The gallery sits on a key piece of land just south of the downtown core where the river momentarily bends in an east-west orientation, occupying what the project’s lead designer, Bruce Kuwabara, calls a “privileged site.” Its central location in this reinvigorated, dynamic part of the city enjoys immediate adjacency to the scenic river and pedestrian pathways, offering up panoramic views of the entire city from its upper floors. However, the lack of a coherent master plan for River Landing that anticipated the inclusion of the gallery means that it is hemmed in on three sides: the hulking concrete mass of the neighbouring Idylwyld Freeway blocks western access to the site, and buildings of distressing mediocrity obscure the north and east aspects to an extent that the building is scarcely visible from any road leading to the gallery. Consequently, we are denied the anticipatory frisson of approach and arrival: only pedestrians and cyclists are lucky enough to take in the entirety of the building’s primary façade as they traverse the waterfront pathways to the south, and a distant perspective can be had from across the river in Rotary Park and on Saskatchewan Crescent East. These considerable site constraints are addressed by designing the building as a series of stacked, overlapping and cantilevered boxes, reaching out towards the river and the city on both east-west and north-south axes. The cantilevered steel structure enables the creation of longer-span spaces required by the program, but also connects building to site in a very direct fashion, much as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater does through multiple layers that merge with the landscape. Here at Remai Modern, views are panoramic and vast, and embrace the expansive flatness of the prairie. As much as the primary elevation takes advantage of its river view and southern orientation, mitigation of the intense prairie sun and consequent heat gain required the mediating device of the copper-hued metal screen that sheathes the glass curtain wall. The screen is constructed of expanded metal plate—essentially a sheet of steel that is cut and pulled to create an open mesh. The apertures are angled in such a way as to draw the eye down, “curating the experience of the river and composing the view,” says Kuwabara. Compellingly, the mesh also animates the building’s interior with striking dappled patterns of light and shadow. As for its colour, Matthew Wilson, KPMB associate in charge of the project, said that it was inspired by the copper roof of Saskatoon’s Bessborough Hotel, the historic architectural icon that was completed in 1932. It also riffs on the materiality and colour of the nearby 1907 steel-and-concrete-truss Traffic Bridge that is currently being reconstructed following its closing in 2010 and subsequent demolition in 2016. The well-proportioned interiors of the building are spare and elegant, with spaces that are comfortably scaled and appropriate for their function.
CA Jan 18.indd 23
Adrien williams
Adrien williams
canadian architect 01/18
23
2018-01-09 3:30 PM