Stade de soccer de Montréal

Le Complexe Environnemental Saint-Michel (CESM) où s’implante le Stade de soccer de Montréal est un site marqué par plusieurs cycles d’activité humaine. D’abord carrière, puis site d’enfouissement, le CESM est aujourd’hui en voie de devenir l’un des plus grands parcs de la ville de Montréal. À travers ces cycles, l’homme a transformé la topographie et la symbolique du lieu de façon spectaculaire et irrévocable.

Le projet s’appuie sur ces transformations topographiques et s’inspire des traces successives qu’elles ont laissées sur le site. Par sa tectonique et sa matérialité, le bâtiment vient marquer le paysage d’une nouvelle strate. Celle-ci fait écho aux forces de changement d’hier, qu’elles soient industrielles ou géologiques, et donne un nouvel élan au complexe environnemental. En raison de sa vocation sportive et de la qualité de ses installations, le Stade de Soccer de Montréal est voué à devenir un lieu de rassemblement privilégié pour la communauté avoisinante et pour la ville de Montréal à plus grande échelle.

Le Stade de soccer s’implante le long de l’avenue Papineau en bordure de l’ancienne carrière Miron. D’un geste unique, la toiture épouse les formes du terrain et se transforme graduellement pour connecter les deux phases du projet. Le Stade de soccer, comprenant les aires de jeu intérieures et les services connexes, en constitue la phase 1. Le terrain extérieur et ses gradins constitue pour sa part la phase 2.

Pour assurer la cohérence de de l’ensemble, la toiture se présente comme un geste structural unique en bois. Les alvéoles de la charpente, qui forment une résille d’apparence arbitraire, se multiplient pour un support accru dans les zones où la structure est davantage sollicitée. Ce sont ces mêmes alvéoles qui composent le porte-à-faux de l’entrée, le toit du terrain intérieur, et la surface se déployant vers les gradins extérieurs.

Depuis l’avenue Papineau, le Stade se présente d’abord et avant tout comme un geste paysager. Prenant appui sur le talus existant, le bâtiment poursuit la topographie du site au moyen de sa toiture angulée. Çà et là, des cristaux lumineux s’avancent et ponctuent la masse. Ces volumes en projection amènent de la lumière naturelle aux espaces administratifs et publics et signalent l’animation du lieu de jour comme de nuit.

L’organisation du programme s’appuie sur une distribution fonctionnelle efficace des différents espaces. Prenant avantage de la linéarité du lot, cette organisation cherche à concilier les schémas d’utilisation des principaux groupes d’usagers, à savoir les joueurs, les spectateurs ainsi que les utilisateurs du parc. Trois critères guident la relation entre les espaces : les associations programmatiques, la maximisation des espaces communs et la mise-en-valeur de l’expérience du parc.

CREDITS: CLIENT Ville de Montréal | ARCHITECT TEAM Gilles Saucier, André Perrotte, Darryl Condon, Trevor Davies, Michael Henderson, Lia Ruccolo, Patrice Bégin, Charles-Alexandre Dubois, Leslie Lok, David Moreaux, Yutaro Minagawa, Vedanta Balbahadur, Marc-André Tratch, Nick Worth. | STRUCTURAL NCK Inc. | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Bouthillette Parizeau | LANDSCAPE WAA Inc. | INTERIORS Saucier+Perrotte architectes / HCMA architects | CONTRACTOR Groupe TEQ / Astaldi Canada | WOOD STRUCTURE Nordic Structures | LEED Synairgis | AREA 12,600 m2 | BUDGET $34.3 M | COMPLETION April 2015

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