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2009 Design Exchange Award Winners in Canada - Page 5 |
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Friday, 27 November 2009 00:00 |
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Page 5 of 6
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Landscape
GOLD
Project: Dymaxion Sleep
Designer: Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell
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Client: Refford Gardens/Jardins De Métis International Garden Festival
Dymaxion Sleep was selected to be constructed as part of the 10th Edition of the International Garden Festival at the Jardins de Métis.
Function. Dymaxion Sleep is a structure of nets suspended above a field of aromatic plants. Rather than walking through the garden, visitors are able to lie on top of it, so that the typically solitary experience of sleeping in a garden is translated into a public event. The Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens is a significant cultural and tourist attraction in the Gaspé region of Quebec.
The gardens provide a strong economic base for the area, attracting 100,000 visitors every year, and pairing with local businesses and artists to highlight connections between its horticultural history, and Gaspesian cuisine, cultural heritage, and landscape.
All the plants were started in the gardens and all steel and net fabrication was done on site to minimize transportation of materials.
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Landscape
Silver
Project: Square Des Frères-Charon
Designer: Affleck + de la Riva
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Client: City of Montréal, Direction des Grands Parcs et de la Nature en Ville
Built as a response to the urban revitalisation of a disaffected industrial sector, Square des Frères-Charon is an entirely new public amenity in a space that is more than 150 years old.
The square provides identity, civic pride, and generous outdoor areas for all-season public use. While modest in scale and budget, the square is an essential component of McGill Street’s larger network of historic spaces, and is a key element in Montreal’s cultural tourism branding strategy.
The project uses a simple, refined, and minimalist architectural language to create a dialogue between circular and cylindrical forms, including a garden of wild grasses, the vestiges of the windmill and a park pavilion in the form of a belvedere-folly. Complementing these gestures, the lighting scheme proposes a chromatic garden that alludes to the changing seasons.
Sustainable initiatives include the planting of local species of wild grasses and the use of durable Quebec granite. |
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Landscape
Bronze
Project: West Toronto Railpath
Designer: Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc. with Brown and Storey Architects Inc.
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Client: City of Toronto, Economic Development, Culture and Tourism Department
The West Toronto Railpath is a two kilometer greenway running from Dupont to Dundas West on the alignment of a former rail corridor that has been transformed into a new public space, adding to the city’s growing bicycle network of trails.
The project team, composed of landscape architects, urban designers, architects, artist, civil engineers, electrical engineers, and arborists worked closely with steel fabrication artists and specialists in indigenous planting. The Railpath has created a two kilometer new frontage where new residential units can be located, working symbiotically with the parkway to open up an intercity area of former industrial lands, and by invigorating employment districts. The trail surface itself branches into smaller walkways and gardens along the route to provide resting spots.
The landscape of the railpath has been designed to require a minimum of maintenance, allowing the landscape to grow naturally, water-fed by carefully designed swales, with indigenous plant species.
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Landscape
Honorable Mention
Project: Trinity College Quadrangle
Designer: gh3
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Client: Trinity College
The object of this commission was to renew the existing quadrangle, to rationalize circulation and to accommodate a broad range of social activities, while recognizing the architecture of the historic Trinity College. It is a place to which students, staff and alumni have a remarkably strong connection and has become a significant part of the College’s image.
The renewal of the Quadrangle is in the form of a modern design that is developed out of deference to Trinity’s Anglican heritage and the traditions of medieval and gothic courtyards. The patterned surface of the Quadrangle is based on the iconic early Christian symbol of the chi, superimposed over the central lawn to create an ornamented ground plane. The imprinted central lawn is the focus and the unifying element in the space.
More than 80 years after Trinity College was relocated from Trinity Bellwoods Park the new Quadrangle completes the College’s architecture.
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Landscape
Honorable Mention
Project: Victoria University Forecourt
Designer: PMA Landscape Architects Ltd.
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Client: Victoria University in the University of Toronto
The site consists of a courtyard enclosed by Emmanuel College, Queenʼs Park Crescent and Northrop Frye Hall to the east.
At Emmanuel College, an elliptical layout proved the most efficient in terms of moving people through the space, while still respecting the historic façade as a visual terminus. Issues of accessibility and long-term sustainability were the driving force behind the Forecourt renovation. Cost-wise, upgrading the paving from a deteriorating natural stone to a heavy-duty stamped concrete reduces the need to repair heaved stone, particularly considering that maintenance vehicles frequently access the Forecourt. Replacing the non-compliant staircase with a 5% sloped walkway provides improved circulation for students as well as being cost efficient. All seatwalls were custom designed to discourage skateboarders.
The designer worked with maintenance staff to salvage existing vegetation for replanting after the hard landscape works were complete.
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Last Updated on Friday, 27 November 2009 09:50 |
