Qualico Family Centre

Winnipeg, Canada

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Qualico Family Centre

Winnipeg, Canada

Firm

Number TEN Architectural Group

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Restaurant
Cultural › Pavilion

YEAR

2011

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

BUDGET

$1M - 5M

The new Qualico Family Centre at Assiniboine Park is located at the edge of an expanded duck pond in such a way that it defines the transition between the water’s edge and the adjacent forest. The building is intended to blend into its surroundings, sitting in visual harmony with its landscape. Environmentally sustainable, local and natural materials together with an organic building form, help to unify the new structure with its site. Fully glazed walls not only allow the interior spaces to be flooded with soft, leaf filtered light, but reflect the vibrant colors of its surroundings, altering the building’s appearance as the conditions change through the day and through the seasons.

Viewed from across the pond, the roof line of the Family Centre mimics the undulating tree line of the forest behind it. The dynamic, angled glass façade playfully peaks out from its wooded surroundings. The organic building form opens like a flower along the sun’s path, maximizing the effectiveness of sustainable, passive solar energy and daylighting strategies. Two arms reach out to the south, embracing the forest. Long glass walls and the narrow proportions of the building’s arms, act together to blur the definition of interior and exterior space. This transparency creates the effect of rooms being carved from the forest itself. The trees dramatically become the exterior walls defining the perimeter of the interior space.

A third arm reaches out to create a covered plaza, providing an area of refuge during inclement weather and framing the pathway into the forest beyond.

The less commercial spaces of the building, including the lounge, activity room and classroom, focus towards the forest. The restaurant and Winnie the Pooh exhibit, overlook a new public plaza and the pond. The visibility of these spaces will improve their commercial viability and their active nature will increase public safety and provide a vibrancy and animation in the plaza.

Assiniboine Park is a place where the natural world is enjoyed and celebrated by all Winnipeggers. The design for the Family Centre articulates this ideal by integrating itself into its surroundings through building form and orientation, material choices, and a faithful commitment to environmentally responsible and sustainable design principles.