2020 Winners Archives - Canadian Architect https://www.canadianarchitect.com/category/award/2020-awards/ magazine for architects and related professionals Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:42:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Taza Water Reservoir at Taza Park Phase 1 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/taza-water-reservoir-at-taza-park-phase-1/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:50:06 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759081

“The starting point for this powerful project is the amazing idea that a water reservoir could symbolize the union between Tsuut’ina culture, the land, and the water."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“The starting point for this powerful project is the amazing idea that a water reservoir could symbolize the union between Tsuut’ina culture, the land, and the water. It reinterprets the idea of the security fence as a solar fence—an element of cultural expression inspired by the beaver dam—creating a gateway to Taza Park. The fence feels like it organically grows out of the ground and then wraps around to create a protective cocoon.”­ – Michael Moxam, juror

A curvilinear fence provides a secure enclosure for the water reservoir, while referring to beaver dams and Indigenous teepee structures. The fence’s southern exposure supports a solar panel array.

The Tsuut’ina Nation and the city of Calgary have been neighbours for over a century. Throughout this time, Calgary has grown to the point where it now surrounds the Nation’s eastern boundary. This growth has increasingly strained the Bow and Elbow Rivers’ ability to provide for agriculture, industry, and the everyday household needs of Tsuut’ina citizens. The Taza water reservoir and pumphouse replaces aged infrastructure and provides a consistent source of potable water for the community as it builds out the 500-acre Taza Park—the first of three villages that make up one of North America’s largest First Nation development projects.

Site plan

Instead of the more conventional chain-link fence, the security fence around the buried reservoir takes form as a wooden structure whose posts are a mix of cedar poles from western Canada and repurposed poles from the Tsuut’ina Nation. This curvilinear fence safeguards the reservoir, provides structural support for solar panels, and transforms the project into a bold gateway marker to Taza Park. The space also offers the unique opportunity for a permanent art installation from the Tsuut’ina Nation.

A pumphouse sits within the enclosure, and its water distribution system is visible to the public behind a glazed wall on the building’s north façade. A visual feedback component also helps educate visitors about water conservation at Taza Park.

The design targets net zero building emissions, in keeping with a sustainability goal for all of the Tsuut’ina Nation’s public buildings. Solar panels, mounted on the site’s unshaded southern exposure, supply the majority of the pumphouse building’s electrical requirements. The pumphouse itself is constructed from glulam beams and columns, with tongue-and-groove roof decking.

Sustainability diagram

Responding to the importance of water for the Tsuut’ina—who are known as the “Beaver People”—the arrangement of the wooden solar fence alludes to the shape of a beaver dam. The conical shape of the arrayed wooden fence posts mimics the shape of a teepee. The integration of the solar fence within the landscape speaks to the Tsuut’ina understanding of the interconnectivity between all living beings and the land.

“The land, water, air, animals and plant-life must be protected, restored, and enhanced throughout all the built environments on this territory,” says the Tsuut’ina leadership. “These lifeways have always been at the heart of the Tsuut’ina Nation—respecting all land and all living beings.”

CLIENT Taza Development Corp | DESIGN ARCHITECT TEAM Bill Mitchell, James Brown, Donny Wolcott, Kurtis Nishiyama | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/ARCHITECTURE WSP | SITE LIGHTING AES | LANDSCAPE Design Workshop (Taza Park); pLAnt Landscape | ACCESSIBILITY Level Playing Field | SOLAR FENCE FABRICATION Heavy Industries | RENDERINGS Iceberg Visuals | AREA Pumphouse Building—307 m2; Reservoir & Clearwell—1,730 m2 | BUDGET $18 M (reservoir) | CURRENT STAGE Tendered | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION October 2022

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 127 kWh/m2/year excluding pump process loads; 240 kWh/m2/year including pump process loads | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.092 m3/m2/year

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Calgary Japanese Community Centre https://www.canadianarchitect.com/calgary-japanese-community-centre/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:40:11 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759034

"It does a lot of things very beautifully and almost effortlessly, with its approach to structure, light, and fitting into its urban context."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This is a quiet project that creates a wonderful space in the centre. It does a lot of things very beautifully and almost effortlessly, with its approach to structure, light, and fitting into its urban context. Some of the spaces are really fantastic, like the main hall opening up into the garden, even if there are other moments in the plan that are a little awkward based on the circular plan.” – Susan Fitzgerald, juror

The community centre’s sculptural form refers to the Japanese concept of ma, or balancing solid and void.

The Calgary Japanese Community Association currently resides in two adjacent buildings: an aging four-plex from the 1970s, and a mid-century community centre that has undergone many ad hoc renovations. To optimize the use of its property and reverse its declining membership, the Association’s board set out to create a new contemporary cultural centre and community hub for Japanese immigrants in Calgary.

Through their research, the architects learned about the notion of kakehashi, which translates literally as “bridge” or “bridge-building.” They harnessed this concept to develop a widely inclusive program that goes beyond regular cultural, social, and educational functions to also include a daycare and eight affordable senior’s housing units.

A mobius-strip-like roof responds to the sun’s path, and yields a dynamic variety of interior spaces.

The building’s irregular form and asymmetry invoke the Japanese concepts of wabi-sabi, or appreciating imperfection, and ma, the balancing of solid and void. A discontinuous oval volume holds the diverse programs and surrounds a void space. During the schematic design process, the void developed into a contemporary interpretation of engawa—the traditional threshold between structure and garden. This threshold provides an auxiliary space and access point for the various programs. It also frames a traditional Japanese garden that is carefully relocated from the existing complex into the new courtyard.

The main hall opens on to a traditional garden in the central courtyard.

The massing incorporates passive solar and sustainable design principles. The traveling ridgeline of the structure’s Möbius-strip-like roof responds to Calgary’s sun path, funneling natural light into the courtyard and interior. Generous overhangs control glare and heat gain. Stormwater collected from the roof surface is used for the building’s gray water needs and for garden irrigation.

Roof sections

The entire building will be clad with cedar shingles treated with the Japanese technique of shou-sugi-ban, a charring process that creates natural resistance to weather, fire, rot and insects, avoiding the need for toxic finishes. The project’s overall sustainability is enhanced by the use of local wood and mass timber.

Ground floor plan

CLIENT Calgary Japanese Community Association | ARCHITECT TEAM Dustin Couzens, Ben Klumper (MRAIC), Henry Tsang (MRAIC), Nicholas Tam (MRAIC), David Vera (MRAIC), John Ferguson, Anthony Schmidt, kayla Blomquist | STRUCTURAL ISL Engineering | SUSTAINABILITY Footprint | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER CREATE Construction | AREA 1,200 m2 | BUDGET $5.8 M | CURRENT STAGE Design development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Spring 2023

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 150-200 kWh/m2/year

WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 4 m3/p/year

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CAMH Research Centre https://www.canadianarchitect.com/camh-research-centre/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:30:58 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759027

"This is a big building that seems comfortable, with qualities of delicacy and softness."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This is a big building that seems comfortable, with qualities of delicacy and softness. It brings something quiet, even if it’s busy from a programmatic point of view. It’s well-detailed in its sustainability aspects. The facade moves in and out, allowing the park to terrace through the building. It is also the most successful integration of mass timber that we saw among the entries. It’s the whole package, in a large, significant project.” – Stephan Chevalier, juror

The research centre will be Canada’s largest hybrid mass timber public building, and will showcase how the structural technology can be used in a curvilinear building.

From the mid-19th century until 1976, what was originally known as the Provincial Lunatic Asylum occupied this site. The Queen Street campus of what is now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has undergone profound changes since then, and the design of its new Research Centre evokes a much older and very different meaning of the word “asylum”: an oasis for compassion, care, dignity and respect.

A reminder from the site’s past contrasts starkly with the transparent, curvilinear new building that signifies its future. Fragments of the brick perimeter wall constructed by residents of the 1850s asylum have been retained; these Heritage Wall remnants are re-imagined as a frame for—and threshold to—an inclusive and inviting hub of activity supporting mental health.

Site axonometric

In section, there are four main parts: a subterranean research zone (Research Roots); the glass-enclosed Pavilion in the Park volume that consolidates communal, clinical and amenity spaces into the first two floors; the four-storey Research Sanctuary; and the rooftop Beacon, a flexible event space. In plan, the floor plate is organized into north and south volumes flanking convergence space for researchers, clients and visitors. A butterfly stair in the central atrium connects the four levels of the Research Sanctuary.

The building’s communal, clinical and amenity spaces are consolidated on its ground and second floors.

The Centre is expected to meet LEED V4 Platinum and Tier 3 Toronto Green City Standards. In addition to providing a much smaller carbon footprint than could be achieved with conventional building systems, its hybrid mass-timber structure exudes warmth and wellness. The building is constructed using a wood-and-concrete composite floor system called BubbleLAM, and will be Canada’s largest hybrid mass timber public building.

Sectional sustainability diagram

Adelaide Street West, the site’s southern boundary, is transformed into a linear green park, connecting the campus to neighbourhoods to the west and east, as well as to the planned King-Liberty Smart Track transit station. The Collaboration Garden along the east edge of the building extends workspace and meeting space into the outdoors, with seating areas nestled into undulating mounds. Along with these mounds, a water feature in the garden provides an organic, meandering counterpoint to the Heritage Wall’s undeviating rectilinearity.

The east greenspace includes mixed-use spaces separated by undulating mounds, seating ribbons, and a curving water feature.

CLIENT Centre for Addiction and Mental Health | ARCHITECT TEAM KPMB—Bruce Kuwabara (FRAIC, design lead), Mitchell Hall (FRAIC, team lead), Judith Taylor (MRAIC, Project manager), Kael Opie (Project architect), Glenn MacMullin (project architect), Amanda Sebris, Andrew Barat, Bahman Safiee, Camilo Avendano, Carolyn Lee, Chris Baziw, Christina Facey, Colin Geary, Erik Skouris, Gerald DesRochers, Giulio Bruno, Goran Milosevic (MRAIC), Hamza Adenali, Ivan Efremov, Jackie Chapel, Jessie Tian, Katie Munroe, Kevin Mockford, Klaudia Lengyel, Kyle Nhan, Lukas Bergmark, Lyndsay Hall, Meaghan Hall, Myles Burry, Nina Djurkovic, Peter Ehvert, Robert Faber, Sahana Dharmaraj. TreanorHL—Tim Reynolds, Patrick Jones, Jeff Davis, Micah Davis, Kelli Blacklock, Lisa Lamb, Brittany Reynolds, Saskia Kimball. | MEP AEI | STRUCTURAL Blackwell | ENERGY/SUSTAINABILITY Transsolar | LANDSCAPE PFS Studio | ENVELOPE RDH | CIVIL WSP | HERITAGE ERA | CODE/ACCESSIBILITY LRI | ELEVATOR Soberman | LOADING BA Consulting | SPECIFICATIONS Brian Ballantyne | FOOD Kaizen | ARBORIST Bruce Trees | SPA Urban Strategies | FF&E EPA/Colliers | LEED RWDI | A/V Sextant Group | RENDERINGS Norm Li | LIGHTING MBII | COMPETITION VIDEO Puncture Design| COSTING Vermeulens | WATER FEATURE DEW | ACOUSTICS Aercoustics | EXTERIOR NOISE, SNOW AND WIND ANALYSIS Novus / SLR | AREA 36,170 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | CURRENT STAGE 100% Design development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2027

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 328 kWh/m2/year | | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.77 m3/m2/year

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Wardell https://www.canadianarchitect.com/wardell/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:20:17 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759112

"The sculptural shape is complemented by a very interesting tectonic approach that does something different with brick."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This is a little jewel in the middle of the city. The designers could have just added to the existing house, but they created a separate object with a versatile space between. I like the tension from the street façade, which respects the smaller scale of the added component. The sculptural shape is complemented by a very interesting tectonic approach that does something different with brick. Sometimes it’s difficult to realize details like that brick roof, but these designers seem to have the sensibilities to achieve it.”  – Stephan Chevalier, juror

The sculpted brick volume houses cooking, dining, office and living spaces for an architect-turned-baker and their family.

Start with an irregular site. Add architects who are keen on exploring how the brick, a common masonry unit, can be manipulated to achieve uncommon results. The result? In the case of this 51-square-metre addition to an 86-square-metre, two-storey semi-detached house, it’s a flexible yet customized stack of spaces for better living.

One of the owners is a consultant; the other, an architect-turned-baker. The birth of their first child provided an impetus to enlarge their home, which occupies a wedge-shaped lot abutting the rear yards of several other houses.

Street elevation

Clad entirely in brick, the curved walls of the addition merge with its brick roof, creating a seamless, richly textured volume. The cantilevering of the front wall creates a levitating effect that counteracts the weightiness of all that brick. A passage between the addition and the existing house leads down a few stairs and back up a few more to the rear yard.

A passageway under the addition leads to a small back patio.

While the addition’s outward form is highly controlled, the flexible spaces within this vessel are designed to adapt to the family’s changing needs over time. The sunken ground floor, conceived as a commercial test kitchen, can be accessed from the passage to the rear yard. The cantilever along the front façade is functional: it creates the soffit plenum that provides space for mechanical kitchen venting and other services. A double-height, operable window allows the kitchen to open onto the rear garden and connects it with the second-level living space above, which accommodates a large table for entertaining. The multipurpose third level is a winter garden/library/home office/oasis—with a tub and a reading corner, and small, recessed roof balcony providing south-facing glazing. A staircase connecting all levels allows natural light to spill down through the rooftop’s light scoop.

A brick screen façade and rooftop light scoop bring daylight into the addition. The top floor includes a winter garden and freestanding tub.

At the front and back of the third level, brick screens, paired with operable windows for cross-ventilation, provide glimpses of the world outside. In these screens the repetition of four bond patterns creates the effect of irregularly scattered openings: a detail that neatly encapsulates how the design team’s questing exploration of seemingly random possibilities is in no way arbitrary.

The ground floor is equipped as a commercial test kitchen, and steps out into a small back garden.
Detailed section
Plans

CLIENT Withheld | ARCHITECT TEAM Nima Javidi, Behnaz Assadi, Kyle O’Brien, Rosa Newman, Kaveh Taherizadeh | STRUCTURAL Sepco | LANDSCAPE Behnaz Assadi (Ja Studio) | PLANNING Sean Galbraith & Associates | MEP SustainGlobe | AREA 75 m2 (new addition) | BUDGET Withheld | CURRENT STAGE Design development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2022

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Expansion of the Théâtre du nouveau monde https://www.canadianarchitect.com/expansion-of-the-theatre-du-nouveau-monde/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:15:59 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759121

“This project’s designers have created a dynamic new front-of-house for this existing theatre on an impossibly tight urban site.”

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This project’s designers have created a dynamic new front-of-house for this existing theatre on an impossibly tight urban site. It creates a strong sense of occasion for the theatre and the city through transparency, the placement of the café and the vertically interconnected lobby spaces. The simple, raw materiality creates a strong dialogue with the existing masonry, while clearly establishing a new presence. They’ve leveraged a modest footprint to maximum potential for the theatre and the city itself. The corner of St. Urbain and Ste. Catherine is getting something pretty special.” – Michael Moxam, juror

A sensitive addition gives the theatre renewed prominence in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles.

To expand Montreal’s beloved Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, the architects focused on three main elements: visibility, functionality and theatricality. The transformation offers a transparent structure filled with public and semi-public spaces for city residents, as well as expanded space for patrons and staff alike.

The largely opaque existing theatre complex sits on a prominent site in downtown Montreal, at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Saint-Urbain streets. At pedestrian level, a new transparent façade deepens the existing hall and adds visual emphasis to the building’s entrance on Sainte-Catherine. The hall is also reorganized and enlarged by eliminating part of the existing mezzanine.

Sketch by Gilles Saucier

New spaces above the hall—including a secondary performance room, balcony-level lobby, corporate lounge, and administration areas—are connected by a reflective burgundy volume which contains circulation and services. The secondary performance hall is the visible heart of the new addition. Its double-height glass wall addresses Sainte-Catherine, turning the room into an urban stage.

Seen from the new balcony foyer, a secondary performance space can be opened up to address Sainte-Catherine Street.

The material palette contrasts with and complements the patina of the existing brick building. Walls of clear glass, burgundy-red glazing, and exposed concrete give the spaces a contemporary update. A felt wall provides texture and acoustic dampening in the hall, allowing the space to accommodate larger events. The balcony-level lobby includes a large, undulating metal curtain that controls the entry of light and contributes to the theatrical character of the institution.

Ground floor plan

A new rehearsal room opens on an outdoor space on the east side of the roof. Equipped with a second undulating metal curtain, this partially covered garden-theatre is used for outdoor performances, and as a breakout space for building staff and actors in rehearsal. The west side of the building includes a green roof, where some of the ingredients for the ground-floor restaurant are grown.

The theatre’s renovated restaurant claims a strong public presence behind a new glass façade along Sainte-Catherine and Saint-Urbain. The transparent façade joins interior and exterior, giving pedestrians a glimpse of the activities inside, while connecting show-goers with the vibrant street life of the Quartier des Spectacles.

Section

CLIENT Théâtre du Nouveau Monde | ARCHITECT TEAM Gilles Saucier (RAIC), André Perrotte (RAIC), Dominique Dumais, Christophe Lafleur-Chartier, Gregory Neudorf, Josh Koenekoop, Patrice Bégin, Marie Ève Primeau | STRUCTURAL Les services EXP | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Dupras Ledoux | AREA 8,106 m2 (total gross area) | BUDGET $13 M | CURRENT STAGE Design development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION January 2023

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Place des Montréalaises https://www.canadianarchitect.com/place-des-montrealaises/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:10:51 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759069

"This project is healing the city by connecting back over the highway to join two major precincts."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This project is healing the city by connecting back over the highway to join two major precincts. It also honours the memory of 21 women who were so important to the evolution of Montreal. It imagines itself throughout the year through a meadow of flowers, trying to take advantage of all of the seasons. It’s beautifully rendered through line drawings.” – Susan Fitzgerald, juror

The plaza uses a sloping plane to connect between the Champ-de-Mars subway and Old Montreal.

The winning entry to an open international design competition launched by the City of Montreal, Place des Montréalaises is a complex blend of architecture and landscape that connects Old Montreal to the city’s downtown. The series of new public spaces, planted areas and art honours 21 Montreal women who have shaped the city, from Ursuline nun and hospital founder Jeanne Mance to Indigenous Radio-Canada producer Myra Cree.

Crossing over the sunken Ville-Marie expressway, an inclined plane negotiates the change in grade between the two precincts. This suspended architectural piece is landscaped as a floating meadow—a bouquet of 21 varieties of plants that will flower in sequence, constantly evolving in memory of the Montréalaises. The meadow’s geometry transforms from a sweeping field to the south to an orthogonal grid to the north, bringing the plaza into dialogue with its surrounding cityscape. A commemorative staircase at the midpoint of the slope invites gathering, and is imprinted with fragments of the names of the 21 women, forming a field of letters that extends the homage to include all women.

TOP A curved surface intersects with the south end of the inclined plane, creating a complex topography of gathering spaces. BOTTOM The plaza hovers over the Ville-Marie expressway off-ramp and roadway, as well as the subway line.

Tree species from Mont Royal are planted at the north end of the slope, creating a forest-like area. The existing Champ-de-Mars metro station sits in a clearing dedicated to enslaved Black woman Marie-Joseph Angélique, who was charged with arson while attempting to flee bondage. To the northeast, an infrastructural pavilion is transformed with a cylindrical envelope made of polished stainless steel, and inscribed with art by spoken poetry pioneer Afua (Ava Pamela) Cooper.

At the south end of the meadow, a curved surface intersects with the inclined plane, creating an expressive topography under the lip of the inclined plane. The area invites urban performances, while openings to the adjacent off-ramp offer glimpses between the city and the Ville-Marie Expressway.

The central area is planted as a floating meadow—an ever-changing bouquet commemorating 21 women who shaped Montreal.

The design also celebrates suffragette Idola Saint-Jean, businesswoman Isa Roth Steinberg, hockey great Agnès Vautier, and Black teacher Jessie Maxwell-Smith, and remembers all 14 victims of the École Polytechnique shooting.

CLIENT Ville de Montréal | ARCHITECT TEAM Lemay—Andrew King (FRAIC, chief design officer), Patricia Lussier (landscape architect, design director), Jeffrey Ma (design lead), Jean-Phillippe Di Marco, Virginie Roy-Mazoyer, Alexis Légaré, Mariya Atanasova, Lucie St-Pierre, François Ménard, Arnaud Villard, Benoît Gaudet, Eric St-Pierre, René Perreault, Jasper Silver King, Theodore Oyama, Jeth Owen Guerrero. Angela Silver— Angela Silver, Hannah Silver King, Jasper Silver King | STRUCTURAL/CIVIL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL SNC Lavalin | STRUCTURAL Elema | AREA 19,890 m2 | BUDGET $34 M | CURRENT STAGE Design development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2022

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90 Alexander https://www.canadianarchitect.com/90-alexander/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:05:57 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759011

"This project establishes clear ideas of urban activation, heritage preservation and engagement."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“This project establishes clear ideas of urban activation, heritage preservation and engagement while generating an appropriate floorplate for a contemporary residential structure. The plan respects and makes space for the heritage building through a rich urban laneway system that connects across the site and to the city. The approach to cladding is interesting—a reinterpretation of masonry detailing in metal.” – Michael Moxam, juror

Crafted from standard metal panels, the façade reinterprets the interlocking brick of surrounding heritage properties.

In Winnipeg’s East Exchange District, much of the century-old industrial vernacular is being adaptively reused to support mixed-use residential projects. This includes 90 Alexander—one of the last remaining sites on Waterfront Drive, and once home to the W.J. Guest Fish Company Warehouse, and later to Great West Metal Limited.

The existing 1905 brick warehouse on this narrow-yet-deep lot was constructed with face brick and remains in excellent repair. The architects devised a new seven-storey volume that winds around the warehouse, leaving all sides of the 115-year-old building exposed, in homage to its original free-standing form. The volume also creates an appropriately scaled building that avoids deep floorplates.

Context plan

The new construction evokes the articulated texture of the historic building. The façade’s cladding panels, developed from rudimentary 8-inch-deep break-shaped flashing, reinterpret the interlocking masonry of the surrounding district’s historic buildings. The standard modules work in 95 percent of façade conditions, including in turning corners, screening mechanical equipment, and acting as a guardrail for rooftop patios.

A vibrant ground-plane is animated by public plazas and commercial amenities.

The existing heritage warehouse is repurposed to house 26 residential suites, with most new interventions floating within the existing shell. In the new structure, the first four residential floors are made up of stacked one- and two-bedroom modules that switch orientation from floor to floor, as expressed in a staggered exterior window pattern. The sixth floor provides access to both sixth and seventh floor units, the majority of which step out onto outdoor decks sheltered behind slanted rooflines.

Shared terraces are integrated into the sloping roofline.

Terracing and sloping at the top two levels align the new structure with the roof of the historic building, extending daylighting into the shared spaces and surrounding streets. A continuous walkway and a series of semi-public spaces connect the new and old structure, animating the entire complex and contributing to the neighbourhood’s revitalization.

At street level, a latticework of concrete beams, vertical columns, and sloped columns supports the new building. Façade walls cut away at street level, inviting pedestrians to explore the development’s ground-floor commercial spaces and plazas, and interweaving 90 Alexander with its urban surroundings.

Plans

CLIENT RNDSQR | ARCHITECT TEAM Emeil Alvarez, Pablo Batista (MRAIC), Brandon Bergem, Ken Borton (MRAIC), Jordy Craddock, Donna Evans, Ben Greenwood, Johanna Hurme (FRAIC), Jeff Kachkan, Stas Klaz, Lindsey Koepke, Kelsey McMahon (MRAIC), Colin Neufeld, Sasa Radulovic (FRAIC), Amanda Reis, Helia Saadat, Hasan Shurrab, Matthew Trendota (MRAIC), Shannon Wiebe, Jenn Yablonowski | STRUCTURAL LDA | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Smith & Andersen | CIVIL Barnes and Duncan | LANDSCAPE Scatliff + Miller + Murray | ENERGY Footprint | INTERIORS | GEOTECHNICAL Dyregrov Robinson | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AND GENERAL CONTRACTOR Concord Projects | AREA New building—2,570 m2; heritage building—464 m2 | BUDGET $37 M | CURRENT STAGE Construction Documents | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2022

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 176 kWh/m2/year | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.944 m3/m2/year (based on LEED WUI standards)

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University of Toronto Koffler Scientific Reserve https://www.canadianarchitect.com/university-of-toronto-koffler-scientific-reserve/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 07:00:57 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759045

"This is a very well-rounded project that’s sensitive to its site, including the old barns that were there before."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“This is a very well-rounded project that’s sensitive to its site, including the old barns that were there before. I like the environmental approach, which goes back to the basics: it uses natural ventilation, and is very sensible with natural light and energy consumption.” – Stephan Chevalier, juror

The complex takes the place of three aging barns, and is designed to respond to local climatic, biological and topographic conditions.

Located north of the city, the University of Toronto’s Koffler Scientific Reserve is a major venue for research and instruction in ecology and environmental biology. Supported by the complex ecosystem of the Oak Ridges Moraine, it offers students an opportunity to move beyond the classroom to the actual practice of science.

The 800-acre property was bequeathed to the university after having been a country estate for much of the 20th century, and includes meadows, woodlands, watercourses and lakes. The site also contains remarkable geological formations, including some of the most noteworthy examples of drumlins and eskers in southern Ontario.

A refectory opens on to a courtyard, with clerestories and operable windows allowing for daylight and natural ventilation, while reinforcing visual connections between indoors and outdoors.

The new building accommodates research students and faculty for extended periods of time. Modelled after a university quad, it comprises sleeping and bathing quarters, a refectory, living areas and teaching spaces. Nearby seasonal bunkies provide additional accommodation during the peak research season.    

The building takes the place of three aging barns. Its massing is inspired by agrarian building forms, adapted to include lanterns for natural light, overhangs for appropriate solar response, covered walkways, and a courtyard. The design reinforces indoor-outdoor connections: this is a building for people who love to be outside, working in the field.

The building’s massing is inspired by local agrarian structures, adjusted to allow for natural stack ventilation and optimized for passive solar heat management.

The project is targeting net-zero-carbon, net-zero-energy performance and LEED Gold. This robust sustainability mandate is met through passive design strategies that minimize energy use, while offering year-round comfort to users. Like breathable clothing developed for outdoor exploration, its timber structure is wrapped in a highly insulated skin that can be opened and closed in response to changing temperatures and weather conditions.

Sectional diagrams

Taking a scientific approach to sustainability, each façade’s design responds to its solar orientation, and a whole-building energy model was used to inform natural ventilation strategies and building envelope components. The final design includes R40 walls, an R60 roof and triple-glazed windows. The resulting building is designed to be comfortable in the summer and shoulder seasons using passive cooling techniques, and to only require active cooling on very hot days.

Ground floor plan

CLIENT The University of Toronto | ARCHITECT TEAM Robert Davies (FRAIC), Karine  Quigley, Esther Cheng, Camelia Melchiori | STRUCTURAL Blackwell | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Integral Group | CIVIL WSP Global | CODE Arencon | COST Turner & Townsend | LANDSCAPE PMA | SUSTAINABILITY Integral Group / Elementa | A/V Engineering Harmonics | SPECIFICATIONS DGS | AREA 903 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | CURRENT STAGE Contract documents| ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Summer 2022

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 52.4 kWh/m2/year | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.5 m3/m2/year

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Théâtre de Verdure https://www.canadianarchitect.com/theatre-de-verdure/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:50:23 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759086

"It’s modest, but it has presence."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“I like the layering of the material creating the stage sides, and the way it frames views. It’s very light—you see it in different ways as you move around it. It’s not an imposing structure, but takes its place within the park in a very natural and comfortable way. It’s modest, but it has presence.” – Michael Moxam, juror

Reconstructed on the site of an outdated stage, the new performance space opens at the back to connect the amphitheatre to the lake and surrounding parkland.

At the heart of Montreal’s La Fontaine Park, Théâtre de Verdure has hosted professional dance and music performances from its inception in 1956 until its closure in 2014 due to outdated facilities. This major rehabilitation broadens the theatre’s mission, reaffirms its heritage identity, and creates a more open and accessible space throughout the year.

Site plan

The design aims to facilitate a synergy between architecture and landscape. A number of new elements promote accessibility and visual links between the theatre and the park. These include a new entrance, the extension of trails within the theatre enclosure, and the thinning of low shrubbery. A new stage will be reconstructed on the site of the previous stage—a small island within the park’s large linked ponds—with amphitheatre seating reconstructed across the water. The outdoor stage becomes a key design element of the park, while simultaneously “staging” the landscape through its open front and rear elevations. Park users are encouraged to discover the theatre, and conversely, theatre-goers are invited to explore the park.

The site’s landscaping is carefully coordinated with its built elements to nestle the theatre within its verdant setting.

The architectural interventions support summer theatre performances and four-season events. The project includes updated infrastructure, enabling the theatre to accommodate 2,500 spectators and to host large-scale artistic productions, adapted to an outdoor stage.

Adjacent to the auditorium seating, a new structure contains the main entrance, washrooms, and artists’ entrance. A rooftop terrace offers superb parkland views, reinforcing interconnections between the built and natural landscapes.

Vertical slats on the sides of the stage give it a light, layered appearance.

The new Théâtre de Verdure goes beyond its core theatrical mandate, becoming a destination that invites rediscovery of the surrounding park. Nestled in its magnificent setting, the project reflects on the relationships between architecture and landscape, and between space and theatre.

Sectional perspective

CLIENT Ville de Montréal | ARCHITECT TEAM Concept—Eric Pelletier (MRAIC, design principal), Maria Benech (architect, design director), Marie-Eve Parent (lanscape architect, design director), Arnaud Villard, Sophie Lacoste. Project management—Yanick Casault, Andrée Castegnier, Maryse Ballard, Marie-Claude Leblond (MRAIC). Technical—Eric St-Pierre, Isabelle Brosseau, Alice Maria Calvalcante Lima, Laura Borey, Alejandro Mendoza Vazquez, Jean Deslauriers, Valérie Gravel, Francois Ménard, Xavier Bellefeuille, Daniel Smith | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Bouthillette Parizeau | STRUCTURAL Calculatec | CIVIL Marchand Houle | THEATRE Trizart Alliance | LIGHTING Ombrages | AREA Site—7,825 m2; Building—635 m2| BUDGET $11.5 M | CURRENT STAGE Under construction | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Fall 2021

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Shefford Primary School https://www.canadianarchitect.com/shefford-primary-school/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:40:51 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759074

"Clustering the classrooms gives the large school a smaller feel, and offers students a sense of identity.”

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“This project opens up a variety of interesting outdoor and indoor spaces for engaging different learning styles. There are spaces where you can put performances on, places where kids could sit and work on projects together, and other possibilities for learning. Clustering the classrooms gives the large school a smaller feel, and offers students a sense of identity.” – Susan Fitzgerald, juror

The main pavilion includes a common cafeteria and auditorium area.

Part of Quebec’s Lab-École initiative to improve the province’s schools, this design for a new elementary school in the Eastern Townships encourages its students to develop as physically active, intellectually engaged, and community-minded youth.

The low-slung school is located at the edge of a small forest, with its opposite side opening onto fields and Mount Shefford beyond. Its layout is divided into pavilions that surround a central courtyard. Each age group occupies its own pavilion, creating identifiable “houses” for the students, while a main pavilion and gymnasium pavilion are shared by the school as a whole.

The school’s classrooms cluster around a central courtyard, whose landscaping and hardscaping provide a variety of exploratory play opportunities for students in all seasons.

The main pavilion houses the school’s reception and administration areas, as well as a two-level lunch area, open shared kitchen, two workshops, and a lounge. The partially sunken gymnasium pavilion includes clerestory glazing that allows for views between the gymnasium floor, the school’s main circulation corridor, and the central courtyard.

Like the best schools, Shefford is both simple in its expression and organization, yet complex in its spatial variety. Classrooms benefit from high ceilings, with an exposed wood structure that lends a warm atmosphere to the school. Double-height collaborative areas shared by the classrooms include open spaces for group activities, along with a quieter upper mezzanine for students to concentrate on focused tasks.

Shared collaboration areas between classrooms offer spaces for different styles of learning, including open areas for group activities and quieter mezzanines for individual study.

Outside, large roof overhangs form a continuous exterior covered promenade, which can be used as a path between pavilions and as a gathering space. The courtyard also includes an outdoor classroom, vegetable garden with a hand-pumped well, and various areas for both organized games and informal play.

Large operable windows and patio doors in each of the classrooms help connect students to the outdoors, while also allowing for abundant fresh air. Triangular solar chimneys help to moderate indoor air temperatures, provide natural ventilation, and bring natural daylight into the school’s central spaces.

Ground floor plan

Shefford Primary School’s volumes reference archetypical forms reminiscent of local agrarian buildings, without mimicking the area’s vernacular architecture. Its design is intended to offer an innovative model for schooling, but above all, to help students feel at home and welcomed at school.

Classroom pavilion section

CLIENT Commission scolaire de Val-des-Cerfs | ARCHITECT TEAM Pelletier de Fontenay—Hubert Pelletier, Yves De Fontenay, Yann Gay-Crosier, Etienne Coutu Sarrazin, Guillaume Larouche, Alexandre Hamlyn. Leclerc—Thomas Gauvin Brodeur, Claudia Gravel, Hugues Patry, Valeria Lima, Maxime Hurtubise. | CONSULTANTS Lab-École | STRUCTURAL Latéral conseil | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Bouthillette Parizeau | CIVIL Gravitaire | LANDSCAPE Fauteux et Associés | AREA 4,505 m2 | BUDGET $18.7 M | CURRENT STAGE Design development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION September 2022

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 86.43 kWh/m2/year

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Boston University, Center for Computing & Data Sciences https://www.canadianarchitect.com/boston-university-center-for-computing-data-sciences/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:35:04 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759018

"The building manages to balance its context, sustainability concerns, and the creation of a legible form, while also making an interesting envelope."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

“This is a very ambitious project that strives to be 100 percent free of fossil fuels. It’s also fitting into an established context, and does so quite elegantly. The interior brings together people and data, while encouraging them to engage with surrounding activities and public space. The building manages to balance its context, sustainability concerns, and the creation of a legible form, while also making an interesting envelope.” –Susan Fitzgerald, juror

A stacked-box form relates the Center to the scale of neighbouring buildings.

The Center for Computing & Data Sciences is one of a few major new buildings on Boston University’s Charles River Campus in half a century. Its program consolidates the departments of mathematics, statistics, and computer science into a 19-storey vertical campus that will be BU’s tallest building. Its transparent podium base aligns with the height of other buildings along Commonwealth Avenue; the setback, irregularly stacked boxes comprising its tower read as masses scaled to the context rather than one looming, outsized volume.

Site plan

Interaction zones in the podium include a café and a cascading promenade. A central atrium and a spiraling, interconnecting stair link all podium levels. The tower’s stacked floor plates generate terraced “neighbourhoods” for each department, with an event space in the topmost volume. Not long ago, the tower’s corners would likely have been allocated to private offices for senior faculty. Here, these prime pieces of real estate are reserved for focused collaboration.

On the ground level, collaboration areas, a café, and an outdoor plaza, courtyard and passageway connect the building to its urban surroundings.

Boston University’s Climate Action Plan aims to reduce the institution’s carbon emissions to zero by 2040, and the Center for Computing & Data Sciences will be the first building on any BU campus to be 100 percent fossil free. Geothermal wells provide the majority of its heating and cooling. In the envelope, transparent triple glazing is integrated with spandrel panel glass and insulated metal panels. Two exterior shade systems control solar heat gain and reduce the glare that can make viewing computer screens and whiteboards particularly challenging. On deeper floor plate zones, diagonal metal louvers in front of 60 percent glazing mitigate solar gain while driving daylight into the interior. In shallower single-bay floor plate zones, where daylight does not need to reach as deeply, prefinished metal sawtooth elements are vertically installed in tandem with 50 percent glazing.

A mix of diagonal and vertical louvers optimizes the solar performance of the tower, which is aiming to be 100 percent fossil-fuel free.
Louver details

Offering expansive river views on three sides, the Center inspires students and faculty immersed in the digital realm to look up, and outward: to pause in the realm of the real and be reminded that every action is interconnected to humanity, the Earth, and the Universe.

CLIENT Boston University | ARCHITECT TEAM Bruce Kuwabara (FRAIC, design partner), Marianne McKenna (FRAIC, partner-in-charge), Luigi LaRocca (FRAIC, senior project manager), Paulo Rocha (design principal/project architect), Lucy Timbers (project architect/project manager) David Smythe (senior associate), Matt Krivosudsky (associate), Allison Jang, Amin Monsefi, Armine Tadevosyan, Audley Cummings, Caleb McGinn, Carolyn Lee, Erik Skouris, Fotini Pitoglou, Giulio Bruno, Gloria Zhou, Jesse Bird, Joseph Kahn, Joy Charbonneau, Kael Opie, Katrina Munroe, Kevin Bridgman, Klaudia Lengyel, Melissa Ng, Nicholas Wong, Olena Chorny, Olivia Di Felice, Ramin Yamin, Sam Hart, Tyler Hall, Tyler Loewen, Victor Garzon | STRUCTURAL Entuitive + LeMessurier Consultants | MEP/SECURITY/IT/COMMUNICATIONS BR+A Consulting Engineers | ENVELOPE Entuitive | CIVIL Nitsch Engineering | GEOTECHNICAL/GEOTHERMAL Haley & Aldrich | LANDSCAPE Richard Burck Associates | LIGHTING Dot Dash | CLIMATE Transsolar | LEED The Green Engineer | ELEVATOR Soberman Engineering | FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY Jensen Hughes | ACOUSTICS/AV Acentech | ENVIRONMENTAL RWDI DOOR HARDWARE Robbie McCabe | FOOD SERVICES Ricca Design Studios | SPECIFICATIONS Brian Ballantyne | ELEVATOR Soberman | EXTERIOR SIGNAGE Anna Farrington | COMMISSIONING WSP | TRANSPORTATION AECOM | COSTING Turner & Townsend | FAÇADE MAINTENANCE Lerch Bates | PHYSICAL SECURITY Atriade | OWNER’S PROJECT MANAGER Compass | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AND GENERAL CONTRACTOR Suffolk| AREA 32,052 m? | BUDGET $288 M | CURRENT STAGE Under construction ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Fall 2022

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 130.9 kWh/m2/year

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Machine Ecologies https://www.canadianarchitect.com/machine-ecologies/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:30:24 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759055

"The drawings are stunning. The longer you look at them, the more you see."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This project tells an incredibly poetic story about the relationship between machines and ecology. The drawings are stunning. The longer you look at them the more you see. I’m not clear on the architectural implications, but there is incredible artistry here.” – Michael Moxam, juror

Autonomous seeding machines sow a weave of different crop types, optimizing for factors including light, symbiotic adjacencies, and weed competition.

In the drive for ever-increasing yields, the adaptability of traditional farming has given way to way to industrialized agriculture. Large-scale machines have remade farm landscapes into gridded monoculture sites, geared towards efficient resource production and extraction.

But with the climate crisis creating turmoil in ecosystems, these liminal farm landscapes will become pivotal zones of ecological transition. How can they be remade as places of natural succession that support the interconnected futures of plant, animal and human communities?

After the harvest season, mobile collection machines pull debris from the landscape.

This thesis proposes a speculative future in which different kinds of machines support the health of hybrid, complex agricultural landscapes. The new ecology of machines includes several types of small-scale devices.

Throughout the year, floating drones and soil sensors monitor the landscape, creating a comprehensive almanac of its characteristics and potential. Each spring, gyroscopic spinning tops carve delicate trenches across open fields for seeds and fertilizer. The planting patterns interweave different types of crops, informed by data from the network of drones and sensors to make the most of light, symbiotic adjacencies, wind pollination, and weed competition.

Embedded soil sensors transmit information to clusters of floating drones.

After sowing, the seeding machines are re-purposed as the pendulum-like blades of tiny weeding and harvesting machines. They roam the landscape in search of weeds, touching the earth lightly and cutting above the ground. As the crops are ready to harvest, the same machines reap ornate patterns into the fields, laying cut crops into careful windrows to dry.

At season’s end, collection machines with rotating armatures pull debris from the landscape, meandering until they fold under their own weight. The accumulated material decomposes into closely monitored compositions of compost and microbiota.

As uncertain tides push and pull environmental thresholds, deep ecological thinking will help create resiliency. No matter the future, rethinking the way we divide and cultivate productive landscapes is an essential step to riding the waves of change to come.

Location: Charlie Lake, British Columbia

Advisor: Thena Tak

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Unsettling Ground https://www.canadianarchitect.com/unsettling-ground/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:25:33 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759128

“This was a very interesting study of what’s going to happen with the thawing permafrost in Arviat, and the architecture of a new type of collective living that could form on this unsettled ground."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This was a very interesting study of what’s going to happen with the thawing permafrost in Arviat, and the architecture of a new type of collective living that could form on this unsettled ground. It evidences interesting research on the location’s housing crisis, environmental crisis, and cultural crisis, including visiting the site multiple times throughout the year.” – Susan Fitzgerald, juror

Section

Ground in the Canadian Arctic is continuously shaped by dramatic seasonal cycles, extreme weather, and deep geological processes of glaciation and retreat. In the past, remote communities in the Inuit homeland of Nunavut coped with this geological instability through traditional knowledge of climate and territory. Then the North was aggressively transformed by systematic federal government interventions, including forced relocations of Inuit. Canadian visions of modernism imposed new patterns of settlement and spaces at odds with the fluidity of the land. Many current Arctic communities have outlasted the mines, trading posts, and military installations that dictated their location. And now the warming trends of climate change are increasingly destabilizing the frozen soils, or permafrost, on which these communities are constructed.

Shacks, sheds and mobile shelters introduce layers of seasonal flexibility to the architecture of Arviat.

Local building practices in Arviat, Nunavut were the catalyst for this thesis project. Its author, Jason McMillan, made two research trips to the community and observed how its residents were engaging in collective projects that challenge the neutralized mapping, master planning and housing conventions that were imposed on Arviat. Stories and geological observations shared by community members inform the three design strategies that McMillan puts forth as more flexible and adaptable alternatives to current planning and design practices of the Nunavut Housing Corporation.

The thesis is sited at the edge of town, where older homes, self-built structures, and new five-plex row housing are built over increasingly unstable permafrost. The proposal learns from existing use patterns to suggest culturally appropriate, socially attuned, and environmentally sustainable design and planning strategies.

The first tactic, Fluid Geology, proposes block-and-wedge foundations surmounted by decks as a means of introducing a “layer of flexibility” between existing structures and thawing permafrost. McMillan also advocates planning that responds to hydrological features instead of conforming to a strict grid. The second tactic, Collective Ground, reconsiders buildings as a means of forming collective spaces, both indoors and out. The third, Lived Boundaries, explores how traditional relationships cross the physical boundaries designed into the town, connecting open space, structures and landscape by social and seasonal rhythms.

Block circulation study, Arviat, Nunavut

McMillan returned from Arviat convinced that much could be learned from the “informal and often messy collective projects” undertaken by the community to adapt the built environment they have to the unsettled ground beneath it. These projects offer great lessons, he observes, to “designers seeking to unsettle their own practices.”

Advisor: Lola Sheppard

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Milton Park as Found https://www.canadianarchitect.com/milton-park-as-found/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:20:42 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759063

“This project shows a very good understanding of the urban context and existing materiality."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“This project shows a very good understanding of the urban context and existing materiality. It didn’t try to achieve a very spectacular architecture—but that is the essence of Milton Park. While sometimes students want to do a big gesture, this student was confident enough to produce a calm approach.” – Stephan Chevalier, juror

An addition to a Montreal ballet school weaves quietly into its neighbourhood fabric, taking cues from the area’s eclectic mix of typologies.

Montreal’s Milton Park neighbourhood, east of McGill University’s main campus, has a coherent but messy built fabric that is part of its charm. Shaped by divergent social, morphological and demographic changes, its buildings range from Victorian townhouses to modernist high-rises.

Milton Park as Found adopts a realist attitude, exploring the possibilities of seizing this diverse built history as it is. It aims to study everything that has accrued in the area’s streetscapes—whether from the historical or recent past, whether beautiful or trite—and use it as a rich substrate from which to design.

Site plan, with interventions in green

The project proposes a medley of renovations and additions to Ballet Divertimento, an existing dance school on Milton Street. The school currently occupies the former École Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, constructed by architect Paul G. Goyer in 1961.

The new project is deliberately explored in fragments, rather than as a singular architectural entity, probing the possibilities of engaging with a constellation of existing elements of all scales in the neighbourhood. Through subtle transformations, the project elevates ordinary moments in Milton Park, and makes incremental improvements to the existing urban fabric.

A new atrium, or “gap” space, joins the existing school to the new addition.

These interventions include weaving a new series of spaces into the school, including a central atrium, dance ateliers, a reception area, a café, a patio, and a secret garden. Many of the spaces are deliberately ambiguous in use: a rehearsal space might sometimes serve as an office, or as something else entirely. Particular attention is paid to how the addition occupies the spaces between buildings, and creates intriguing interstitial spaces of its own.

Gap space, unfolded axonometric

The project’s design, along with its drawings, deliberately blurs the distinction between the existing fabric and new interventions. “So what has really changed?” asks project designer John Jinwoo Han. He hopes that a visitor to the project would answer: “Not much, it’s not too different from what it was before.”

Advisor: Martin Bressani

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Massey Hall Dance Floor https://www.canadianarchitect.com/massey-hall-dance-floor/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:15:51 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759060

“We’ve done our share of construction site photos, and it isn’t always easy to make sense of the chaos of that environment. This does so in a lovely, clever way. There’s something so refreshing about an image that is so real and so raw, and yet so beautiful and communicative.” – Younes Bounhar, juror

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT PHOTO AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

“We’ve done our share of construction site photos, and it isn’t always easy to make sense of the chaos of that environment. This does so in a lovely, clever way. There’s something so refreshing about an image that is so real and so raw, and yet so beautiful and communicative.” – Younes Bounhar, juror

The revitalization of Toronto’s historic Massey Hall is currently underway, led by KPMB Architects with heritage firm GBCA. One aspect of the renewal is the restoration of the concert hall’s plaster scalloped ceilings, which have long been covered with chicken wire to protect them from crumbling. A complex, four-storey steel scaffold holds up a work platform—nicknamed the “dance floor”—that enables the crew to restore the 1890s Moorish Revival ceilings. For this shot, I sat atop the “dance floor,” high above the concert hall.

Through a process of journalistic observation, I am able to capture isolated moments. A photo like this offers a glimpse of a moment that will be hidden from view when the building is complete.

Much like a layered piece of music, my images are a tribute to Massey Hall—a place for performers and music lovers. They document a connection between the historic and the modern, the architecture and the acoustics, the past and the future.

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Wellington (concrete) https://www.canadianarchitect.com/wellington-concrete/ Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:10:50 +0000 https://www.canadianarchitect.com/?p=1003759094

"There’s the idea of something very strong and something very fragile at the same time."

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WINNER OF A 2020 CANADIAN ARCHITECT PHOTO AWARD OF MERIT

“I like the emotion of this image—the ladder is a small wood structure against this solid concrete box. There’s the idea of something very strong and something very fragile at the same time. It’s also a very particular moment: an hour after that, the ladder is gone, the photo doesn’t exist anymore.” – Stephan Chevalier, juror

This image is part of a photographic series titled Construct, which focuses on the creation of human-built space before it has reached its intended purpose. As seen in these photographs, the soon-to-be occupied spaces show no evidence of everyday use, and exist as decontextualized structures made purely of raw materials. The resulting ambiguity brings into play the viewer’s own tactile experiences of concrete, drywall, steel and brick.

By turning the subject matter into a unique sculptural version of itself, I hope to strip away visual references to each space’s function. To describe these photos, I often use the conceptual model of a museum diorama, where the constructed nature of a scene takes prominence. This series of images creates a new stage from which to view the human-built world: one where the building blocks form the structures for an imagined space. Instead of seeing a building’s intended use as, for example, a school atrium, viewers could just as easily envisage an obscure archeological site from the past, or a science fiction film set in the future.

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