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METRO Distribution Centre Terrebonne
By : GKC Architecture & Design
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Commercial Building / Factory & Warehouse : Gold Certification
METRO’s new automated distribution center in Terrebonne modernizes the distribution of fresh and frozen products, enhancing the company’s competitiveness while ensuring the safety and well-being of its employees. Despite the challenges of temperature-controlled zones, the imposing 500,000 sq. ft. center was designed to optimize logistics operations, with particular attention to aesthetics to reinforce the company’s image and staff pride.
Architectural Quality
The building is designed in the colors of METRO, recognizable by the bright red of its brand image, accompanied by gray and black. Volumes, colors and materials express the building’s various functions, creating a strong, confident aesthetic that reflects the grocer’s identity.
Particular care was taken to enliven the imposing facades, by introducing different colors and long vertical stripes in a random rhythm on the blind walls, tempering the building’s impression of length.
The administrative centre is distinguished by its black curtain wall set on an interlaced metal base. Here again, opaque vertical stripes energize the facade, both in the glazed upper section and at the metal base, as well as extending horizontally across the pavement surrounding the building.
The interior, designed in close collaboration with Imperatori Design, is in symbiosis with the exterior, helping to create a coherent identity. At the ground-floor entrance, the white panels of the atrium strongly contrast with the black staircase that rises three storeys. In the workspaces, white oak volumes and soft-coloured coverings counter the raw character of the concrete floors and steel elements.
User Experience
Connected to the distribution centre, the 100,000 sq. ft. administrative centre is three storeys high. It reflects METRO’s desire to bring together its 250 warehouse employees and some 500 office staff in a single location, promoting interdepartmental collaboration. In addition to offices, meeting rooms and training facilities, various services have been integrated to enhance employee well-being, including a cafeteria that can seat 400 people with a commercial kitchen and preparation area, exercise and yoga rooms, and wellness rooms for rest, breastfeeding and prayer.
Environmental Features
Respect for the environment was also top of mind in the planning of the site as well as in the layout and design of the spaces and the choice of materials.
Water management was an environmental priority. An underground retention basin ensures effective water management, while another permanent basin, equipped with a treatment system, relieves the municipal system and prevents waterlogging.
Less than a third of the site is taken up by the building, whose white roof helps to reduce heat islands. The extra height of one of the logistics buildings helps to reduce the footprint, a significant environmental benefit. Another third is devoted to green spaces, planted with indigenous vegetation to reduce maintenance and meet aesthetic and environmental criteria. The heat produced by the hybrid refrigeration system is recovered to heat the offices and nursery.
