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Pavillon du parc Henri-Bourassa
By : Cimaise
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Public Building / Cultural Building : Silver Certification
Categories : Special Award / Architecture + Wood : Silver Certification
Located on Pascal Street in the Borough of Montreal North, the Henri-Bourassa Park pavilion was initiated with the desire to create a hub of services that could bring together and promote meetings and exchanges among the residents of the area. The goal was to offer a welcoming and unifying environment integrated into the green setting of the park, making contemporary architecture accessible to all at the same time.
With a surface area of 1,000m2, the space houses large modular multi-purpose rooms, offices as well as community spaces, all in an exposed structure made of heavy timber and topped with a roof that seems to have settled on it, embracing its relief like a veil. Designed with a view to reducing the building’s energy footprint and in accordance with the City of Montreal’s existing policy, the pavilion incorporates a variety of sustainable development principles to achieve a LEED-Silver level, but without certification.
The all-wood structure seems to emerge from the earth to merge with the mature trees of the park. The abundance of light in which each room is bathed, the environment that invites itself into every vantage point through the generous fenestration, and the exposed engineered wood thus create a true indoor/outdoor cohesion, letting Henri-Bourassa Park continue between the pavilion’s walls. When evening comes, the glass box becomes a lantern that keeps a gentle watch in the night, a reassuring presence for all citizens of the neighborhood.
The decision to use an exposed heavy timber structure presents its own set of challenges. Since the roofs are all visible from the ground and with the goal of facilitating equipment maintenance, the subtle integration of services and equipment presented an additional challenge. In collaboration with the engineering consultants, we developed a strategy to plan the direct passage of services by concentrating them within a narrow portion of the ceiling, which allows the wood to be exposed freely on most of the building’s surfaces. In addition to the specific planning and hard teamwork to indicate clear parameters to the contractors, follow-up work continues on site to organize each conduit and junction box that is exposed for the connection of light fixtures, motorized canvases and refrigerant lines.
The Henri-Bourassa Park pavilion, which starts from an initiative that promotes living together, thus fulfills its mandate by housing several community organizations, injecting a good dose of optimism and openness into the environment of this rapidly evolving sector.
Collaboration
