WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECTS Bjarke Ingels Group (design architect), DIALOG (architect of record), James K.M. Cheng Architects (advising architect)

LOCATION Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver House negotiates a difficult site trisected by the Granville Bridge. The base of the tower is conditioned by two neighbouring elements. First, a 30-metre setback from the bridge greatly cuts down the area of the site. Second, concerns for sunlight reaching an adjacent park limit how far south the site can expand. As a result, the footprint is restricted to a 540-square-metre triangle—almost too small to build on.

The tower ascends as a simple extrusion of this triangular footprint. Thirty metres above the bridge, it begins to reclaim the lost area from the setbacks by expanding into a rectangular floor plate. This gradual cantilever protects residents at the lower levels from the noise, exhaust and traffic of the bridge. At the higher levels—beyond the bridge’s zone of influence—the massing maximizes real estate for the most desirable apartments.

This movement not only turns the inefficient triangle into an optimized rectangular floor plate, but also frees up a generous public space at the building’s base. The resultant silhouette resembles a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city.

The 52-storey Vancouver House will house 375 residential units and will be Vancouver’s fourth tallest building when completed. The tower is situated on a 9-storey podium base, housing a mixed-use urban village offering intimately scaled commercial, retail, recreational and public spaces.

Beyond its role as the defining infrastructural element of the site, the Granville Bridge functions as an urban umbrella for the street life underneath. Local artists will turn the underside of the bridge into an outdoor gallery, transforming the perception of this area as a new form of public space. What used to be an unfortunate side effect of a piece of infrastructure—the overpass—is re-envisaged as a vibrant covered street for a reinvented neighbourhood.

The project targets both LEED Platinum and LEED Certification for Neighborhood Development. Each façade uses high-performance, triple-glazed insulating units and all balconies are fully insulated at the top, bottom and slab edges. The envelope is designed to provide a 60-40 glazing-to-solid ratio.

The building’s shape necessitates a unique structural system. It will be the first project in Vancouver to employ vertical post-tensioning and a robust walking-column system. Stepped columns merge as they move towards the base of the building. Each offset column induces lateral thrusts into the horizontal, post-tensioned slabs at each floor, which in turn transfer this load to the core and to vertically post-tensioned shear walls.

Vancouver House’s form is a result of its circumstances: a trisected site, existing infrastructure, and concerns for neighbouring buildings and parks. City regulations were applied to the site and hidden opportunities uncovered through analyzing current urban conditions. The sculptural silhouette is not the result of formal excess, but rather the outcome of design and real estate optimization. The building appears different because it performs and responds differently.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: Many “leftover” sites in our cities are nice found opportunities to develop new types of buildings. That’s what this project is doing. It’s a focal point for people that arrive from the bridge. Even if the building is quite spectacular, this site can take it. To balance the sculptural aspect of the tower, the external façade is quite simple and subtle.

:: Pat Hanson :: This is a developer’s dream because the largest floor plates are on the top—that maximizes the number of units that will sell for the most. The cantilevered form is in line with the profit centre of the building, and those profits probably pay for the structural gymnastics. It’s really quite brilliant.

:: Johanna Hurme :: We often see geometric moves in the work of architectural offices today. But in this case, it’s actually coming from the zoning requirement; it’s responding to a real site condition. In addition to finding
an opportunity to build on an urban residual site, the project reimagines the spaces under the freeway ramps as active urban conditions. These places are often simply ignored and are in need of innovative solutions.

CLIENT Westbank | ARCHITECT TEAM BIG—Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen, Beat Schenk, Agustín Pérez-Torres, Melissa Bauld, Amina Blacksher, Aran Coakley, Alexandra Gustafsson, Alina Tamosiunaite, Arash Ahmadian, Armen Menendian, Barbora Srpková, Bennett Gale, Ben Zunkeler, Birk Daugaard, Blake Smith, Brian Foster, Brian Rome, Carolien Schippers, Christopher Junkin, Christopher Malcolm, David Brown, David Dottelonde, Doug Stechschulte, Edward Yung, Elena Bresciani, Francesca Portesine, Gabriel Hernandez Solano, Hector Garcia, Ivy Hume, Jan Leenknegt, Janice Rim, Julian Liang, Julianne Gola, Karol Borkowski, Lauren Turner, Marcella Martinez, Martin Voelkle, Michael Taylor, Sean Franklin, Spencer Hayden, Terrence Chew, Terry Lallak, Tran Le, Yoanna Shivarova. DIALOG—Joost Bakker, Doug Cinnamon, Bruce Haden, Vance Harris, Marion LaRue, Cameron Veres, Aida Aguilar, Stan Bury, Alexa Bustamante, Marcello Caula, Evan Dysart, Kyle Elderhorst, Lauren Fehr, Doris Fischer, Wellington Hau, Laura Herbert, Carole Hoveland, Richard Innes, Ken Johnson, Janay Koldingnes, Tim Lazaruk, Tracy Liu, Gary McCauley, Martin Neault, Erin Parchoma, Brad Phillips, Ken Rea, Sara Remocker, Pallavi Sangwan, Blaire Schille, Rey Tadifa, Mahsa Tashakor, Trevor Thimm, Justin Tompson, Sheldon Ublansky, Ivy Usi, Oskar Winnat, Jiameng Zeng. | STRUCTURAL Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers | MECHANICAL Integral Group | ELECTRICAL Nemetz & Associates | CIVIL Hunter Laird Engineering Ltd. | GEOTECH GeoPacific Consultants Ltd. | ENVELOPE Morrison Hershfield | LANDSCAPE PFS Studio | INTERIORS BIG | CONTRACTOR ICON West Construction Corp. | SUSTAINABILITY & ENERGY MODELING Integral Group | CODE LMDG | TRANSPORTATION Bunt & Associates | SIGNAGE Zacharko Design | ELEVATORS Gunn Consultants | WIND Gradient Microclimate Engineering | AREA 716,000 ft² (above grade) | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION 2018

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT RDH Architects (RDHA)

LOCATION Brampton, Ontario

This project creates a new branch library and community park for the neighbourhood of Springdale, in the City of Brampton, just outside Toronto. The building provides 1860 square metres of library program space along with a 465-square-metre multi-purpose community room. The neighbourhood park includes areas for children’s play equipment, a splash pad, parking and a contemplative garden.

The four-acre greenfield site is bordered by Bramalea Road to the south, a new commercial plaza to the east, and a natural ravine to the north and west. The ravine forms part of the tributary system for the West Humber River.

To connect the building to its landscape, the conceptual parti uses two primary devices: first, the notion of an organic, undulating perimeter joining building and courtyards; and second, the creation of an artificial topography within the flat landscape of the park, the floor slab of the interior, and the ceiling and roof planes of the library structure.

Responding to the library’s request, the new facility is located as close to Bramalea Road as possible. This maximizes the library’s street presence, and forces parking to the rear of the site, adjacent to the new entry drive and commercial plaza. The remainder of the site—immediately next to the ravine—provides an ideal location for the neighbourhood park with its contemplative gardens.

The building and façades work together towards two seemingly opposing strategies: they aim to be formally controlled and formally expressive. The building envelope is amorphous, undulating in and out to create entry and procession spaces from the street, parking and contemplative gardens. These undulations represent one aspect of how the building expressively relates to its natural, organic setting.

On the other hand, the building footprint is controlled and contained within the overall triangular form. The negative spaces of the triangle convey a sense of order, while serving to provide canopy, lighting and screening functions, and to define three perimeter courtyard spaces.

The layers of the façade are predominantly vertical and consist of the following: the undulating perimeter of glass; a striated, solar-responsive ceramic frit pattern; an aluminum framing system that supports the glazed units; a series of linear LED light fixtures integrated into the aluminum framing system; and, finally, a screen of stainless steel tubes on the exterior. This last element provides an additional layer of solar resistance, varying in density depending on solar orientation. The combination of these vertically striated elements is conceived as a functional abstraction of two combined metaphors: the trunks of trees in a forest and the turning pages of a library book.

From a distance, the roof is shaped to present a hill-like profile. Inside, this area is accompanied by a topographic ceiling ascension marking the skylight over the active reading atrium. A quiet reading atrium
is delineated by a minor ceiling rise, while the ceiling descends over a children’s area to create a sense of intimacy.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: The quality of the mountain-like roof, the oculus at its centre, and the way that light will spread within the library—all of these are going to enhance the feeling of being covered and sheltered when you are inside this building.

:: Pat Hanson :: The building looks to the larger site to inflect the basic move of proposing an orderly, well-planned, rectilinear box. It’s inflected in its ground plane through a notion of topography, and equally inflected in section through the raising of the green roof so that it creates a hillscape that can be seen from the street.

:: Johanna Hurme :: There’s recognition of the reality of what actually happens in a building: for instance, the hill is only part of the roof, and the rest is a white reflective surface. The plan also includes gardens carved into it, which create very specific zones for different types of function and program.

CLIENT City of Brampton and Brampton Library | ARCHITECT TEAM Tyler Sharp, Bob Goyeche, Sanjoy Pal, Simon Routh, Carlos Tavares, Soo-Jin Rim, Andrew Cranford | STRUCTURAL Halsall/WSP Engineers | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Jain Consultants | LANDSCAPE NAK Design Group | INTERIORS RDHA | CIVIL Valdor Engineering Inc. | AREA 2,500 m² | BUDGET $17 M | COMPLETION March 2017

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT RDH Architects (RDHA)

LOCATION Toronto, Ontario

This project is a redevelopment of the existing Eglinton GO Transit commuter rail station in Scarborough, located between McCowan and Markham Roads. The primary program for the building includes upgraded passenger platforms and enhanced pedestrian and cycling access, as well as such completely original interventions as a new station building, tunnels and stairs, a structure for housing mechanical, electrical and IT services, and an elevated pedestrian bridge linking the station to overflow parking located across Eglinton to the north. It is the intention of the design team to create a facility that will raise the profile of the station within the neighbourhood and attract new users through its architecture and design.

The architectural concept began with an acknowledgement of the irregular, wedge-shaped site, whose topography allows for both a main street-level area and an upper platform-level area. The conceptual design for the station was inspired by linear movement, forced perspectives and lines vanishing into the distance. The idea of a two-storey wedge-shaped building receding into a tight corner appeared to have an appropriate and interesting formal dynamism for a transit station.

Beyond the initial formal response, notions of transparency, reflection and view have become important concepts to convey the visual and spatial experience of being at a train station. Transparency allows for visual communication of the building’s use and GO Transit’s overall aspirations to the street, the platform and to train passengers. The formal prominence of a transparent, glowing station building along Eglinton draws attention to the facility as potential users pass by the site.

Reflection—through the use of glass and other reflective materials—  accentuates the initial ideas associated with perspective and movement, and offers the potential to further display the experience and program
of the train station.

Finally, views have become an important conceptual design consideration. These include views from the outside into the facility, and from the inside to the exterior—but also views from cars and pedestrians travelling along Eglinton, and from the various levels of the trains that approach and pass by the station building.

The design team has been studying an initial material palette including high-performance glazed curtain wall incorporating a custom ceramic frit patterning. This would maximize views into and out of the station building, increase the amount of overall daylighting, and reduce the overall demand for artificial lighting. The suggested palette also includes polished aluminum panels for above-ground solid wall cladding, extensive green roofs for the majority of the station building, sedum tray planting fixed to exterior faceted concrete surfaces, and exposed cast-in-place concrete for the exterior retaining walls and other hardscape elements.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: There’s a quiet elegance to this project. We appreciated the functionality and simplicity of the plan. It’s a gateway in the way it has been designed, and it is going to participate well in the landscape along the highway.

:: Pat Hanson :: It’s a building about passage and threshold, and an example of what you can do with a utilitarian infrastructure that we haven’t paid attention to for decades.

:: Johanna Hurme :: This building has to be understood at two different speeds: from the automobile passing by as well as from the pedestrian point of view, when you get out of your car to catch a train. We look forward to seeing how the screen develops and how it can answer to that condition.

CLIENT Metrolinx | ARCHITECT TEAM Tyler Sharp, Bob Goyeche, Jacques Bergeron, Peter Osborne, Simon Routh, Luc Johnston | STRUCTURAL Halsall/WSP Engineers | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Moon-Matz Ltd. Consulting Engineers | LANDSCAPE Elias and Associates Landscape Architects | INTERIORS RDHA | AREA 575 m² (station building alone) | BUDGET     $3 M (station building alone) | $27 M (total site development)

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT KANVA (concept architect and architect of record) and NEUF architect(e)s (collaborating architect)

LOCATION Olympic Park, Montreal, Quebec

Montreal’s Biodome was built as a velodrome for the 1976 Olympic Games and was converted into a natural science museum in 1992. The Biodome includes four ecosystems: the Tropical Rainforest, the Laurentian Maple Forest, the St. Lawrence Gulf, and the Sub-Polar Regions. Together, these host over 4,500 animals from 250 different species.

As part of a citywide plan to celebrate Montreal’s 375th anniversary in 2017, the museum last year launched an international competition to renovate the Biodome interior. KANVA and NEUF’s winning entry rethinks the relationship between humankind and nature, and bolsters the centre’s educational mission.

The revitalization strategy treats the existing facility as a living organism. A continuous curved wall fluidly wraps each ecosystem like a skin. Referencing the building’s history of hosting cycling races, the floor-to-ceiling walls sweep through the interior space, serving as a canvas that accompanies visitors through the building’s many pathways and leads them back to a new central hub.

Pure in both form and colour, the white skin isolates the ecosystems and contrasts with the robust concrete architecture of the velodrome. The skin becomes a neutral yet bold intermediary between two important elements—the building and the exhibition zones. The clean membrane invites introspection in the moments between visits to the sensory-stimulating, animal-filled environments.

Within the ecosystems, the new conceptual strategy creates immersive and intimate experiences, bringing more awareness to visitors during their journey. Outside of the ecosystems, the plan reorganizes many
of the public spaces on the main floor, freeing up the grand hall and extending a new central hub to the ceiling. Making use of the Biodome’s height, a mezzanine is added above the redesigned Sub-Polar Regions, framing the impressive ceiling structure and offering new vantage points for visitors and staff. New passages from two of the ecosystems service this mezzanine, allowing visitors a more diversified trajectory and additional points of rest to punctuate their visit.

The skin is made from a textile that can curve and take on many forms, preventing unnecessary demolition of the fragile ecosystems and existing infrastructure, including a newly optimized mechanical system. The textile’s flexibility allows it to occupy residual and awkward spaces, unifying the irregular perimeters of each exhibition. The skin disguises most of the Biodome’s unsightly mechanical equipment, redirecting the visual focus of visitors up to the heritage structure’s luminous skylights.

The system’s thin profile and lightweight structure allow for installation with little noise, keeping disruption to the animals and their environments to a minimum.

In addition to making better use of the velodrome’s skylights, the design celebrates the existing heritage building in several ways. The amphitheatre is relocated along the building’s edge to free up the central hub, and makes use of the velodrome’s original spectator stands for seating. In the newly opened atrium, two concrete staircases from the velodrome become important anchors in the space.

Overall, the scheme offers a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach that both enhances the existing heritage building and expands the programmatic functions of the Biodome.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: The challenge that the designers had to face in reorganizing the existing main components was very difficult. Their solution brings a sense of playfulness to circulating around this building. They have chosen a good strategy to create a strong promenade.

:: Pat Hanson :: This project inserts strategically sculpted walls that capture views of the sky like a James Turrell structure, editing what is already present. The intervention is a kind of syncopation as you move through the four exhibits—your sensory experience is completely different when you’re passing through the paired walls. Understood in relationship to the ceiling structure of the existing building, the plan with its extruded walls is quite profound.

:: Johanna Hurme :: There’s a consistency and clarity to the overall approach that adds legibility to the existing piece. It’s a good example of how to intervene with such a specific building. We have many big, iconic buildings across Canada that would benefit from new intervention and reuse strategies with this kind of sensibility.

CLIENT Space for Life (City of Montreal) | ARCHITECT TEAM KANVA—Rami Bebawi, Tudor Radulescu, Minh-Giao Truong, Katrine Rivard, Olga Karpova, Killian O’Connor, Léon Dussault-Gagné, Dina Safonova, Joyce Yam, Dale Byrns, France Moreau, Gabriel Caya, Eloïse Ciesla. Neuf architect(e)s—Azad Chichmanian, Marina Socolova. | STRUCTURAL NCK | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Bouthillette Parizeau | INTERIORS KANVA + Neuf architect(e)s | MUSEOLOGIST Nathalie Matte | SIGNAGE/BRANDING Bruce Mau  | AREA 15,472 m² | BUDGET $13 M | COMPLETION 2017-2018

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT MASS Design Group

LOCATION Munini, Nyaruguru District, Rwanda

Over the past 20 years, Rwanda has undergone incredible transformation, and its healthcare sector is but one example. The nation currently has plans to build several district hospitals. Working with the Ministry of Health, MASS developed a set of design-driven principles to improve health outcomes that can be adapted to the specific needs of each district’s context, demographics and programmatic requirements. To aid the Ministry’s infrastructure team in sizing, specifying, procuring and evaluating future designs, this included Program and Design Standards and a “how-to” guide to shape future renovation and construction.

In parallel with the development of the National Standards, MASS designed a 300-bed facility in Nyaruguru, one of Rwanda’s poorest districts. The project site, typical of Rwanda’s mountainous topography, is on a hilltop marked by centuries of human history: the terraced hillside is shaped by years of agricultural production, the buildings sit atop a former colonial military control point, and at the hill’s crest, a mass grave and memorial commemorates an especially bleak chapter of the country’s history: the 1994 genocide.

To adapt the plan to a relatively tight site, the program’s three bars are bent in accordance with the natural contours of the hill, and are strategically opened up to allow prevailing winds to pass through the buildings. Given that the majority of outpatients arrive by foot or public transport, the primary entrance is a landscaped path with multiple places for open air seating to combat infection, along with green spaces for a tranquil healing environment. Emergency services are vertically separated from the reception to allow for ease of flow across the ER, operations, ICU, imaging and post-op areas—each connected by a bridge that ties the three bars to the core. Due to the frequency of power outages, the building’s vertical circulation incorporates two centrally located ramps that also serve to animate the central courtyard.

Rwanda’s equatorial climate allows for the building to be almost completely open to the surrounding environment. The hospital’s largest program elements—private rooms and open wards—are set back from the edge to provide shading as well as dedicated balconies and outdoor spaces. To prevent airborne infection, all internal hallways are removed, displacing user movement to the exterior where the risk is much lower. Working with mechanical engineers, MASS ensured adequate natural ventilation, and designed nursing stations that minimize risk to staff.

The building has a cutting-edge maternity suite, including delivery, OR, ICU, and NICU wards to assist Rwanda further reduce rates of infant and maternal mortality. These steps build upon the impressive strides the country has made in achieving those aspects of the Millennium Development Goals.

Through its work, MASS has found that one of the most under-leveraged opportunities to achieve impact through building is in redesigning the building process to foster social engagement, training and equitable hiring. At Munini, they specified brick produced within 10 km and stone quarried from the immediate region to encourage contractors and suppliers to directly engage Munini’s community.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: There’s a finesse in the research and the materiality of this design—the building composition is solid and well-grounded. It sets new, high standards for the area.

:: Pat Hanson :: Many projects in the third world are bereft of architectural ambition—a loss for building users but also for the architects involved. This project demonstrates what can be accomplished when architects take on that responsibility. There’s consideration of how solid and void balance in the façade. The building is planned in narrow bars in a way that harnesses the microclimate of the site for ventilation.

:: Johanna Hurme :: Architects have the responsibility to provide sufficient, inspiring and appropriate responses to global issues such as health. In this project, we particularly appreciated the sensitivity to the local context. There’s an understanding that with simple means, you can achieve a lot.

CLIENT Rwanda Ministry of Health | ARCHITECT TEAM Kelly Doran, Alan Ricks, Michael Murphy, Christian Benimana, Chris Schovel, Patricia Gruits, John Maher, Amelie Ntigulirwa, Theophile Uwayezu, Annie Peyton, Marcela Laverde, Kyle Barker, Garret Gantner, Matthew Swaidon | Landscape MASS—Sierra Bainbridge, Martin Pavlinic | STRUCTURAL NOUS Engineering—Omar Garza; MASS—Tim White, Christian Uwinkindi | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Mazetti—Arash Guity, Drew Chitwood, Brian Hageman, Ron Bourgault | CIVIL Fall Creek—Robyn Cooper, Paul Myer | AREA 16,500 m² | BUDGET Withheld COMPLETION June 2017

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

ARCHITECT D’Arcy Jones Architecture

LOCATION Agassiz, British Columbia

This low-slung house is located on a 14-acre farm in British Columbia’s Fraser River Valley. The region is not protected with dikes, so bylaws require any new structure’s first floor to be six feet above the existing ground. In addition, an active railway runs parallel to the site. The area is further battered from above, as storms with fierce winds funnel through the valley.

Despite these challenges, the site is naturally stunning, with panoramic views of a hazelnut orchard, Mount Baker, Mount Cheam and hills that cradle thermal hot springs. In fact, the hurdles of the site are transformed into assets in this home for an extended family that runs an organic sheep husbandry.

Depending on how one approaches it, the building’s massing is either muscularly hovering above or heavily embedded into the ground, articulating the duality of the temporary and the permanent that characterizes farming in a harsh landscape. Similar to traditional family farm compounds, three generations live under one roof in two adjoining houses. One family member uses a wheelchair, so the creation of a single stair-free plane allows her full access to the house.

The requirement to build the house on six feet of structural fill created an opportunity. To avoid unsightly fences between the yard and the sheep pasture, cost-effective concrete lock-block walls encircle the house. This is a modern reinterpretation of the ha-ha wall. Sheep are so friendly they will walk inside open doors and defecate on terraces and lawns. With a simple plane change, they can be near and far simultaneously. They are extra near in the main office, where a hole in the floating floor allows close views of the herd as they gather under the house to avoid the sun or rain.

At night, the sheep sleep in a space inspired by medieval farms, where the barn and house were one single structure. A green roof’s soil protects them from train noise to the north. This intentionally blank elevation also provides visual privacy from the road.

Inside, single-loaded corridors enable long one-point perspectives, each aimed at a particular natural feature or at an internal courtyard. In the main living area, roof beams exaggerate the space’s long dimension. The result is a feeling of expansiveness and solitude.

The site’s high water table provides optimal conditions for a shallow loop geothermal system; heat transfer is more effective when pipes are within saturated soil. Exterior finishes are robust: the north berm is ‘clad’ in a wild grass pasture, exterior walls are made of untreated concrete, overhangs and fascias of untreated cedar, and infill panels of weathering steel. Since the client is a civil contractor, all insulation, cladding and earthwork materials consist of recycled construction waste from other sites.

Core-insulated concrete slabs that cantilever over the sheep pasture rest on twin columns, identical to common highway overpasses. Sandwich panel construction provides strong acoustic separation for interior spaces. Triple-glazed laminated glass blocks train noise that makes it past the sloped acoustic berm. All interior partitions are built with concrete block, adding a third layer of noise protection for a good night’s sleep.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: This is a multi-generational, multi-legged house that is clearly different from what we have been used to seeing. It creates visual dialogue between its wings. The various strategies used to bring in light—whether from the ceiling, skylights, or the bottom of walls—gives a dramatic sense to the promenade. It’s a house with a spiritual aspect.

:: Pat Hanson :: Essentially, it’s a farmyard—a large part of the house is actually a barn for the sheep. There’s a sensitive analysis of the ha-ha strategy to keep the sheep penned in, and to allow for observing them from inside.

:: Johanna Hurme :: The house takes cues from the train track in its siting. There’s a provocative contrast between being sensitive to the site and then also occupying so much of it, all while covering itself with ground. Inside, it’s a house of boundaries—it’s an interesting typology.

CLIENT Withheld | ARCHITECT TEAM D’Arcy Jones, Amanda Kemeny, Craig Bissell, Matthew Ketis-Bendena | RENDERING/PRESENTATION Beckie Boese, Jesse Nguyen | STRUCTURAL David Lee, Fraser Valley Engineering | MECHANICAL Robe Pope, Ecolighten Energy Solutions | LANDSCAPE D’Arcy Jones Architecture | INTERIORS D’Arcy Jones Architecture CONTRACTOR by owner | ENVELOPE JRS Engineering | AREA 4,300 ft² (main house) / 1,600 ft² (family suite) / 3,500 ft² (barn) | BUDGET Withheld

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

Following a two-year process of community engagement, the design for Calgary’s new civic and cultural centre realizes the city’s vision for a technologically advanced downtown public space for innovation and research.

The landscape and architectural design embraces the city’s diverse urban culture and unique climate. The site, where downtown Calgary intersects with the East Village, is transformed into a terraced topography inspired by the nearby foothills; it is made to rise up and over the exiting Light Rail Transit (LRT) line that runs through it.

Like mini-amphitheatres, the resulting terraced seating areas will be used by the city and the library for informal events and as outdoor classrooms, while also providing the community with generous spaces for outdoor reading and pop-up performances. Plantings that reference the native landscape—including elms and aspens lining the plaza’s surrounding streets—draw Calgary’s mountains and plains into the cityscape.

Upon entering the library, visitors encounter a lobby awash with natural light. The eye is drawn up through the skylit atrium, where the library’s public program and circulation along the atrium’s perimeter are clearly visible. The latter acts as an intuitive wayfinding strategy from the main entrance and on each floor.

The library’s program is organized on a spectrum of “fun to serious” as visitors climb the building, starting with active public programs on the ground floor, and spiraling up to quieter, focused study areas on the third and fourth floors. This strategy accommodates the extra activity created by the LRT’s passage underneath the building.

The façade distributes clear and fritted glass to control desired daylight levels for the interior spaces. Dramatic, highly transparent zones attract public interest to activities inside, while closed areas house more focused study spaces. The facade’s geometric patterns are inspired by snowdrifts, creating a field of polygonal shapes that efficiently nest together and can easily approximate soft, natural transitions.

The building and its plaza serve as a mixing zone that reconnects the East Village and downtown, and restores the flow of downtown’s main pedestrian spine. The site where these two neighbourhoods meet is bifurcated by the path of the LRT line as it transitions from above- to below-grade. The lifted library, with an open entry at the heart of the site, allows for a visual and pedestrian connection between the two neighbourhoods. Framed by wood-clad arches that reference the Chinook arch cloud formations common to Alberta, the entry will open up a new outdoor civic space within the city. By re-imagining the streetscape as part of an aggregated public realm surrounding the library, this area will become an accessible, walkable and important civic space in the heart of Calgary.

One of the project’s most challenging technical considerations is the bridging of the LRT. A concrete structure approximately 160 metres in length encapsulates the LRT tracks where they exit the existing tunnel portal. The library building above spans across the 12.1-metre track width so that column loads are supported vertically, rather than resting on the encapsulation structure’s roof.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: This project offers nice urban connections between the streets. The shape is driven by the curve of the rail line, which gives rationale to the plan and overall organization.

:: Pat Hanson :: From the inside, the reading of the structure against the façade creates visual interest. We had some concerns about whether the building could be more specific in its identity as belonging to Calgary.

:: Johanna Hurme :: The interior atrium is an inviting, generous civic space, at a natural centre point within the eye-shaped volume. The strategy of concentrating interior and exterior circulation routes at this point is clear and completely appropriate in this context.

CLIENT Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, Calgary Public Library and City of Calgary | ARCHITECT TEAM Snøhetta—Vanessa Kassabian, Anne-Rachel Schiffmann, Ben Matthews, Dennis Rijkhoff, Jeffrey Cheung, Justin Shea, Mathieu Lemieux-Blanchard, Mia Kang, Michelle Delk, Samuel Brissette. DIALOG—Rob Adamson, Janice Liebe, Alan Collyer, David Maksymec, John Lyons, Antonio Gómez-Palacio, John Do, Don Buschert, Chris Heinaranta, Erin Parchoma, Matt Jordan, Wayne Yarjau, Mark Wallace, Tim McGinn, Matt Parkes, Trevor Cleall, Adam Howes. | PROJECT MANAGEMENT MHPM Project Managers | STRUCTURAL Entuitive | CIVIL Declan Corporation | MECHANICAL DIALOG | ELECTRICAL SMP Engineering | LANDSCAPE Snøhetta/DIALOG | INTERIORS Snøhetta | CONTRACTOR Stuart Olson | ACOUSTICS FFA Consultants in Acoustics and Noise Control Ltd. | IT/AV McSquared System Design Group Inc. | SECURITY SMP Engineering | ENVELOPE Building Envelope Engineering Inc. | COST Hanscomb | GRAPHICS/WAYFINDING Snøhetta Design/Entro | AREA 240,000 ft² | BUDGET $245 M | COMPLETION 2018

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

A fixture of Rexdale, Albion Library sits within a mix of low-rise buildings along a busy four-lane road, where it has played a vital role for many decades. Physically, it buffers a residential neighbourhood from a road and mall to the north. Programmatically, it offers patrons a wide range of services that go beyond lending—including cultural orientation, social integration, employment skills, and access to technology and knowledge. During consultations for a new library to take the existing one’s place, community members described the library as the “Switzerland” of a troubled urban realm.

While residents recognized that the existing building was no longer fit for its purpose, they were concerned about the closure that would be required to undertake a renovation. In response, the project team proposed to build a new library on the adjacent parking lot, allowing the existing building to remain open over the two years required for construction. Once the new library is complete, the existing building will be demolished and replaced with a landscaped parking lot that will double as a public space and market square.

The design concept for the new building reflects the library’s dual role as a refuge and a resource. In plan, the multi-room building is a pure square punctuated by three courtyards and four interior pavilions. Its perimeter is marked by a polychrome terracotta tile screen, creating a richly textured mass. The screen is lifted at its corners, creating an entry forecourt for the library and articulating key program areas, including an urban living room and lounges for teens and children. The lifted corners also give a sloping form to the green roof, bringing light and water to the courtyard gardens.

Internally, the courtyards and pavilion-like elements divide the square plan into a series of open zones beneath a sloping timber roof. Careful composition of positive and negative space creates a rich and varied plan that accommodates open, cellular and private areas, while ensuring ease of access and supervision throughout.

The trio of courtyards bring nature and sunlight deep into all parts of the library. They provide protected outdoor areas and allow for peaceful contemplation, offering a respite from the busy arterial context of Albion Road, while respecting the privacy of adjacent residences. Each garden has a variety of planting and surface treatments, inspiring use and providing visual interest throughout the year.

The new parking lot is designed as a multifunctional public space capable of accommodating a public market and wide variety of cultural events. The relationship between building and plaza extends the project’s exploration of positive and negative composition to encompass the site as a whole.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: I appreciated the compactness of the plan—which is very efficient with regard to minimizing the quantity of envelope—and the way the designers decided to bring light in at the centre.

:: Pat Hanson :: The fenestration moves around the perimeter of the building, dropping down and getting closer to the ground in places to create intimate spaces. This gives a sense of scale to a large building. The coloured baguettes also lend a more friendly, softer nature to the library.

:: Johanna Hurme :: This project organized its interior program very clearly, and then extended this logic to spill out and deal with the surrounding spaces on the site. The strategy of a parking area that doubles as a market suggests all kinds of potential.

CLIENT Toronto Public Library | ARCHITECT TEAM D’Arcy Arthurs, Andrew Frontini, Aimee Drmic, Jason Nelson, Stephen Van der Mere, Inga Kantor, Yasmeen Bebal | STRUCTURAL Blackwell Structural Engineers | MECHANICAL Hidi Rae Consulting Engineers | ELECTRICAL Mulvey & Banani International | CIVIL MMM Group | LANDSCAPE Dutoit Alsopp Hillier | ACOUSTICS Swallow Accoustic Consultants | INTERIORS Perkins+Will Canada Inc. | CONTRACTOR Aquicon Construction Company Ltd. | COMMUNICATIONS/BAS/SECURITY/AV Mulvey & Banani International | QUANTITY SURVEYING Turner & Townsend CM2R Inc. | AREA 29,000 ft² | BUDGET $12 M | COMPLETION Spring 2017

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

Double Duplex was created in response to the city’s growing need for alternative housing models. This need arises from the rising cost of urban real estate and the consequent push for densification within Toronto’s sought-after residential neighbourhoods.

The infill project is located on Melbourne Avenue in Parkdale, an area notable for its century-old Victorian and bay-and-gable mansions. The existing double-wide site is severed into two separate properties, with a four-storey, 3,500-square-foot detached duplex residence on each site. This allows property owners to either rent out one of their units or use it as a live-work space.

Double Duplex pays tribute to the artistry of its surroundings by making contextual relationships through massing, geometry, texture and detail. The project reinterprets the pervasive bay-and-gable typology by abstracting its architectural elements. These include the front balcony, large bay massing, steep roofs and sharp vertical lines. Also playing up this relationship are the high ceilings and large windows, which allow light to reach deep into narrow floor plates.

Leveraging digital fabrication techniques and new material technologies, the project translates the crafted historic brick façades by way of a two-storey brise soleil. The brise soleil encloses the front and rear upper balconies, providing controlled lighting conditions and privacy. Individual pieces of bio-enhanced, rot-resistant, sustainable softwood are organized to create a large-scale dynamic façade. During the day, sunlight is filtered through, illuminating the interior spaces with ephemeral dappled light effects. At night, the screen reads as a decorative glowing lantern.

The project also offers strategies for the dynamic spatial integration of exterior and interior spaces within a with a narrow and deep infill lot, which is typical in Toronto. Each duplex residence consists of a two-storey lower unit and a two-storey upper unit. The lower unit is carved out in the front and back with double-height volumes that flow out to sunken courtyards, maximizing the amount of daylight entering the unit. Brightly painted murals by local artists wrap its courtyards.

The upper unit is organized around a double-height atrium that brings natural light and ventilation into the centre of the apartment. Two exterior courtyards punctuate either end of the floor plate: a double-height balcony overlooks the street at the front, and the master bedroom enjoys a rear terrace.

Double Duplex creates an activated urban environment on the busy residential street. In contrast to a static building façade, which would be out of context adjacent to ornate historic residences, the project acts like a large art installation with material and spatial depth. The two-storey brise soleil is angled so that multiple images appear to passersby as they walk past it, and the screen catches the light’s movements throughout the day. Composed based on cloud images, the screen evokes loose, variable associations and emotions. The effect is somewhat akin to the cloud animals that we have all seen as children, losing ourselves in daydreams.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: The façade is simple but very sophisticated. It’s composed and it’s subtle, it doesn’t look artificial. It also contributes to the legibility of the duplex: you understand that the lower storeys are one unit and the upper storeys are another unit.

:: Pat Hanson :: This project proposes a sensitive solution to infill. The screen draws inspiration from the masonry detailing of the existing Victorian houses on the same street. The approach is intelligent in providing two very amenable units per building by excavating and using the lower level of the basement as a principal living space.

:: Johanna Hurme :: I appreciated the volumetric play. There is more to the project than just a façade: the units are well connected vertically and light enters the spaces in a dynamic way.

CLIENT The Mada Group | ARCHITECT TEAM Andrew Batay-Csorba, Jodi Batay-Csorba, Lola Abraham | STRUCTURAL Secant Engineers Inc. | MECHANICAL Franzese Mechanical Ltd. | CONTRACTOR The Mada Group | AREA 6,850 ft² | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION Spring 2016

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

111 is located on the vibrant, dynamic streetscape of Queen Street West. The quickly developing area is a highly sought-after place to live, due to the diversity of building typologies, the neighbourhood’s rich character, and an ingrained sense of community.

A third of the 233-square-metre lot is occupied by an existing building that Ja Architecture Studio renovated and reprogrammed in 2013, outfitting it with a restaurant on the ground floor, a residential unit on the second storey and an architecture studio on the top floor.

The new rear addition—111—includes three programs: a flexible commercial unit, three residential units and a two-car garage. The new building asserts its presence through a clear geometric form. Set on top of the commercial podium, the residential units project their pitched roofs from behind adjacent buildings and invoke a familiar figure: the traditional house icon. This comforting shape fits in naturally with the nearby residential neighbourhood. Yet, 111’s austere envelope sets it apart from its ornate neighbours as an alluring anomaly.

While vehicular and commercial service access is provided through the rear laneway, the main point of entry to the mixed-use development is through a breezeway that connects the busy public street to a semi-private courtyard. Much of the ground floor is occupied by a two-car garage, so the design of the commercial space capitalizes on the basement level and provides a mezzanine above the garage, connected to the existing main floor. While this design can suit a variety of programs, its current form has been conceived in collaboration with a local chef, who envisions a private dining and bar area on the mezzanine, a grand occupiable staircase for congregating and informal dining, and a large open kitchen on the basement level.

Three distinct volumes—each a nearly identical three-storey residential unit—sit atop the commercial podium. Access is via a set of stairs from the courtyard. At the top of the stairs, an outdoor platform overlooks adjacent balconies, inviting interaction. Direct entry into each unit gives them a townhouse-like feel.

Careful attention has been paid to enabling natural light to penetrate deep into the units. Each floor includes windows on the north and south walls, and light also enters through a large cutout on the third floor, traveling into each unit through cutouts on every floorplate. Even though each unit is only 48 metres square, the loft-like design and abundance of natural light gives them a larger feel.

Overall, the project is an exercise in architectural massing and typology. It aims to create change in this sensitive historic context without falling into either extreme of aggressive development or low-rise domestic conformity. It expresses a scenographic desire to use architecture as a stage for an urban drama, which unfolds in the building’s breezeway, communal courtyard and elevated balconies. As such, the building becomes a silent witness to fleeting moments and strange encounters in the depth of an urban block in this layered neighbourhood.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: I very much like very much the silhouette of the building, with the composition of the three units as staggered, sculptural objects.

:: Pat Hanson :: Long term, there’s a question of how small a space people can live in. But this is an area in the city with a more transitory, younger population. It would be a study in living with less, which is not a bad place for any of us to be. The presentation skillfully evokes a spatial clarity and beauty, while maintaining the grit of the city.

:: Johanna Hurme :: This project proposes something new in terms of the typology of mixed-use infill in Toronto. It imagines how you could squeeze three additional dwelling units on a very small, tight site. The verticality of the units and their relationship to the commercial spaces below is clever. It feels fresh, although we are concerned about whether it resolves practical issues such as exiting and providing sufficient light and views to the suites.

CLIENT 2105167 Ontario Inc. | ARCHITECT TEAM Nima Javidi, Hanieh Rezaei, Behnaz Assadi, Kyle O’Brien, Zhou Tang | STRUCTURAL Toronama Structural Engineers | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Thomas Technical | LANDSCAPE Behnaz Assadi | CONTRACTOR Arta Design and Build | AREA 285 m² | BUDGET Withheld

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT

The new building for the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec—the museum’s fourth building in an increasingly complex site—is a subtly ambitious addition to the city. Rather than creating an iconic imposition, it links the park and the city, bringing new coherence to the museum campus. Mimicking the topography of the hills beyond, the cascading museum extends into the park on one side, while creating an open room adjacent the city’s grand boulevard on the other.

Questions relating to context underpinned the design: how to extend Parc des Champs-de-Bataille while inviting the city in? How to respect and preserve Saint-Dominique church while creating a persuasive
presence on the Grande Allée? How to clarify the museum’s organization while simultaneously adding to its scale? The architects’ solution was to stack the required new galleries—temporary exhibitions, permanent modern and contemporary collections, and design exhibitions and Inuit art—in three volumes of decreasing size that ascend from the park towards the city.

The stacking creates a 14-metre-high Grand Hall, sheltered under a dramatic cantilever. The Grand Hall serves as a central hub: interfacing with the Grande Allée, serving as an urban plaza for the museum’s public functions, and ringed by gateways into the galleries, courtyard and auditorium. While they step down in section, the gallery boxes step out in plan, framing the existing courtyard of the church cloister and orienting the building towards the park.

The staggered volumes open up sightlines from the beginning to the end of the building, juxtaposing the different volumes and their art. Within the gallery boxes, mezzanines and overlooks link the temporary and permanent exhibition spaces. On top of each gallery, green roof terraces provide space for outdoor displays and activities.

Complementing the quiet reflection of the galleries, a chain of programs along the museum’s edge—foyers, lounges, shops, bridges and gardens—offer a hybrid of activities, art and public promenades.

The brief for the museum emphasized the importance of natural light, but standard glazing systems were inadequate for Quebec’s winters. The solution was a translucent façade system that could provide natural light along with thermal insulation. The system uses triple-glazed panels with low-E coatings, two layers of fritting and a layer of diffuser glass. In the galleries, insulated walls are located behind the translucent galzing system, with a gap between for illuminating the building like a lantern at night.

The new pavilion links to the museum’s existing buildings by a passageway rising 8.2 metres over a 55-metre length. By virtue of its length and change in elevation, the tunnel creates a string of rooms with a dramatic range of spatial and lighting conditions. Each of these serves as a gallery—a series of visually interconnected volumes that lead the visitor, as if by chance, to the rest of the museum complex.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: What is the best way to build next to a heritage structure? This project proposes to clear out a space with a gigantic cantilever over a public gathering area. It works well in inviting the adjacent building to contribute to a common plaza.

:: Pat Hanson :: The success of this project is in its sectional diagram, as a snaking form that connects through the principal public spaces and suggests links to the rest of the city. We still had questions about how the interior spaces of the building were being developed in relationship to the exterior spaces.

:: Johanna Hurme :: The cantilever creates an urban room, framed by trees on two sides and by the cantilever itself on top. It puts the forecourt and the glazed atrium behind it on display, and pulls you into the building.

CLIENT Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec | ARCHITECT TEAM OMA—Shohei Shigematsu, Jason Long, Ceren Bingol, Patrick Hobgood, Luke Willis, Rami Abou-Khalil, Richard Sharam, Tsuyoshi Nakamoto, Sandy Yum, Sara Ines Ruas, Ted Lin, Markus von Dellingshausen, Andy Westner. Provencher_Roy—Claude Provencher, Michel Roy, Matthieu Geoffrion, Pascal Lessard, Layla MacLeod, Danielle Dewar, Réal Baril, Konstantin Demin, Véronique De Bellefeuille, Fanette Montmartin. | STRUCTURAL SNC Lavallin, BPR | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Bouthillette Parizeau / Teknika HBA, EXP | LANDSCAPE Fahey + Associés | LIGHTING Buro Happold Engineering | PUBLIC ARTIST M. Ludovic Boney | LOCAL ADVISOR Luc Lévesque | INTERIORS OMA + Provencher_Roy | CONTRACTOR EBC | AREA 14,850 m² | BUDGET $103.4 M | COMPLETION June 2016

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

Close Encounters: A New Post Industrial Landscape is an architectural film that uses time-based media as a generative design tool. It outlines the potential of using technological artwork as a means of spatial production, rather than as an after-the-fact representation device.

The project imagines the fictional appropriation of an industrial landscape at the edge of Montreal. Pointe-aux-Trembles is densified and  rehabilitated while maintaining the area’s current industrial activities, including petrochemical plants, refineries and metal recycling. The thesis proposes an autonomous ecosystem of quasi-spontaneous architectural and urban elements, addressing the tensions arising from the close proximity of habitable spaces and toxic landscapes.

Through repeated digital experiments, the project sets up a parasitic architectural infrastructure woven into the industrial fabric. Architectural narratives materialized from an obsessive study of the East Montreal industrial park. Rich imagery and fictional processes opened the ground for investigating a future built environment in this part of the city.

By exploring the interaction between different milieus, the interventions also begin to unveil the social and political roots of “the natural.” The new environment navigates the boundaries between binaries: pure/toxic, landscape/architecture, natural/man-made, nature/culture.

This project leads toward a contemporary rethinking of the role of architects in the shaping of our urban environment. It proposes using the rough edges and cast-offs of design processes, seeking imperfection to pursue the anachronistic and unknown.

The video for this project can be viewed at vimeo.com/145638598

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: This is a study of how we can use computer modelling tools to create space and atmosphere in better, more involved ways. This is a very good start to studying a new way of doing things.

:: Pat Hanson :: The research project’s primary goal is to use a time-based digital program as a way of generating architectural form. The time-based quality creates an opportunity to imbue the project with emotive qualities and a sense of place.

:: Johanna Hurme ::  The project is really alluring: it’s bold, atmospheric and potent. Unlike typical parametric architecture, this project has a sensibility that’s unique and powerful. There’s a recognizable reference to the gothic, but there’s also something in the aesthetic that is entirely new.

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