Archinect - News

BIG updates KING Toronto construction progress

2024-10-23T18:00:00-04:00

Here’s a brief construction update on the BIG-led new KING Toronto development with Diamond Schmitt Architects. The design pays homage to the definitive modularity of Moshe Safdie’s seminal Habitat 67, with 514 units rotated on a 45-degree angle and arranged as through a canyon overlooking the nightlife-centric King Street West corridor. Ingels says it will top out soon at 16 stories after beginning construction in mid-2020. This "experimental" addition will be the Danish firm’s third project for developer Westbank, following Vancouver House and the Telus Sky tower in Calgary.

Get Lectured: University of Waterloo, Fall '24

2024-10-09T14:28:00-04:00

The University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture has shared its Arriscraft Canada Brick Speaker Series information for the Fall 2024 semester.

Upcoming events include a panel discussion on 'Climate Resilience Inspired by Monsoon Culture' with Turenscape founder and 2023 Oberlander Prize winner Kongjian Yu on Thursday, October 24. Following that will be a discussion on creating public space with Class of 1999 BArch graduate Rosa Chang on Friday, November 1. Yale University's Mae-ling Lokko closes the term with a look at the potential for climate adaptation and bio-based materials on Thursday, November 21.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

U.S., Canada, and Mexico update tri-national reciprocity agreement for architects

2024-10-08T19:22:00-04:00

A new tri-national Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) has been signed by the three largest North American groups representing professional architects in their respective countries.

The updated agreement between the Regulatory Organizations of Architecture in Canada (ROAC), Mexico’s Comité Mexicano para la Práctica Internacional de la Arquitectura (COMPIAR), and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) recognizes the competencies latent in the initial licensure/registration processes while removing several post-licensure barriers to eligibility.

Victoria Rodríguez Mosqueda, the President of the Federación de Colegios de Arquitectos de la Republica Mexicana (FCARM), said the latest MRA amendment "includes more accessible requirements that will increase its potential coverage, while reducing the economic burden."

The revised agreement pertains to the existin...

Field Operations announces new The Bentway Islands project in Toronto

2024-09-30T12:00:00-04:00

Field Operations has announced they are working with Canadian partners Brook McIlroy on a new public realm rehabilitation project dubbed The Bentway Islands in Toronto.

The plan calls for the redevelopment of three traffic islands into a new space that totals 125,000 square feet. Design concepts for the project will be revealed next year. It will serve as the "sister site" to a previously completed Phase I development. Field Operations also recently completed the final piece of the award-winning Domino Park in Williamsburg. Brooklyn.

Image courtesy The Bentway

Phase I of The Bentway development. Image courtesy Nic Lehoux

Phase I of The Bentway development. Image courtesy Brandon Ferguson

Modern summer home by Akb emerges from cluster of scattered islands in Ontario's Georgian Bay

2024-08-29T17:37:00-04:00

Toronto-based architecture and interior design studio Atelier Kastelic Buffey (Akb) has designed a modern cottage secluded amidst the natural beauty of Ontario’s Georgian Bay.

Image: Doublespace

The retreat is located three hours north of Toronto on a small island called Whistling Wind in a community named Pointe Au Baril. The region is defined by the expansive sky, open waters, and the many rock archipelagoes that are scattered along the coast of the Bay, forming many narrow waterways.

Image: Doublespace

The cottage comprises four pitch-roofed structures, which are each scaled proportionately to fit the island’s one-acre size. They are clad in silver-weathered cedar shingles, and, in certain light conditions, they are barely discernible from the brownish-gray rocks that surround them.

Image: Doublespace

The main cottage is at the highest elevation, and it is joined by a smaller cabin, a sauna, and a boat storage, which also contains a small fitness room. They are situated on differe...

ACDF links old with the contemporary in new Montreal student housing design

2024-08-21T18:53:00-04:00

A student housing project combining heritage conservation with facadism, the new 19-story LINK design from ACDF Architecture, is now ready for use in Montreal’s Shaughnessy Village.

Just steps away from Concordia University and other local colleges, the project provides much-needed affordable housing options for students while reusing facades culled from the demolition of three existing Victorian structures with only a minimal sacrifice to its programmatic efficiency.

Photo: Adrien Williams

“Such a rehabilitation mission can generate an interesting return on investment for developers, and this approach, more sensitive to the context and built heritage, would have the merit of being much more contributive to the community, and thus a very interesting asset for the marketing of this residential rental project,” the firm’s president Maxime-Alexis Frappier explains in a press release.

Photo: Adrien Williams

The preservation of the past is such a key consideration here granted the extensi...

PEI adds rhythm to the Toronto skyline with new 2221 Yonge Street design

2024-07-30T20:39:00-04:00

The latest addition to Toronto’s skyline, PEI Architects’ 2221 Yonge Street tower, is now open after a 2022 completion. New images of the 56-story design reveal the presence of cantilevered wraparound balconies leading down to a six-story podium with a grand porte-cochère and sloped garden, a facade concept which PEI’s principal Li Chung (Sandi) Pei explains as a "unique design feature, rather than as appendages to a large glassy mass." Quadrangle Architects were included on the project team for the 435,000-square-foot high-rise that includes 566 total residential suites.

It will be joined nearby by Hariri Pontarini Architects' record-breaking Pinnacle One Yonge and the proposed 55 Yonge project from Quadrangle and PARTISANS.

Photo: Kerun Ip, courtesy of PEI Architects

Calgary's new Scotia Place arena to unite NHL Flames fans for 2027

2024-07-25T12:30:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the new Scotia Place events center in downtown Calgary from HOK and DIALOG.

The arena design reportedly considers its site’s Indigenous forebears from the Treaty 7 Peoples and the Metis Nation and establishes a new home for the Calgary Flames NHL franchise while also standing as the anchor of a 10-acre entertainment district and gathering place for 8,000 Calgarians who live nearby.

The new building is expected to open in fall 2027.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by DIALOG (@dialogdesign)

Record-setting Gordie Howe International Bridge passes major construction milestone

2024-07-20T08:47:00-04:00

The important Gordie Howe International Bridge project is nearing completion at the U.S. border with Canada. The latest construction update now states that the design’s critical bridge deck component has now been installed on the entire length of the 2,800-foot span, connecting both countries through what will become the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge in North America once it is completed in the fall of 2025.

All images courtesy Pont International Gordie Howe International Bridge

The Windsor-Detroit border crossing is also the busiest land border crossing in North America. Construction on the deck began in December 2022. Charl van Niekerk, CEO of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, said previously: "After a three-year pandemic and considering the size and complexity of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, our project team is pleased that the impact to the construction schedule is limited to only 10 months beyond the original contracted completion date."

All i...

Handcrafted quality and a reverence for the Canadian wilderness makes this Kariouk Architects-designed family retreat stand out

2024-07-19T16:55:00-04:00

Ottawa-based architecture firm Kariouk Architects has designed a family retreat defined by its open spaces and close relationship to the landscape in a remote Ontarian forest.

Photo: Scott Norsworthy

The home was designed for a large family who wanted a large space for summer and winter holidays that would allow visitors to be comfortable in a remote area for long stays. The clients also wanted the project to promote and be aligned with the surrounding environment. The architects honored this through the house’s visual and material harmonization with its surroundings, responsible material sourcing and site adaptation, and energy-saving systems. Most notably, almost all of the natural habitat of the 100-acre property was preserved.

Photo: Scott Norsworthy

A primary objective of the retreat’s design was to achieve a contemporary approach to warmth and the avoidance of modernist box-like forms. This is evident in the continuous space of the home, where only bedrooms and bathrooms are cl...

3XN and Arcadis IBI release design for new University of Toronto Rotman Commerce Building

2024-07-12T19:09:00-04:00

3XN, in collaboration with Arcadis IBI, has revealed the design for a new, unified Rotman Commerce Building at the University of Toronto. The building aims to prepare students for professional life after university by fueling both learning and networking through open and interconnected spaces.

The current Rotman Commerce program is dispersed across four separate sites across the school’s St. George campus. The new 92,000-square-foot building will comprise five levels above ground and two levels below. It will host a variety of learning spaces, staff offices, and a 200-seat event space.

Image courtesy 3XN

The building’s design is guided by the principle that optimum learning is supported by flexibility, transparency, and interaction. As one moves through the building, the social levels shift, from the lower levels to the more private and quiet areas towards the top.

Image courtesy 3XN

The Rotman Commerce Building is designed in line with the University of Toronto’s Climate Positive ...

Fostering community through multi-residential housing and rooftop urban farming

2024-07-03T19:02:00-04:00

Calgary-based studio Modern Office of Design + Architecture (MODA) — the winners of Canada's 2022 RAIC Emerging Practice Award — has completed a forward-thinking mixed-use development that combines multi-residential housing and urban farming to build community and foster social interaction.

Photo: Ema Peter

Called GROW, the project features 20 units of varying sizes, which are accompanied by a 0.6-acre rooftop urban farm. Additional green spaces come in the form of private gardens, vegetative roofs, and apiaries.

Photo: Ema Peter

The units suit a range of ages and family sizes, including small 450-square-foot studios, medium-sized 600-square-foot condos, 1.5-story lofts, and large 850-1,000 square-foot, two-story townhomes. This arrangement brings various demographics together, such as young professionals, students, and families with children.

Photo: Ema Peter

In addition, residents can come together by participating in all facets of farming, including...

Dubbeldam's Shift House stands out through a unique push and pull of interior volumes

2024-06-27T11:29:00-04:00

In Toronto, Dubbeldam Architecture + Design has completed a new residence distinguished by projecting and retracting volumes and the way it offers occupants a meaningful relationship with the outdoors.

Called Shift House, the 3,200-square-foot home’s façade is also highlighted by contrasting cladding. Western red cedar fills the voids left by the retracted volumes, providing a striking contrast to the predominantly charcoal gray exterior.

Photo: Shai Gil

The house is spread across two stories, and its layout consists of an interior grid of six staggered volumes that shift in and out to shape the exterior envelope. The resulting interplay of solids and voids across the structure’s façade allows opportunities for greater light transmission, additional views, and access to outdoor space.

Photo: Shai Gil

Permeability and openness were the primary design themes for the house. The transparency of the front of the home, in addition to its glazed rear elevation, blurs the bou...

Moriyama Teshima Architects opposes 'shock' closure of Ontario Science Centre in new letter

2024-06-26T15:26:00-04:00

Moriyama Teshima Architects has provided a statement in rebuke of the sudden closure of its late founder Raymond Moriyama’s beloved Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. The closure was announced Friday by the provincial government, citing the need for repairs in many of its RAAC roof panels in the interest of public safety.

The issue is another salient note in the controversial Ford administration-led plans to remove the structure as part of the proposed redevelopment of Ontario Place and has been called into question by critics Alex Bozikovic and Elsa Lam. Each responded with the position that the government's reading of the engineers' report is wrong and meant to favor prospects for a new development.

"The Rimkus engineering report makes it clear that closing the OSC is not a necessity," the letter states decidedly. "Repairs are needed, but on a manageable scale and with potentially minimal impact on the public experience of the building."

Legal challenge to block Toronto's controversial Ontario Place redevelopment fails in court

2024-06-24T17:06:00-04:00

The Art Newspaper is reporting on the failure of a legal challenge that would have blocked Toronto’s controversial plans to realize a massive spa complex on the site of Ontario Place after the provincial Superior Court of Justice’s June 11th decision.

The project is contentious on both heritage and environmental grounds and has likewise drawn ire from its reported costs north of $650 million CAD ($476 million USD) to taxpayers. Therme, the company behind the plan, had previously signed a 95-year lease with the city government.

The removal of Raymond Moriyama's Ontario Science Centre, which is at the heart of the issue, is also stirring debate after it closed abruptly last week over fears of collapse stemming from the flawed RAAC concrete materials used in its roof. All this is "based on a faulty business case" says a closer analysis from Elsa Lam.

Gordie Howe International Bridge nearing finish line with bridge deck nearing completion

2024-06-07T18:12:00-04:00

Following news from earlier this year that the completion date for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which spans the Detroit River and connects Detroit, Michigan, in the United States with Windsor, Ontario, in Canada, had been pushed back, it has recently been announced that the delayed $4.8 billion project is approaching the finish line.

Previously on Archinect: Gordie Howe International Bridge construction: Opening delayed to September 2025

According to the project team, they have begun the final steps to connect the bridge deck over the Detroit River, with 85 feet remaining. The bridge deck connection is expected to be completed at the end of June.

One more segment measuring 49 feet on the U.S. side must be installed before work on the final segment, known as the mid-span closure, starts. When connected, the bridge deck will measure over half a mile making it the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge in North America and the tenth longest in the world. It will also be ...

Montreal's new botanical garden entrance pavilion was designed to disappear into the environment

2024-06-04T15:24:00-04:00

Montreal-based firm Pelletier de Fontenay has designed a new entrance pavilion at the Montreal Botanical Garden. This project comes alongside the revitalization of the Garden’s insectarium and the entrance to the surrounding Parc Maisonneuve.

Image: James Brittain

The pavilion was developed in collaboration with a team of landscape architects from the City of Montreal’s Urban Parks Division and the firm Lemay. The main challenge of the project was to better orient and guide visitors towards the insectarium and botanical garden, while respecting the cultural heritage of the site.

Image: James Brittain

The firm drew inspiration from 18th- and 19th-century English gardens, specifically the romantic image of the overgrown ruin and how it reflects a close relationship between the built and natural world. The pavilion, purposefully limited in scale, will progressively blend into its surroundings, becoming an infrastructure for greenery, insects, birds, and small animals.

Image: James Brit...

BIG marks progress on Habitat 67-inspired KING Toronto development

2024-05-23T18:52:00-04:00

BIG Partner Kai-Uwe Bergmann has posted an update to the firm's new contribution to the Toronto skyline, KING Toronto. The scheme is being developed at over 600,000 square feet alongside Diamond Schmitt Architects for clients Westbank Corp and Allied Properties. The project, which began construction in mid-2020, is inspired by Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 design and will culminate at 16 stories while adding an “experimental” touch to the nightlife-rich King Street West corridor.

This is the firm’s third project for Westbank, following the new Vancouver House and Telus Sky development in Calgary.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kai-Uwe Bergmann (@kaiuwebergmann)

In rural Ontario, a timber cabin by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design creates a ‘quiet haven in the trees’

2024-05-03T15:03:00-04:00

Toronto-based Dubbeldam Architecture + Design has offered an insight into their completed cabin in rural Ontario, Canada. Named Bunkie on the Hill and described as a “quiet haven in the trees for family members to retreat and re-connect with nature,” the cabin sits at the top of a steep slope overlooking a collection of family cottages below.

Image credit: Riley Snelling

The 1,000-square-foot cabin by the Dubbeldam team, who was recently honored at the 2024 RAIC Annual Awards as the Architectural Practice winner, sees a contemporary interpretation of the traditional A-frame shape. Inspired by overlapping layers of shale rock in the surrounding landscape, the split roof features two intersecting gables that allow for window openings where the roof volumes split.

Image credit: Riley Snelling

“These geometric windows allow for curated views of the treetops on one side and lake below on the other and invite natural light to flood the...

Rafael Viñoly Architects reveals first Canadian project in Toronto

2024-05-03T11:59:00-04:00

Rafael Viñoly Architects' debut work in Canada has been announced as a two-million-square-foot mixed-use development in Midtown Toronto. The four-tower, 2,364-unit scheme previewed by the firm last week was designed by its late founder before his passing and will stand as his sole Canadian project at the culmination of an undetermined construction phase that begins next year.

Rendering courtesy Binyan and Madison Group

Two 58-story structures will connect with another pair equaling 61 stories via a six-story skybridge between 90-110 and 150-164 Eglinton Avenue in the popular commercial neighborhood. A public plaza area will engage the site further with its civic context with a new amphitheater, retail spaces, and a children’s play area.

Rendering courtesy Binyan and Madison Group

MPFP Landscape Architecture will complete the landscape design for the program. Turner Fleischer Architects is listed as a collaborator. Overall, this is the third new project announced by the firm since Viñ...

Winning designer of Canada’s Afghan War memorial sues government for bid slight

2024-05-01T19:06:00-04:00

The winning bid for a $3.5 million contract to design a new memorial to Canadian military veterans of the war in Afghanistan from a Montreal-based studio that was replaced by the government has prompted a lawsuit by its architect. Renée Daoust is suing the federal government after it replaced hers with a proposal from the Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson citing an apparently “un-scientific” online survey, according to the CBC’s reporting last month.

"We're very concerned because it does create a precedent, a very dangerous precedent for Canada in terms of competitions, public art competitions, architectural competitions and so on," Daoust told the broadcaster. "There was political interference, so we don't want this to happen again."

Stimson is reportedly working to finalize his design without a clear resolution in sight. The American National Global War on Terror memorial in Washington, D.C. from Marlon Blackwell Architects is also being planned for the National Mall.

...

Henning Larsen plans new mixed-use civic center for Toronto

2024-04-18T13:33:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has debuted its plans for the Etobicoke Civic Centre (ECC) in Toronto, a mixed-use design within the city’s redeveloped Etobicoke Civic Centre Precinct that contains government offices and council chambers, child care center, library, public health clinic, recreation centre, and retail spaces aside a new 47,000-square-foot public square.

This project includes approximately 264,000 square feet of below-ground space and another 210,000 square feet of offices defined by a series of nine exponentially taller green-roofed buildings supported by a 300,000-square-foot podium.

Image rendering courtesy of Adamson Associates Architects, Henning Larsen and PMA Landscape Architects

The podium contains the majority of its public functions (an art gallery, healthcare component, the library, a fitness center, and multi-faith ceremony rooms). Adamson Associates and PMA Landscape Architects are also included in the design team. Construction for the project commenced this month with a c...

A perfect cube chalet occupies a rural Canadian forest

2024-04-07T08:00:00-04:00

Montreal-based practice Maurice Martel architecte has completed a rural rustic home in Mandeville, Canada.

Set within a forest and bordered by a river, the Rustic Grade chalet is described as “the ideal mini-home to escape the hustle and bustle of daily life in the outside world.”

Image credit: Adrien Williams

The architecture of the chalet strikes a minimalist tone, taking a simplistic cube form.

The home is clad in a “meticulous choice of durable and maintenance-free materials,” with the form and lines of the cube contrasting with the organic nature of the forest.

Image credit: Adrien Williams

The number of openings is limited to improve energy efficiency, with the orientation of each window carefully chosen to maximize natural light while taking advantage of river views.

Image credit: Adrien Williams

The footprint of the home itself was also deliberately restricted, “embodying the quintessence of an economical dwelling wit...

Diamond Schmitt presents New Brunswick Museum design

2024-03-31T08:00:00-04:00

Canadian practice Diamond Schmitt Architects, along with Associate Architect EXP, has unveiled the design of the new home of the New Brunswick Museum (NBM) in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Canada’s oldest continuing museum, the NBM’s footprint is set to expand, with its research work and exhibitions united within one sustainable, decarbonized facility.

Rendering by PLAY-TIME Courtesy of Diamond Schmitt.

The design integrates the east wing of the museum’s historic Collections and Research Center and adds five new wings to the north. The new facility will span 134,000 square feet. A new main entrance on street level will lead visitors into a multi-story, public great room. In addition to its use for the museum, this space will host community gatherings, festivals, events, and receptions. It will feature a boutique, café, ticketing services, and a public “Introduction to New Brunswick” gallery. Exhibition galleries on the second floor will overlook the great room.

Rendering by PLAY-TIME...

Montrealers ask: What to do with the Olympic Stadium?

2024-03-28T13:45:00-04:00

But nostalgia rarely makes for good decision making. Keep the tower and repurpose it as a tourist destination. With the money saved, we can erect a better stadium serving the city’s current and future needs. Not all landmarks are sacred. When fire consumed the Notre-Dame cathedral, they raced to replace the roof; Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is not Notre-Dame.

Quebecers face a vexing choice: Keep the stadium or pursue an even costlier demolition that would erase the landmark, which late architect Roger Taillibert called a “poem in concrete,” owing to its location over two underground metro stations. The new, $870 million replacement roof that is being made transparent to let in natural light for the first time won't be completed by 2028. (The original Kevlar roof partially collapsed in 1999 and has suffered several smaller tears since being constructed in the late-1980s.)

Montreal has been floated as a potential location for a new MLB expansion franchise for the past few years. Our preview of the new BIG and HNTB-designed home of the relocating Oakland A's franchise in Las Vegas (another city that was on the league's expansion list) can be found here.

Nidus3D completes North America's first 3D printed three-story building

2024-03-13T18:19:00-04:00

A new home design that stands as North America’s first three-story 3D printed structure has been completed in Canada using a special printer from the Danish construction technology firm COBOD.

The Toronto area proof-of-concept project from Nidus3D delivered what is reported as one of Canada’s first residentially permitted 3D printed structures. The 4,500-square-foot townhouse also includes the world's first 3D printed basement. It has a total of four residential units forming semi-attached homes made from locally sourced concrete and finished by a steel-frame roof and brick facade to match the local vernacular.

"Completing the world’s first 3D printed basement is another impressive achievement that only amplifies the technology’s potential to transform construction, and we notice with pride that multiple of our customers are pioneering what can be achieved with the 3D printing technology," COBOD's co-founder, Philip Lund-Nielsen, said in a news announcement.

Aerial view of the compl...

Researchers look at the possibilities of wood fly ash by-products as an alternative in rammed earth construction

2024-03-02T08:00:00-05:00

New findings published in the journal Construction and Building Materials from a team of materials researchers working at the University of British Columbia Okanagan's School of Engineering have demonstrated the sustainable qualities of using wood fly ash by-products as alternatives to traditional concrete additives.

The study was undertaken in light of some recent popularity of rammed earth construction in the architectural field, an ancient form of building whose mastery has propelled the 2022 Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré and several others to prominence parallel with the industry's fight against climate change.

"Everything old is new again and that is precisely why we've been investigating rammed earth construction," Dr. Sumi Siddiqua explained to the UBCO news outlet. "There is an increasing demand for sustainable building products here in Canada and around the world, and materials like fly ash are just the start of a new and important trend."

Siddiqua’s team was...

In an Ontario plaza, interactive pavements play music ‘as if by magic’

2024-02-28T13:28:00-05:00

Montreal-based studio Daily tous les jours has completed a public space design in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Titled 'River Lines,' the project saw the creation of an interactive stage in an urban plaza for big impromptu musical ensembles.

Video credit: doublespace photography

Part of the studio’s wider Musical Pavement series, the interactive wave-patterned pavement is embedded with 62 sensing light rings that “get people moving through musical collaboration exercises.” The infrastructure is formed of twelve in-house tailored audio tiles that have no visible hardware and blend with the wider pavement pattern, meaning “music emanates from the ground as if by magic.”

Image credit: doublespace photography

Located on the site of a 19th-century foundry, the artwork is “a response to the historical nature of the site” and “an exemplar of how investment in the public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places and encourage collective interacti...

Coastal Nova Scotia home ‘emerges from rocky terrain,’ designed by Omar Gandhi Architects

2024-02-23T12:26:00-05:00

Omar Gandhi Architects has completed a house on Canada’s Atlantic coastline that “emerges from rocky terrain.” Named Rockbound, and located in Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia, the home was commissioned as a place of refuge for a busy client.

Image credit: Ema Peter Photography

Situated atop a rocky shoreline, the building was shaped to capture views of the ocean while sheltering the interior from winds and storms. A steel and wood frame was shaped to resist hurricane-force winds, while a material palette with naturally weathering characteristics is intended to “age gracefully” and “tell the story of its place in the landscape.”

Image credit: Ema Peter Photography

“The structure emerges from the rocky terrain, mirroring the coastline's contours, and its primary living spaces run parallel to the water, offering breathtaking panoramic views along the coast and across the bay to the iconic Peggy's Cove Lighthouse,” th...

‘Intimacy, minimalism, and immersion’ define Atelier L’Abri’s rural Canadian camping shelters

2024-02-19T14:24:00-05:00

Montreal-based Atelier L’Abri has completed an experimental camping concept project in the Canadian wilderness. Named Territoire Charlevoix, and located in a forest between La Malbaie and Baie-Saint-Paul, the scheme is described as “a series of structures that are simple, yet varied; familiar, yet unusual.”

Image credit: Raphaël Thibodeau

The various modules comprising the project include camping shelters, viewing platforms with communal kitchens, and a visitor center. The five shelters function as small, autonomous buildings offering “an intimate encounter with nature in complete comfort, both in summer and in winter.” Sitting on slender legs, the cabins were designed to fuse rusticity and modernity, with a single-slope roof to suit the natural topography of the site.

Image credit: Raphaël Thibodeau

“This bold form is reminiscent of the shape of large dormers, or old cameras,” the designers say about the shelters. “Like th...