Canadian Architect July 2015

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ALBERTA VISTAS

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CANADIAN ARCHITECT

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JULY 2015

SCOTT NORSWORTHY

9 NEWS

Bortolotto reveals design of the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion at OCAD University; New Ideas for Housing London International Competition.

26 INSITES

Gaming technology is rapidly becoming an important part of the architect’s toolkit, as Shannon Moore discovers.

28 REPORT

Leslie Jen reports on the Lina Bo Bardi: Together exhibition at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, which examines the late ItalianBrazilian architect’s refreshingly inclusive approach to design.

12 CLAREVIEW COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE ompleted with Architecture Tkalcic | Bengert, this facility is one of many significant C contributions that Teeple Architects has made to Alberta over the past several years.

TEXT Graham Livesey

20 FORT MCMURRAY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

EMA PETER

Simplicity and clarity guide the design of this robust yet elegant airport by OMB that serves a highly transient oil-sands community. TEXT Elsa Lam

30 REVIEW

The limits of 3D printing are tested in the Design Exchange’s 3DXL offsite exhibition, according to Elsa Lam.

33 CALENDAR

The SAAL Process: Housing in Portugal 1974–76 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture; From the Inside Out: Integrating Art and Architecture on the West Coast at the West Vancouver Museum.

34 LOOKING BACK

Douglas Cardinal’s Grande Prairie Regional College of 1976 is an early example of the architect’s signature organic forms, by Kristen Gagnon.

Clareview Community Recreation Centre in Edmonton. Photograph by Scott Norsworthy.

COVER

V.60 N.07 THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE/THE JOURNAL OF RECORD OF ARCHITECTURE CANADA | RAIC

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VIEWPOINT LEFT Perkins+Will and Group2 designed the new Meadows Community Recreation Centre and Meadows Library. The City of Edmonton decided on the team through a modified quality-based selection process.

­­EDITOR ELSA LAM, MRAIC ASSOCIATE EDITOR LESLIE JEN, MRAIC EDITORIAL ADVISOR IAN CHODIKOFF, OAA, FRAIC CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ANNMARIE ADAMS, MRAIC DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB, MRAIC

TOM ARBAN

REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS HALIFAX CHRISTINE MACY, OAA REGINA BERNARD FLAMAN, SAA MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, MRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, MRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER PUBLISHER TOM ARKELL 416-510-6806

BETTER PROCUREMENT, BETTER BUILDINGS Edmonton is rapidly becoming a hotbed of Canadian contemporary architecture. Since former mayor Stephen Mandel’s “no more crap” declaration, the city has pursued a progressive policy for public buildings, recruiting top architects for everything from recreation centres and libraries to park pavilions and municipal waste depots.

The city’s architectural renaissance owes much to a procurement procedure developed by city architect Carol Bélanger, MRAIC. “In the past, procurement was by invitation to a select few,” he says. The move to make the process more public coincided with the ratification of the New West Partnering Trade Agreement between the western provinces, as well as the establishment of an Edmonton Design Review Committee.

Recalls Bélanger, “We thought, how do we limit the work that consultants have to do [in response to an RFQ or RFP], in order to get a good cross-section to choose from?”

From this discussion, they decided on a strategy of grouping several projects in a single RFQ—for instance, three rec centres or libraries—to make it more attractive to apply.

In addition to the regular categories, such as experience and sub-consultant team, the City scores applicants’ previous awards and publications as an objective yardstick for architectural quality. They also score firms’ track records in sustainability and in facing design review committees. Graphic rendering ability is another element in the score, as the City wants teams that can face up to the scrutiny of public review. “It was a real shift of knitting all those things into our scoring process,” says Bélanger.

A further innovation is the inclusion of the client in the RFQ selection committee. “That way they have skin in the game and they understand the breadth of consultants we have to

ACCOUNT MANAGER FARIA AHMED 416-510-6808 CIRCULATION MANAGER BEATA OLECHNOWICZ 416-442-5600 EXT. 3543

pick from,” explains Bélanger. The committee shortlists five firms to receive RFPs for the individual projects in the package.

In the RFP, the same categories from the RFQ carry forward, and a few are added, such as methodology and vision. The vision section does not ask for a full design, but rather a basic site strategy or parti. Winning project visions have included responses as simple as a box and a few lines indicating a building’s connection to existing road networks.

For fees (worth 10 percent of the overall score), the City employs a modified qualitybased selection approach. Instead of a twoenvelope system, they state the project budget and ask proponents to refer to provincial fee guidelines and do the math. If they’re within five percent either above or below the target number, they get full points for the category.

“In the end, the fees come in pretty much equal across the board,” says Bélanger.

Based on the RFP, the City shortlists three firms for an interview. “You want to make sure there’s a good relationship. It also demonstrates the commitment of the firms—who shows up at the interview,” he says.

The process is one that has served Edmonton well. I toured the city’s recent projects Member last of month, including buildings by Teeple Architects, Perkins+Will Canada, gh3, Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative, HCMA, Dub Architects, Group2, Architecture | Tkalcic Bengert and Danish firm SHL. They were among the strongest works I’ve seen in Canada recently. It’s a model other cities could certainly learn from. “There’s no real magic to it,” says Bélanger, “we pay the full fee, but then expect the best.”

Inc.

Elsa Lam

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15-07-06 8:02 AM

2015 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE CANADIAN ARCHITECT INVITES ARCHITECTS REGISTERED IN CANADA AND ARCHITECTURAL GRADUATES TO ENTER THE MAGAZINE’S 2015 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE.

Projects must be in the design stage, scheduled for construction or under construction but not substantially complete by September 25, 2015. All projects must be commissioned by a client with the intention to build the submitted proposal. All building types and concisely presented urban design schemes are eligible.

Awards are given for architectural design excellence.

Jurors will consider the scheme's response to the client's program, site, and geographic and social context. They will evaluate its physical organization, form, structure, materials and environmental features.

Winners will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2015.

Submissions will be accepted in PDF format, up to 12 pages with dimensions no greater than 11” x 17”.

Total file size is not to exceed 25MB. Keep an eye on our website for the launch of our awards submission form in early August, or sign up to receive e-mail notifications here: www.canadianarchitect.com/subscription/emailnewsletter.aspx

Early-Bird Deadline: September 4, 2015 ($115 entry fee) Regular Deadline: September 25, 2015 ($150 entry fee)

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PROJECTS Bortolotto reveals design for OCAD University’s Rosalie Sharp Pavilion.

Toronto-based Bortolotto was commissioned by the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U) to convert the university’s main office building into the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion—a multi-use student work and exhibition space. Bortolotto’s proposal wraps an existing OCAD U building with an intricately perforated, technologically responsive scrim that will dramatically transform the southeast corner of Dundas and McCaul Streets into a dynamic interactive gateway for the campus. Taking its place adjacent to the architecturally significant Art Gallery of Ontario by Frank Gehry and OCAD U’s Sharp Centre for Design by Will Alsop, Bortolotto’s proposal covers the structure with a diaphanous white veil of waterjet-cut aluminum panels.

The lacy façade will gently peel away from the edges of the building in a gesture to the nearby institutions, attracting passersby with its intricate form and animating the street with views of the colourful student work displayed inside.

Bortolotto created the patterned façade by mapping data about Toronto’s artistic community and augmenting the resulting grid to position OCAD U as the nucleus of the documented paths. By snapping a photo of a specific section of the pattern with their mobile devices, pedestrians will be able to read information provided by the university using an app now being developed in collaboration with OCAD U’s Digital Media Research Lab. Inside, Bortolotto will convert the space from its current use as the university’s corporate head office into a flexible facility incorporating interactive meeting and event spaces and studios to support experiential learning and to highlight student work. The 1,514-squaremetre facility has a renovation budget of $6 million, and construction begins later this year. www.bortolotto.com

Patkau Architects designs yoga retreat in Kootenay Bay.

Following a tragic fire last year, Vancouverbased Patkau Architects was commissioned to design a new Temple of Light at Yasodhara Ashram, a yoga retreat and study centre in Kootenay Bay, BC. The design is, in Patricia Patkau’s words, “essentially one big beautiful room which is all about space and light.” Interior surfaces will be awash with natural daylight that enters the building fom every angle, creating a luminous and welcoming space for the

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ABOVE The Rosalie Sharp Pavilion at OCAD U by Bortolotto features a technologically responsive and lacy aluminum façade that will play dramatically against the adjacent Art Gallery of Ontario.

community and for visitors who travel to the facility from around the world. Yasodhara Ashram was founded in 1963 by North American yoga pioneer Swami Sivananda Radha, and is one of the most enduring spiritual communities in North America. An ambitious fundraising campaign to raise $2 million for its construction has been launched.

immediate context; contribute in a substantive way to the city’s environmental and ecological health; be important to pedestrian and liveability issues; be innovative and trendsetting; and be open to transformation over time in a positive way. The awards will be presented on the evening of September 30, 2015. The submission deadline is 4:00pm on August 6, 2015.

AWARDS

BC Masonry Design Awards call for submissions.

http://temple.yasodhara.org

2015 Ottawa Urban Design Awards open for submissions.

The City of Ottawa’s Urban Design Awards celebrate the design of buildings, landscapes and adjacent public spaces that function together to enhance the public realm. Projects built between September 1, 2013 and September 1, 2015 will be eligible in five categories: Urban Infill, Public Places and Civic Spaces, Urban Elements, Student Projects, and Visions and Master Plans. The author of the winning submission in each category will receive an Award of Excellence, which acknowledges a project that achieves urban design excellence and meets the judging criteria. These winners will be forwarded to compete nationally in the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s 2016 urban design awards program as a representative of the City of Ottawa. Winning projects will: demonstrate clear urban design intent and merit; demonstrate a positive contribution to the public realm/quality of place; demonstrate design and architectural excellence; contribute to the wider appreciation of urban design; achieve a human-scale relationship with the

http://ottawa.ca

The Masonry Institute of British Columbia is accepting applications for the 2015 Masonry Design Awards. Architects, building owners, masonry contractors and masonry manufacturers are invited to submit their entries for projects involving brick, block and stone completed in British Columbia between July 2012 and July 2015; the submission deadline is August 30, 2015. The winners will be announced at a gala event to be held on October 1, 2015 at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre at the University of British Columbia. An Award of Excellence, presented as a unique acrylic and brick trophy, will be presented to the winner in the categories of best use of masonry in Commercial, Institutional, Mixed-Use and High-Rise developments as well as Multi- and SingleFamily Homes. An Honourable Mention will also be awarded in each category, along with a certificate for the masonry contractors and manufacturers associated with the winning projects. During the event, attendees will have the opportunity to select the winner for the People’s Choice Award. www.masonrybc.org

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NEWS George Brown College Waterfront Campus wins Architectural Record ’s Good Design Is Good Business Award.

When Architectural Record first launched the Good Design is Good Business Awards in 1997, attitudes toward the impact of design on profit were changing. According to the editors at the time, corporations and entrepreneurs were just beginning to recognize the benefits of a thoughtful, well-executed workplace or business environment. Today, design excellence is a growing movement, as indicated by the range of this year’s winning projects. Each is the result of a successful collaboration between the client and design team—one that never loses sight of the business plan, the employee and user experience, or the bottom line. Designed by Stantec Architecture/KPMB Architects in Joint Venture, the George Brown College Waterfront Campus is the only Canadian project to win the Good Design is Good Business Award this year. In 2012, George Brown College, an urban community college in Toronto, built a waterfront campus for its School of Health Sciences. Representing a 40-percent expansion of the overall campus, the new 450,000-square-foot, $140-million building responds to rising demand for health-care pro-

fessionals, in particular those who are preparing for a collaborative practice. By uniting the schools of Dental Health, Heath and Wellness, Health Management and Nursing, and in creating strategic social spaces shared by all student bodies, students now encounter each other frequently, build connections, and teach one another.

monton International Airport—Combined Office and Control Tower. The Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre in Edmonton by BR2 Architecture won the 2015 Sustainability Award, and the Glacier Skywalk in Jasper by Sturgess Architecture took the 2015 Steel Edge Award. www.cisc-icca.ca/awards/albertaawards

http://archrecord.construction.com

Toronto’s DesignAgency wins accolades from Hospitality Design magazine.

Winners of the 2015 CISC Alberta Steel Design Awards revealed.

The six winners of the 2015 Alberta Steel Design Awards of Excellence were recently announced, and demonstrate exceptional skill and ingenuity in steel design and the innovative use of steel in addressing a variety of construction challenges. The Mosaic Centre in Edmonton by Manasc Isaac Architects won the 2015 Collaboration Award, and the Architecture Award was won by the Physical Activity and Wellness Centre at the University of Alberta in Edmonton by Group2 Architecture Interior Design Ltd. The Peace Wapiti Academy in Grande Prairie by Group2 Architecture Interior Design Ltd. won the 2015 Building Communities Award, while the winner of the 2015 Engineering Award was DIALOG’s Ed-

Hospitality Design magazine awarded Torontobased DesignAgency, Generator’s Global Design Partner, a 2015 HD Award for Generator Paris and shortlisted Generator London as a finalist. Celebrating their 11th edition this year, the Hospitality Design Awards recognized some of the best achievements in hospitality design, selected from more than 560 entries from around the world—the most ever in the competition’s history. Generator Paris won the HD Award for midscale/economy guestrooms or suites. Located in the trendy 10th arrondissement, Generator Paris opened its doors in February 2015. The property integrates custom elements common to Generator’s aesthetic—such as signature G sculptures, fun lighting fixtures, bold colour schemes as well as custom

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furnishings, and installations and murals made by local artists that ensure the location’s exciting social spaces reflect the local spirit and culture. The rooms at Generator Paris are simple yet stylish with a range of Mineheart book wallpapers that nod to the bookstalls lining the Seine and quintessential French details such as Lampes Gras lighting. All rooms are equipped with the essentials including comfortable custom-designed beds, sleek ensuite bathrooms with monsoon showers, and wi-fi.

Premium rooms include private terraces with wood floors, hammocks and stunning views of the city. Generator London was recognized with the title of finalist in the midscale/economy public spaces category after DesignAgency updated the original flagship in 2014 and transformed the property into one of London’s best design-led hostels. www.thedesignagency.ca

Claude Cormier and Peter Jacobs inducted as new members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Landscape architects Peter Jacobs and Claude Cormier were recently inducted as new members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA), an honorary organization of over 790

established professional artists and designers from all regions of Canada. Members practice in more than 30 visual arts disciplines including painting, printmaking, architecture, sculpture, design, photography, ceramics, film, video and digital art. With members nominated and elected by their peers, the RCA has, since 1880, represented many of Canada’s most distinguished visual artists and designers. The objectives of the RCA are to encourage, improve, promote, support and cultivate the visual arts through its many activities. Claude Cormier holds degrees in agronomy and landscape architecture, and a Master’s degree in the History and Theory of Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1995, he founded Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes, which specializes in the design of public spaces in urban milieus. Cormier was chosen as an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York and has received the AAPQ’s Prix Frederick Todd. Peter Jacobs has been a professor at the Université de Montréal’s landscape architecture school since 1971.

He is president emeritus of the Environmental Planning Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and president of the Kativik Commission for Environmental Quality. He is a member of the AAPC

and ASLA, and the winner of many professional, academic and community honours.

http://rca-arc.ca/who-we-are/members/new-members/

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COMPETITIONS New Ideas for Housing London International Competition.

New London Architecture (NLA), in partnership with the Mayor of London, has launched an international competition to tackle the ongoing demands of London’s housing shortage.

This competition is not just about design—entries are open to all sectors of the built environment and should tackle how to plan the city, make the best use of land available, and consider where people will want to live and why. Submissions can address planning, funding, construction, procurement, design and/or products. The aim of this competition is to find real deliverable solutions to London’s housing crisis rather than theoretical concepts, and responses to this challenge will have to consider the demand or issue they are addressing and how this will be feasibly delivered. Entries are encouraged from overseas to bring a (continued on page 33)

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URBANITY IN A SUBURBAN LAND AN INTENSELY PROGRAMMED AND ARCHITECTURALLY COMPLEX PROJECT CREATES VIBRANT PUBLIC SPACE IN THE RESIDENTIAL OUTSKIRTS OF EDMONTON. Clareview Community Recreation Centre, Edmonton, Alberta Teeple Architects Inc. in association with Architecture | Tkalcic Bengert TEXT Graham Livesey PHOTOS Scott Norsworthy, Tom Arban and City of Edmonton PROJECT

CITY OF EDMONTON

ARCHITECTS

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Since establishing his Ontario-based practice in 1989, Stephen Teeple, FRAIC, has been among those at the forefront of Canadian architecture. What may be relatively unknown is that for over a decade, Teeple Architects Inc. has been having an important impact in Alberta.

Teeple’s work in Alberta began with the Montrose Cultural Centre in Grande Prairie (2009), home to the Grande Prairie Public Library and Teresa Sargent Hall; this was followed by the tightly configured Art Gallery of Grande Prairie (2012). These adjacent projects respond to local context: they involve the rejuvenation of a historic school and help establish a new civic centre in downtown Grande Prairie. The nearby town of Wembley is home to Teeple’s Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, scheduled for unveiling this fall. Current projects on the boards include a new facility for the Edmonton Police Service and the transformation of the central Stanley A. Milner Public Library in downtown

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SCOTT NORSWORTHY

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ABOVE The large-scale Clareview Community Recreation Centre includes a multi-basin natatorium, twin-pad arena, gymnasium and fitness studios— along with a library, daycare and high-school completion centre. These many functions are enveloped in a faceted metal-and-glass skin, giving the facility a unique sculptural identity in its suburban surroundings, where tract housing and big-box stores are the norm.

Edmonton; the firm has also undertaken conceptual work for the Haskayne School of Business expansion at the University of Calgary.

One of Teeple’s most impressive projects in the province is the recently opened Clareview Community Recreation Centre (CCRC), completed in partnership with Architecture | Tkalcic Bengert. CCRC is part of Edmonton’s program to create world-class architecture with new libraries, recreation centres, LRT stations, museums, and an ambitious downtown redevelopment plan (see CA, January 2013).

For some time, cities have injected a sense of urbanism into suburban contexts using multi-use complexes. These typically pair a recreation centre with a range of public agencies. In the case of CCRC, the programmatic mix includes a large City of Edmonton recreation complex, a branch library of the Edmonton Public Library system (the first to be located in a suburban recreation centre), a daycare service, community

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meeting facilities, and a high-school completion centre operated by Edmonton Catholic Schools (a first of its kind as well). Large multi-use projects benefit from the intensity that collaborating programs can create, although they risk diminishing the potential of dispersed institutions to influence a wider landscape.

Producing a suburban multi-use centre poses many challenges, most notably addressing the lack of context. How does one create urbanity in an environment devoid of recognizable urban structure? Is there such a thing as suburban urbanism? Presumably, it would mean creating an intensity of public experience, however defined.

If that is the goal, CCRC succeeds in spectacular fashion. Surrounded by banal big-box retail, housing, and urban infrastructure in northeast Edmonton, the CCRC both blends in and stands out. It takes some structural and functional cues from its environment—for instance,

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SCOTT NORSWORTHY

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SCOTT NORSWORTHY

ABOVE Users of the pools and fitness area can observe activity on the outdoor soccer field. LEFT The natatorium entry slips into a building fold.

OPPOSITE, TOP TO BOTTOM The upper concourse offers views into a cross-section of workout spaces; the library occupies the prow of the building, and is distinguished by its folded ceiling plane.

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it establishes precise links to the local LRT station and community road network—but it also succeeds in making bold spatial and formal gestures that are unlike anything in the city.

CCRC wraps carefully around an existing twin-pad arena complex and responds to the optimal layout of surrounding outdoor sports fields.

Beyond these initial planning decisions, the building operates on many levels, culminating in periodic moments of real architectural intensity.

Volumes tilt and thrust, feint and jab, push and pull. This complexity carries into the interior: a topography of experiences that includes long sloping floors, fissured spaces, folding planes and colliding programs.

The whole is underlined by diagonally defined fenestration, striking colours (bronze, purple, yellow and white) and a palette of tough materials (concrete, steel, aluminum). The use of tilted and folded surfaces has been a signature aspect of Teeple’s work for some time. At Clareview, the results showcase the firm’s mature ability in working with complex junctions of surface, structure and space, aided by the adept use of 3Dmodelling tools.

CCRC avoids traditional urban typologies, such as the trope of internal streets and squares. Instead, it puts forward a complex set of architectural propositions including unusual programmatic adjacencies and novel spatial experiences. These reinforce and create context, and propose a world of new possibilities for the rec centre typology. What do residents make of a building that is so provocatively wedged into its location? It seems that they feel perfectly comfortable in such an environ-

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ment, one where they recreate, study and play together happily. In its form, the Clareview complex is stealthy, and yet the result is also exuberant, tough, sublime and provocative—a kind of Piranesi in suburbia.

The building’s strategies are encapsulated in the library, a single volume pointed towards the LRT station to the west, in which folded wall and ceiling surfaces define various programmatic areas. The library overlooks the natatorium and is briefly penetrated by the fitness area above. The intersection of reading, swimming and fitness training creates a moment of connection and intensity—one of many in the complex.

More of these moments occur in the natatorium, a large, relatively simple space enhanced by overlooking adjacencies: the library, outdoor play fields, fitness area and public spaces all enjoy views of the pools.

The steel structure is understated, and unattractive ductwork has been

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eliminated by the intelligent design of air-handling systems. Three pools provide options for competition, training and pleasure, although more slides and a larger wave pool would have added to the fun factor.

Sandwiched between the natatorium and ice rinks, the fitness centre and the double gymnasium sit at the heart of the project. On the ground floor, much of the major circulation encircles the gym with its distinctive purple floor. On the second floor, a suspended running track and fitness areas ring the gym. Transparent surfaces are carefully deployed to create provocative views and interpenetrations, allowing runners to look through, over, up, down and beyond the gym into other spaces during their workout.

Adding to the formal complexities of the scheme, the designers decided to lift the main floor one level above grade. This creates both ex-

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OPPOSITE A running track is suspended above a lobby area and circles around the gymnasium, visible at right. Throughout the building, the juxtaposition of many different activities animates the space, giving the centre an urban quality unusual for a suburban facility. ABOVE The natatorium includes a lap pool, hot tub and wading pool, as well as a slide and lazy river adjacent to a children’s pool.

terior and interior changes in elevation that greatly enhance an otherwise flat site. The building is revealed through the resulting circulation system, centred on an east-west axis that runs through the major program areas. Extending beyond the site, this main axis locks into the LRT station to the west, supports two major entries, runs past the outdoor soccer field, and links to the community to the east. A network of secondary corridors connects to other entrances and various internal uses, bolstering connectivity. The entire system is labyrinthine and at times quasi-subterranean: but rather than being disorientating, the circulation exposes the sense of intrigue inherent in the design.

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Behind the seeming complexity of the building stands a well-rationalized structural steel skeleton. The steelwork throughout the building is both exposed and hidden in a sophisticated play of structure and suspended surfaces. The material palette comprises straightforward materials: exposed concrete, painted steel structure, and aluminum standingseam cladding. The Kalzip exterior cladding has a mid-bronze finish and creates a uniform and durable surface that transitions well from walls to roofs.

Teeple Architects has taken on the roles of swimmer, reader, weightlifter, athlete, janitor, student, teacher, parent, coach, community activ-

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ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP The running track intersects an upper-floor fitness area; the elevated track overlooks a lobby between the gymnasium and natatorium; a view of the running track as it enters the gymnasium at left, with a walkway to the right and a pedestrian concourse below.

ist and child by creating a vortex of public activity where these roles are amplified and juxtaposed. This ultimately produces architecture of significant public worth. This effort also restores, to some degree, the erosion of public space that has plagued suburban environments.

In his seminal book The Fall of Public Man, Richard Sennett states that “playacting [or role playing] in the form of manners, conventions and ritual gestures is the very stuff out of which public relations are formed, and from which public relations derive their emotional meaning.” Creating urbanity in suburbia ultimately involves making propositions about how people might gather with those they know—but more importantly, how they might gather with strangers. Our propensity for both sports and suburbia means that for many people residing in cities, community recreation centres are the new public realm. Instead of encountering strangers on a downtown sidewalk, we participate in public space where the defined actions of athletes—a forward-flying somersault, a backhand, a slam dunk, a spike, a clean and jerk, or a smash— produce an urban theatre we all understand.

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The public realm should provide experiences that we can share with others. This includes out-of-the-ordinary architectural experiences. In suburbia, it is not possible to replicate the density of public space found in the urban core—so new spaces, forms and programmatic configurations must be invented. The Clareview Community Recreation Centre achieves this. It is a bold approach to (sub)urban architecture.

Graham Livesey, MRAIC, is a professor in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Calgary.

CLIENT CITY OF EDMONTON AND EDMONTON PUBLIC LIBRARY | ARCHITECT TEAM TEEPLE ARCHITECTS—STEPHEN TEEPLE, MYLES CRAIG, RICHARD LAI, CHRISTIAN JOAKIM, BERNARD JIN, MARYAM MOHAJER, ROBERT CHEUNG, LANG CHENG, INGMAR MAK. ARCHITECTURE | TKALCIC BENGERT— BRIAN BENGERT, EDDO CANCIAN, JANE BRADY, SHANE LAPTISTE, KEVIN OSBORNE, ERIC HUI, STACEY FLASHA, HOLLY SHANDRUK, HEATHER MCINTOSH. | STRUCTURAL READ JONES CHRISTOFFERSEN | MECHANICAL STANTEC | ELECTRICAL AECOM | LANDSCAPE EARTHSCAPE | INTERIORS TEEPLE ARCHITECTS INC. IN ASSOCIATION WITH ARCHITECTURE | TKALCIC BENGERT | CONTRACTOR CLARK BUILDERS | LEED STANTEC | COST LCVM CONSULTANTS INC. | AREA 190,000 FT2 | BUDGET $94 M | COMPLETION JANUARY 2015

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FORT MAC TAKES FLIGHT

Fort McMurray International Airport, Fort McMurray, Alberta Project commenced by McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design; completed by Office of McFarlane Biggar Architects + Designers TEXT Elsa Lam PHOTOS Ema Peter

A SPACIOUS NEW AIRPORT OFFERS A SOPHISTICATED YET ROBUSTLY BUILT LANDING PAD FOR FORT MCMURRAY’S TRANSIENT WORKERS.

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ABOVE Corten panels frame the lower entrance to Fort McMurray’s airport. The building’s palette includes bitumen-coloured steel, precast concrete panels, and an exposed mass-timber roof. Materials were chosen based on durability, with a preference for prefabricated systems to save on the high cost of skilled labour in northern Alberta.

Flying from Toronto to Fort McMurray is like being on a military transport. The plane carries 167 men and 13 women. The men are, for the most part, big and brawny. They wear baseball caps and jeans. They aren’t talkative. Although it’s mid-morning, the majority of the window shutters are drawn as they try to get some shut-eye before landing.

Fly-in, fly-out workers at the oil sands generally arrive for a week or two at a time, staying at camps of temporary housing at the oil fields.

These are the most frequent patrons of Fort Mac’s new airport—a surprisingly elegant addition to an area which otherwise offers little of architectural merit.

Steve McFarlane, FRAIC, and Rob Grant of Office of McFarlane Biggar (OMB), the firm that completed the project, met me in Fort McMurray on a sunny June day. Light streams through the airside portion of the terminal, and windows at both ends offer expansive views of the surrounding fields and boreal forest beyond.

“Everything here is big: big sky, big forest, big industry,” says McFarlane, the principal in charge of the project. “That’s what drove our design thinking: it didn’t want to be a really precious building. It wanted

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to have a toughness, a robustness to it.” At the same time, the designers wanted the building to be sophisticated. “I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive,” he adds.

Spatially, the terminal is divided into two bars—the pre-check-in “landside” and the secure “airside.” The quality of space in the waiting areas is crucial, both in the landside arrivals hall and airside departures lounge. Oil-sands workers typically get bussed directly to the work camps, some of which are hundreds of kilometres away. Often, they’ll be waiting in the airport for three to five hours after arrival or before a flight.

“We’ve all been in airports where the arrivals experience is like coming into the basement,” says McFarlane. “There’s no daylight, you have no idea where you’ve just arrived.” In contrast, the designers created a bright, double-height arrivals hall featuring an integrated artwork whose ribbon-like strips evoke the Northern Lights. Exceptionally, the baggage hall opens onto a south-facing outdoor courtyard equipped with wood benches and planted with trembling aspens. In the winter, the courtyard becomes a suntrap that funnels light into the arrivals zone.

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CONSTRUCTION SECTION 1 PANELIZED CLT ROOF 2 ZINC PANEL / CLT PARAPET 3 GLULAM BEAM 4 WEATHERING STEEL WALL 5 TRIPLE-GLAZED CURTAIN WALL 6 STEEL COLUMN 7 FLOOR TRENCH HEATER 8 HOLLOWCORE CONCRETE FLOOR SYSTEM 9 WOOD WALL WITH SERVICE ZONE 10 CORIAN-LINED FIXED GLAZED OPENING 11 ZINC PANELS 12 SERVICE BULKHEAD 13 INSULATED PRECAST CONCRETE PANELS 14 INSULATED FOOTINGS 15 SLAB ON GRADE

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On the departures side, generous waiting areas supplement a series of bustling food-and-drink concessions (the camps are dry, the airport is not). The continuous, high-ceilinged spine for the departures area is clad and crowned with warm-toned wood. The mass-timber roof system consists of glulam beams, overlaid with 7-ply-thick cross-laminated timber (CLT). Service chases between the CLT panels were used for incorporating lighting, sprinklers, PA speakers, smoke detection devices, sound control and signage elements.

Other details contribute to keeping the departures space visually clean and coherent. The textured wooden wall that divides the airside from the landside is a two-and-a-half-foot-thick cavity that contains mechanical infrastructure. It also integrates washroom entrances, signage and waste receptacles—the kind of extras that often clutter airports.

Its surface bears a pleasing pattern of vertical striations that conceal acoustically absorptive insulation. Acoustic treatment is a necessity considering that there are no carpets in the facility—a practical decision, as carpets would have quickly gotten caked with dust and mud from work boots.

Material choices throughout the facility were made with robustness and sophistication in mind. Corten panels wrap the main entrance outside as well as demarcating commercial amenity spaces inside; the ma-

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OPPOSITE Passengers land and enter into a lounge filled with natural light, enhancing the warmth of the exposed wood ceiling. A wood-clad service wall incorporates information screens, refuse containers and doorways, reducing visual clutter. ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Check-in stations are installed on a raised access floor, allowing for easy reconfiguration as needs evolve; a courtyard provides sheltered outdoor waiting space; an upper-level roadway for passenger drop-offs offers views into the double-height arrivals hall.

terial was chosen for its tough-yet-trendy look and feel. The exterior is otherwise clad in dark grey steel, with precast concrete panels adjacent to the flight apron providing a clean, damage-proof surface (service vehicles have been known to collide with airports).

The use of pre-fabricated materials, such as the roof ’s glulam ceiling beams and CLT panels, reduce reliance on local labour—an important consideration since skilled trades are absorbed by industry in this part of Alberta. As a result, construction workers for projects such as the airport are expensive and transitory.

Significant costs accrue from the necessity to fly crews to site: almost all of the labour for the project was from out of town, says project architect Rob Grant. Many of these labourers weren’t accustomed to working to high standards. Others were taken by surprise by the extreme cold of

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the winter, where temperatures regularly reach minus 40 degrees Celsius. Despite their cold-weather gear, a building envelope crew from the Bahamas was challenged by the winter conditions. “That was an example where the work had to be redone a couple of times,” says Grant.

The inherently forgiving nature of the wood ceiling system—dimensional tolerances are much more lenient than concrete—became key to the project’s success. “The two-storey core for one of the new elevators was out by four to six inches,” recalls Grant. “Having the ability to adjust the tie-in of the wood roof allowed that condition to be accommodated.”

Given the quick pace of change typical of airports, certain elements offer built-in flexibility. For instance, rather than create a separate area for international arrivals, a temporary dividing wall can be pulled in

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ABOVE The generously proportioned arrivals hall includes a spruce sculpture entitled Daedalist , by Vancouver-based artist David Robinson. The architects also designed an upper-level scrim, visible at right, that is illuminated with blue and green LEDs at night to evoke the Northern LIghts.

place to create the necessary secure zone. If there are no international flights on a particular day, the airport gains an extra domestic gate.

On the landside, a raised access floor—the first application of such a system in a North American airport—allows for check-in counters to be easily added or reconfigured. Taking advantage of the two-foot-deep plenum, scales were embedded flush to the floor surface for a more integrated approach.

When more gates are eventually needed, modules can be appended to the airside half of the terminal, extending the bar further to the east and west. “We’ve built in the measures in this building to allow renovations and expansions to happen with little disruption to the day-to-day,” says McFarlane.

The new airport has seen 1.25 million passengers in the past year, making it the 15th busiest airport in Canada. Even with the downturn in oil prices, those numbers are staying high—volumes so far this year are 11 percent lower than during the same period last year, but in 2014, volumes had gone up nearly 10 percent. If anything, explains project architect Rob Grant, the flights are now being bundled into tighter periods in the day—a development which may necessitate expansion sooner rather than later, as the airport’s capacity is based on peak-hour traffic.

Still, oil’s recent bust is palpable in some of the promised but missing elements around the airport. A hotel connected to the airport, sharing

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its outdoor courtyard, was once planned. A multi-acre nearby parcel has been designated for a major commercial development. As yet, these sites remain open fields.

At one point, oil extraction was proposed on the airport lands—in turn, the designers contemplated the possibility of using waste energy from the oil extraction process to heat the new building. It would have been a surreal and perhaps slightly dystopian scenario, but certainly a sign of a continued boom rather than the present state of uncertainty.

As it stands, the airport remains a rare jewel in the region: an assertion that industrial buildings don’t have to be ugly; that even tough guys appreciate nice places; that sophistication can, indeed, coexist with robustness.

CLIENT FORT MCMURRAY AIRPORT AUTHORITY | ARCHITECT TEAM STEVE MCFARLANE, MICHELLE BIGGAR, ROB GRANT, BETH DENNY, NICHOLAS STANDEVEN, JENNELL HAGARDT, ADAM JENNINGS, HEATHER MAXWELL, HOZUMI NAKAI, LYDIA ROBINSON, JING XU, JORDAN VANDIJK, MINGYUK CHEN, JUSTIN BENNET, SENG TSOI, SIMON CLEWES, KEVIN KONG, ADRIENNE GIBBS, NICK FOSTER, MIKE TOWNSHEND | STRUCTURAL EQUILIBRIUM CONSULTING INC. | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL INTEGRAL GROUP | LANDSCAPE PWL PARTNERSHIP LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS INC. | INTERIORS COMMENCED BY MCFARLANE GREEN BIGGAR ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN; COMPLETED BY OFFICE OF MCFARLANE BIGGAR ARCHITECTS + DESIGNERS | CONTRACTOR LEDCOR CONSTRUCTION LTD. | PROJECT MANAGEMENT STANTEC INC. | IT/SECURITY FAITH GROUP LLC | WAYFINDING/SIGNAGE THE DESIGN OFFICE | CODE GHL CONSULTANTS LTD. | VERTICAL TRANSPORTATION JW GUNN CONSULTANTS INC. | LIGHTING TOTAL LIGHTING SOLUTIONS | ACOUSTICS BKL CONSULTANTS | COST LCVM CONSULTANTS INC. | AREA 160,000 FT2 | BUDGET $258 M | COMPLETION OCTOBER 2014

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GAME CHANGERS TEXT

Shannon Moore

NEW TYPES OF IMAGING TECHNOLOGY, FROM VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATIONS TO DRONE PHOTOGRAPHY, ARE CHANGING THE EXPERIENCE OF ARCHITECTURE FOR BOTH CLIENTS AND DESIGNERS.

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explains, “We used Oculus Rift to help our client understand what our vision was.”

Using goggles and a gamepad, individuals were able to walk through a virtual representation of the project, experiencing its scale, layout and finishes. “This was particularly helpful for the client to get a sense of the space and helped to get the buy-in we needed to move forward,” says Choi. The virtual visit introduced users to a series of unconventional spaces, such as a hilly indoor play field topped with a wooden ceiling and elliptical skylights. “Oculus Rift really advanced our ability to share our architectural experience with our client,” adds Marion LaRue, principal in charge of the project.

In Toronto, architectural graphics specialist Norm Li also uses gaming technology to provide intuitive virtual tours for his clients. He argues that the aesthetics of the 3D goggles are in need of improve-

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A common challenge faced by architects is the inability to present their designs in an intuitive manner. While traditional drawings and models are able to convey a design to other consultants, they can be difficult for clients to comprehend. Photographs capture the beauty of finished structures but often default to eye-level views that fail to present the full range of a building’s spaces. Today, new types of imaging technology—some borrowed from the world of gaming—are allowing architects to communicate their ideas in a broader range of ways.

Virtual reality goggles are one form of technology that architects have begun experimenting with. Canadian design firm DIALOG recently used Oculus Rift—a headset that allows users to explore a virtual reality environment in three dimensions—for a project in Calgary. The technology helped move plans for the sports and recreation centre forward with stakeholders and donors. As marketing manager Carol Choi

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Shannon Moore is a Master of Journalism student at Carleton University. She is currently completing a research project on sustainable design.

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NORM LI ARCHITECTURAL GRAPHICS + ILLUSTRATIONS

NORM LI ARCHITECTURAL GRAPHICS + ILLUSTRATIONS

NORM LI ARCHITECTURAL GRAPHICS + ILLUSTRATIONS

GREG VAN RIEL

ment—“the hardware is still a bit premature and has a lot of issues to work out”—preferring to use large-scale 55-inch touchscreens for interactive tours. “We basically took the controls that everyone is familiar with from iPads and scaled them up,” Li says.

Li used the technology to bring Kohn Partnership Architects’ Remington Centre to life. When completed, the 800,000-square-foot project in Markham, Ontario will be the largest Asian-themed shopping mall outside of Asia. Located in the presentation centre, virtual walkthroughs on touchscreens allow potential investors to better understand the proposed space, including its 700 retail units, condominium tower and outdoor public plaza. “The biggest problem was that people couldn’t imagine where their units were,” Li says. “With our system, you could walk every last inch of that 800,000 square feet.”

In addition to helping the public understand design, Li says that the use of gaming technology is forcing architects to pay closer attention to the design of interior spaces. “At one point, architects just designed based on the sketch of the exterior,” he said. “Now, if they can use these tools and explore the spaces interactively, there’s a more comprehensive thought process that goes into reviewing the interior design of the building.”

“The gaming technology allows you to really examine the nitty-gritty parts that you don’t normally think of,” he adds.

Photographer Greg van Riel likes to highlight these nitty-gritty details from a different perspective. In addition to traditional cameras, he has begun using drones to photograph architecture from impressive heights, capturing the beauty of structures from a variety of angles.

Similar to the virtual walkthrough, the drone provides a new kind of viewing experience for the architect and client.

The process can be quite lengthy—including pre-production site visits, careful planning of the shots, security and insurance considerations, as well as filming and editing. The final product is usually a mix of still photography, video footage and time-lapse sequences. When combined, they tell a visual story about a building in a unique way.

“It’s a form of artistic expression,” van Riel says. “It’s about showing architecture in ways that you normally wouldn’t get to see it, or highlighting certain aspects of the architecture that you might not even be aware of from the ground.”

This is evident in van Riel’s footage of the Bridgepoint Active Healthcare facility in Toronto, designed by Stantec Architecture/ KPMB Architects (PDC Architects) with HDR Architecture/ Diamond Schmitt Architects (DBFM Architects). The drone was able to capture images of the rooftop garden, designed to provide patients with a magnificent, exclusive view of the city. For van Riel, this project epitomized the most satisfying aspect of drone photography. “I love architecture—so to be able to see something really come to life and deliver what the architect had in mind, that’s really fulfilling as a photographer and videographer.”

For Li, the satisfaction of working with different imaging methods comes from witnessing their contribution to the experience of architecture and design. “Despite all of the other great things, the advancement of technology and seeing where my industry is headed—that’s where the real excitement comes from.”

Says LaRue of DIALOG, “It’s just another step in evolving architectural design.”

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OPPOSITE DIALOG used Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles to walk clients through the design for a fitness and research centre in Calgary. TOP Drone photography allowed Greg van Riel to capture the rooftop garden at Bridgepoint Health in Toronto. ABOVE Three views from Norm Li’s interactive model of a large shopping centre in Markham.

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IOANA MARINESCU. COURTESY OF THE INSTITUTO LINA BO E P.M. BARDI.

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LINA BO BARDI: TOGETHER TEXT

Leslie Jen

THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS, ARTIFACTS AND FILM, THIS EXHIBITION AT THE GRAHAM FOUNDATION IN CHICAGO EXAMINES THE INCLUSIVE APPROACH TO DESIGN TAKEN BY THE LATE ITALIAN-BRAZILIAN ARCHITECT LINA BO BARDI. Quite unlike most architectural exhibitions, Lina Bo Bardi: Together offers a radical departure from the standard drawings-and-models presentation format we have come to expect. Instead, we are treated to an intriguing composite of films, sculptures and photographs by a variety of participants that either document the buildings by Lina Bo Bardi, the exhibition subject—or are inspired by them. Curated by architect Noemi Blager and designed by the collective Assemble, Lina Bo Bardi: Together first launched in London at the tail end of 2012, and toured several European countries before landing at Chicago’s Graham Foundation in April of this year.

Here, the domestically scaled rooms of the historic Madlener House (1902) enhance the intimate nature of the exhibition itself.

Born in Italy, Modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992) immigrated to Brazil in 1946 with her husband Pietro Maria Bardi, a writer, curator and art collector. Overshadowed by contemporary Brazilian practitioners such as the prolific Oscar Niemeyer, Bo Bardi nevertheless distinguished

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herself with a number of significant buildings that continue to resonate in present day. Her deeply humanistic, inclusive and multidisciplinary approach to design is captured in this exhibition through the contributions of photographer Ioana Marinescu, filmmaker Tapio Snellman, and Madelon Vriesendorp, artist and cofounder of OMA. The rooms on the main floor of the Graham Foundation feature an assemblage of photographic works by Marinescu that document Bo Bardi’s own Glass House (Casa de Vidro) of 1951 that she designed for herself and her husband in the lush, heavily forested Morumbi suburb of São Paulo.

The house is an unsurprisingly elegant Modernist icon, a glazed open-plan structure rising above its sloping site on slender pilotis. Light emanates from the large images representing various aspects of the home’s interior and exterior, and they seem capable of transporting the viewer directly into the spaces of the house. Conceived to display the eclectic range of art and artifacts that the couple amassed over the years, the residence is still an ideal perch from which to observe the diverse life forms inhabiting the surrounding rainforest.

Upstairs, in the smaller darkened rooms, films by Snellman are being screened. They offer a moving depiction of Bo Bardi’s industrially inflected SESC Pompéia Leisure Centre (1982) and the immediate streetscape, revealing the colours, textures and vibrancy of life in São Paulo, and the people who populate that vast city. Comprised of three imposing concrete towers augmenting a restored crumbling factory building,

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OPPOSITE Lina Bo Bardi’s own Glass House (1951) she designed in the Morumbi district of São Paulo, Brazil. ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT An exhibition room at the Graham Foundation contains photos and artworks by Ioana Marinescu and Madelon Vriesendorp, and two Arper-manufactured Bowl Chairs designed by Bo Bardi in 1951; Bo Bardi in Kamakura, Japan in 1978; objects created by Brazilian children at workshops conducted by Vriesendorp are on display. BOTTOM RIGHT A still from Tapio Snellman’s film SESC Pompeia depicts urban life in and around Bo Bardi’s monumental building.

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Lina Bo Bardi: Together is an evocative, intimate and engaging portrait of a figure whose boundless inspiration and embrace of a rich and diverse culture is reflected in her architectural legacy. Though long overdue, Bo Bardi is finally—posthumously—gaining recognition for her remarkable contributions to her adopted country of Brazil.

Lina Bo Bardi: Together continues until July 25, 2015 at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, and will subsequently tour other venues in North America.

TAPIO SNELLMAN

SESC Pompéia draws the street and public life into its spaces; it is a welcoming facility that remains accessible to all classes and demographics, a striking embodiment of Bo Bardi’s goal of erasing aesthetic and social hierarchies.

Rounding out the show are the curious creations by Vriesendorp and others that appear throughout the exhibition spaces. Inspired by Brazilian popular culture and made of metal, catlike demons with pointed ears and long tails stand guard in many of the rooms. Echoing Bo Bardi’s own inclusive approach, Vriesendorp conducted workshops in Salvador, Bahia in the Bo Bardi-designed Solar do Unhão, Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (1959), engaging the children of the community to produce sculptures out of recycled cardboard. Rich in colour and detail, the resulting pieces lend a touch of whimsy and are a fitting complement to Vriesendorp’s metalwork and other collected artifacts by Brazilian craftspeople on display.

As the main sponsor of the show, Italian furniture company Arper has recently launched the Bowl Chair in the United States. Originally designed by Bo Bardi in 1951 but never manufactured until now, the chair epitomizes the elegant simplicity characteristic of its designer through its adjustable semi-spherical form. In partnership with the Instituto Lina Bo e P. M. Bardi in São Paulo, Arper has produced a limited edition of 500 chairs in a multitude of colours and textile options— three of which are on display for a “test drive” on the ground floor.

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REVIEW

PETER ANDREW

VICTORIA FORD

PETER ANDREW

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 07/15­­

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HOW BIG CAN 3D PRINTING GO? TEXT

Elsa Lam Eugen Sakhnenko, unless otherwise noted

PHOTOS

AN EXHIBITION ORGANIZED BY TORONTO’S DESIGN EXCHANGE EXPLORES NEXT-GENERATION 3D PRINTING THAT’S CREATING BUILDING-SIZED COMPONENTS. 3D printing has long garnered the interest of designers, primarily as a tool for rapid prototyping. Every architecture school in Canada has a 3D printer, and the plastic models they output are becoming more and more common fixtures in design crits and exhibitions. Larger design offices also own 3D printers, usually put to work producing all-white presentation models.

3DXL, the Design Exchange’s summer exhibition on the subject, ups the stakes of the conversation. The architects chosen by Toronto-based curator Sara Nickleson are working big—thus the XL of the exhibition title—creating full-scale building components using 3D printing.

This is no mean feat. If you’ve ever worked with a standard 3D printer, you’ll know that it has two main limitations: it’s painfully slow, and the plastic components it produces are brittle. In the exhibition’s hands-

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on demonstration space, I watched a MakerBot print a miniature CN Tower—an hour-long process that yielded a spindly plastic spire, somewhat less sturdy than one would find at the Dollar Store.

To economize, some designers are using the technology to create select components of larger structures. Denegri Bessai’s Mangrove Structure, custom-created for the exhibition, is an airy minimalist pavilion made of flexible rods held in place by 3D-printed nodes. Each of the 12 elliptical connectors in the installation is unique, suggesting a diversity of possible configurations.

“We printed the upper nodes with PLA plastic on desktop machines at our office and at the Design Exchange,” explains co-creator Tom Bessai, MRAIC. The mid-structure nodes needed to be stronger, so they used machines at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto, which print with sturdier ABS plastic. “We also had the opportunity to work with Cast Connex to create a single node in 3D-printed steel; that was sent to Shapeways for production,” adds Bessai. “It’s very early days for 3D printing in metal.”

Challenges of structural strength are also present in an ambitious three-year-long project to print a full-scale inhabitable canal house in Amsterdam. DUS Architects, the group behind the scheme, has sent a component from the house to Toronto: a cubic-metre-sized plastic keystone, reinforced by a honeycomb of internal shafts.

The keystone was printed on a bespoke machine called the KamerMaker (or “Room Builder”), housed in a shipping container in Amsterdam. The house’s components are being printed canalside and assembled on site like Lego blocks. After assembly, some of the shafts will be filled with foaming concrete that will serve to both insulate the walls and provide structural stability.

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REVIEW

A 3D-printed sandstone wall by Swiss architects Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger; the design includes an intricate level of detail; loose sand is brushed away from each section as it emerges from the 3D printer. ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT An ephemeral structure by Denegri Bessai occupies the main room in the exhibition hall; a detail of a 3D-printed metal connecting joint. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT The keystone of a 3D-printed house in Amsterdam by DUS Architects; after final assembly, hollows inside the plastic components will be filled wih concrete.

OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT

3DXL’s most stunning display is in the exhibition’s final room. Digital Arabesque, by Swiss architects Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger, is a visually intricate wall created from 3D-printed sandstone, manufactured at an American facility. The seductive composition— made up of slithering forms, encrusted with ornamentation—is impossibly complex to create using regular 3D-modelling tools. Instead, it’s generated by custom algorithmic software developed by Hansmeyer and Dillenburger.

The wall was printed on a large-scale powder printer that solidifies loose sand with a binder. “These large-scale printers were developed to print sand moulds for casting in foundries,” says Dillenburger. In their intended use, the printed form is destroyed after the casting process.

“The resulting artificial stone is comparable to natural sandstone in terms of its properties,” he says.

In terms of know-how, graduates of architecture schools are becoming adept with the technology. A display case is dedicated to 3D-printed tiles made by Dillenburger’s students at the University of Toronto’s

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Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. The patterns evoke fractal geometries and rock formations, representing a search for complex patterns and textures that can be created with—and perhaps only with—3D printing.

The Design Exchange has assembled a remarkable array of projects.

However, in venturing into a satellite space—a former condo presentation centre on highly trafficked King Street—the works end up looking more diminutive than they ought. Relative to the tall buildings in the area, the 3D-printed components appear to be more in the S or M rather than the XL range.

It’s a reminder of how far off the use of 3D printers for full-scale building components still feels: the technology needed for printing to a pavilion-sized (let alone full building-sized) scale with quick speeds and durable materials remains out of reach. But 3DXL shows how that future is perhaps a few steps closer than we realize.

3DXL is on display at 363 King Street West in Toronto until August 16, 2015.

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Chatter: Architecture Talks Back April 11-July 12, 2015

The Art Institute of Chicago features the creative process of architectural firms Bureau Spectacular, Erin Besler, Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, Formlessfinder and John Szot Studio. www.artic.edu

Living with Construction May 1-July 25, 2015

Toronto’s Urbanspace Gallery features the photographs of Heather MacArthur Bell, revealing a patient, even affectionate, eye on a city neighbourhood in flux. www.urbanspacegallery.ca

Artist Textiles: From Picasso to Warhol May 2-October 4, 2015

This international exhibition offers a fascinating overview of 20th-century textile designs from some of the world’s most renowned artists. More than 200 works on fabric trace the history of art in textiles, with examples from key European and American art movements including Fauvism,

Cubism, Constructivism, Modernism, Surrealism and Pop Art. www.textilemuseum.ca

The SAAL Process: Housing in Portugal 1974–76 May 12-October 4, 2015

This exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture documents a pioneering political and architectural experiment designed to address extreme housing shortages and degrading living conditions in Portugal in the 1970s. www.cca.qc.ca

Maggie’s Centres: A Blueprint for Cancer Care June 8-July 5, 2015

This exhibition at the University of Manitoba’s Brodie Centre explores the intersection of design and health care through projects designed by Piers Gough, Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Rogers and others.

Picturing the Americas: Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic June 20-September 20, 2015

The Art Gallery of Ontario in-

vites visitors to traverse a vast and magnificent landmass that spans from Canada’s Arctic to the icy tip of Argentina and Chile. More than 100 landscapes from across the hemisphere are featured. www.ago.net

Centre in Riversdale and in a building close to Sydney Harbour. www.ozetecture.org

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CALENDAR

Annual Institute on the Library as Place 2015: The Library as Experience July 6-7 2015

From the Inside Out: Integrating Art and Architecture on the West Coast June 27-August 29, 2015

The West Vancouver Museum features a uniquely West Coast style of Modernist art and architecture by Ned Pratt, B.C. Binning, Fred Hollingsworth, Arthur Erickson, Bruno Freschi and others that flourished on Vancouver’s North Shore from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. http://westvancouvermuseum.ca

Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class July 5-19 2015

This two-week annual residential program has, since its inception in 2001, been attended by architects from over 70 nations. Glenn Murcutt and others lead the studio at two sites—the Boyd Education

This conference at the Waterloo Delta focuses on the impact that architectural spaces and design have on the human experience, and provides an opportunity for the library, municipal, design and architectural sectors to learn more about the development and redevelopment of all types of libraries.

Six Storeys in Wood: The Alberta Mid-Rise Opportunity Information Workshop July 15, 2015

This workshop at the Chateau Lacombe in Edmonton offers attendees exposure to experienced midrise practitioners from BC, where mid-rise wood-frame buildings have been permitted since 2009.

Issues such as fire protection, acoustic, structural and building envelope will be covered. www.wood-works.ca

NEWS (continued from page 11) global perspective to this initiative but must demonstrate an understanding of London’s specific needs. Therefore, partnerships between international studios and local practices are also encouraged. The shortlisted entries will be the basis of an NLA exhibition and accompanying events program from October 15 to December 17, 2015. The deadline for submissions is 5:00pm on August 7, 2015. www.newlondonarchitecture.org/housinglondon2015

WHAT’S NEW The International Garden Festival celebrates its 16th edition.

The International Garden Festival launched its 16th edition at the Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens on June 26, 2015. Attracting 309 proposals from over 700 architects, landscape architects, designers and artists from 34 countries, the juryselected contemporary garden installations have a special energy and connection to the natural world. The chosen gardens are: Around-About by

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Talmon Biran Architecture Studio (architects Roy Talmon and Noa Biran) of Tel Aviv; Carré Bleu Sur Fond Blanc by o.k. (landscape architects Kihan Kim and Ophélie Bouvet) of Paris; I Like To Move It by Dix Neuf Cent Quatre Vingt Six Architecture (architects Mathilde Gaudemet and Arthur Ozenne) of Paris; Popple by landscape architects Meaghan Hunter and Suzy Melo of Winnipeg; and Se Mouiller (La Belle Échappée) by Groupe A/Annexe U (architects Jean-François Laroche, Rémi Morency, Erick Rivard and Maxime Rousseau) of Quebec City.

The Archipelago (An Atlas of Biomes) by Madridbased architect Pedro Pitarch Alonso received a special mention from the jury. The International Garden Festival is the leading contemporary garden festival in North America. Since its inception in 2000, more than 150 gardens have been exhibited at Grand-Métis and around the world. All of the 309 entries are exhibited online on the website as part of the annual exhibition of competition entries. The Festival concludes on September 27, 2015. www.refordgardens.com

Toronto Society of Architects launches sixth season of walking tours.

The Toronto Society of Architects (TSA) has launched its sixth season delivering guided walking tours. Three tours are offered, each showcasing 10-14 significant examples of contemporary architecture in downtown Toronto.

The tours are almost exclusively outdoors; each is approximately two hours long and costs just $10. Toronto has undergone a cultural renaissance of sorts in the last 5-10 years with major building investment in cultural institutions like the Royal Ontario Museum, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, which are just a few of the buildings by world-renowned architects that are featured. A highlight this year is the new Goldring Centre for High-Performance Sport

by Patkau Architects and MJM Architects.

Tours are offered on Saturdays and Sundays until October 3, 2015. www.torontoarchitecturetours.com

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LOOKING BACK

COURTESY DOUGLAS CARDINAL ARCHITECT INC. (REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, YEARBOOK 1972)

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GRANDE PRAIRIE REGIONAL COLLEGE TEXT

Kristen Gagnon

Completed in 1976, Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC), designed

by Douglas Cardinal, FRAIC, was an early embodiment of many of the architect’s principles of design. From its poetic, ribbon-like masonry exterior to its carefully laid-out plan, the architecture of GPRC embodies Cardinal’s understanding of both organic forms and user-focused design.

The college appeared in The Canadian Architect in February 1978, in an article written by the late Edmonton architect Peter Hemingway. As Cardinal reflects on the project almost 40 years later, it is clear that he intended the twin themes of people and nature to be GPRC’s legacy.

The idea that buildings need to serve people and work with their community was first and foremost in Cardinal’s mind. For GPRC, this meant extensive consultation with the college’s dean, faculty, students and surrounding residents. According to Cardinal, “My concern from the very beginning was: what were the needs of the college itself, what was their vision, and what were the ideas that come from the students themselves? Because they were the ones the college was to serve, providing a meaningful environment for their education.”

This bottom-up planning, Cardinal says, was not the norm within educational design in the mid-1970s. Most designers did not ask what was being taught in spaces, or how the design of classrooms could influence teaching methods. Nor was it common practice to consult the future user during the design process of such facilities. Rather, standards from the Department of Education often acted as established guidelines for projects at the time.

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ABOVE A view of the presentation model for the project, which was one of the first to use the bold curved forms that would become characteristic of Douglas Cardinal’s architecture.

Yet the desire to meet the actual—rather than perceived—needs of the user was behind Cardinal’s characteristic organic forms, most notable in the lack of orthogonal lines in plan. “When you are designing a building around the needs of people, it’s not only that you design functional layouts,” Cardinal says. “There is nothing boxy about any living being… including our own natural bodies.”

Teardrop-shaped music rooms emerged after Cardinal investigated the multiple ways that musicians could be arranged for a rehearsal. He laid out a dozen different configurations for the instrumentalists on the gym floor in tape, then “saw a pattern on the floor emerging. That became the shape of the room.” Similar reasoning led to the free-flowing form of the overall campus, as well as Cardinal’s broader philosophy on architecture.

Today, GPRC continues to serve the needs of its students in Cardinal’s original building, as well as in an addition designed by Field, Field and Field Architects in 1991. In 2004, the college’s theatre was named after Cardinal, in honour of his work in bringing the college’s vision to life through architecture. Cardinal reflects that ultimately his goal was not about bringing his personal views to the project, but rather “the excitement in capturing the passion” of those involved. “It was their project, their community,” he says. “They were a pretty dynamic community, and still are.”

Kristen Gagnon is a doctoral student in the Azrieli School of Architecture + Urbanism at Carleton University, and the Ottawa editor of Spacing magazine.

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