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A white spectacles showroom contrasts with black examination areas at this opticians near Montreal by Canadian studio La SHED Architecture (+ slideshow).

To create a distinction between the commercial and medical areas of L’Aire Visuelle eye clinic, La SHED Architecture installed a white element that runs through the 284-square-metre space in Laval, northwest of Montreal.

In the shop, wooden slats are randomly interspersed with strip lighting above glass display counters and linear tiles are laid in the same direction on the ground.

“The commercial space was designed as an atelier-boutique, characterised by low display tables in the open area, avoiding any visual obstruction,” said the architects.

These ceiling and floor materials continue beyond a wooden reception desk into the treatment and storage spaces behind.

In contrast, circulation spaces situated either side of the feature element have black carpets and surfaces.

These lead to dark examination rooms on one side and the staff room on the other. The waiting area is also situated on the black carpet, next to the entrance and beside the display units.

Retail consultation spaces sit inside a wooden cube, which also displays frames in the side facing the store.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

L’Aire Visuelle

Working from high contrast and simple natural materials, the firm la SHED architecture have designed a unique optometrist and optician clinic redefining the customer’s experience. The commercial space was designed as an atelier-boutique, characterised by low display tables in the open area, avoiding any visual obstruction. Looking for frames becomes the opportunity of a friendly exchange, underneath the bright ceiling, composed of wooden slats installed randomly.

With the goal of giving their enterprise a breath of fresh air, the associates of L’Aire Visuelle sought to create a new corporate image based on the state-of-the-art products and techniques that they offer, as well as the quality and expertise of the services they provide. The first objective was to redefine customer experience in the clinic. Their previous office became too narrow over time as a result of company expansion; the client therefore required an organized, spacious and open space where emphasis was placed on the sales area and their selection of eyeglass frames.

Creating a hierarchy of movements between patients and employees was an essential part of optimising displacements and creating a functional environment. The project mandate consisted of planning and developing an optometry clinic and its eyeglass store at the ground level of an existing two floor commercial building. With windows on three facades, the 3060-square-foot office accessible from a common hall had an irregular shape – a portion of which had a misaligned angle in relation to the main structural frame.

A space with double the height opening onto the second floor dental clinic offered an abundant amount of natural light. The client’s budget was limited to a maximum of $450,000 for the entirety of project work involved including mechanical work, furniture and professional fees.

The space was designed in such a way to position the sales area at the front of the building, in the section that contained the most windows and was closest to the entrance. People walking into the clinic could therefore instantly see all available products. Visible from the reception, the waiting area was placed beneath the office’s area of double height and is apart from the consultation rooms while being open to the sales area.

The two main axis of circulation are on either side of the reception area – one being meant for clients heading for consultation and examination rooms, and the other for clinic personnel heading to the employee common room, apart from the client zone. The design hierarchy was therefore established, with busier areas at the front near the entrance, and areas requiring quiet and privacy located at the rear of the office.

The concept, geared towards the creation of a workshop-boutique, opted for presentation tables in order to keep the display area clear of all obstacles limiting vision or obstructing lighting. As a result, the eyeglass frame shopping area turns into a far more friendly area, where artificial light is articulated within a randomly organised ceiling of lath wood. The ceiling, by its dynamic and rhythmic design, creates an illusion of movement within the adjacent space.

In the spirit of architectural continuity, a wall of vertical lattice creates a space for attaching eyeglass frame presentation modules while enveloping the sales area. The long and narrow ceramic tile flooring is a harmonious continuation of the lath wood ceiling, therefore completing the envelopment of the sales area.

The immaculate white band that is the showroom is a start contrast to the wooden monolithic cube immediately adjacent to it, covering the private consultation areas. Behind the sales floor, a black satin volume containing the exam rooms seems to have slipped under the ceiling lath, creating an attractive backdrop to the reception area. Detached from adjacent surfaces by recessed lighting, this volume, fragmented by full height openings, seems to float gingerly between the floor and ceiling.

The highly contrasted colours provide the area with a theatrical character featuring the eyeglass showroom with its bright white presentation modules, whereas the mechanical and unaesthetic elements of the open ceiling disappear in black. A sober, neutral and classical colour palette ensures a total coherence between different elements of the clinic.

A black carpet covers the floor in circulation and consultation areas, absorbing sound and light emitted by the sales area. Fluorescent tubes randomly built into the lattice ceiling frame animate the sales area by producing bright and stimulating lighting in stark contrast to the other more private spaces. Black cylindrical tubes hidden throughout the mechanics and structure provide rich and soft lighting in the circulation, waiting and consultation areas as opposed to the abundant lighting of the showroom.

The contrast of porosity, colours and textures within the project elegantly reflect the different character of each space, and contribute to a simple and clear understanding of the planning of the office. Refined finishing details such as doors with hidden frames, and recessed plinths contribute to the clean appearance of the various spaces, underscoring the strong architectural ideas implemented to make L’Aire Visuelle a contemporary and elegant optometry clinic.

The post La SHED Architecture separates eye clinic
into light and dark zones appeared first on Dezeen.

Art and commerce are traditionally thought of as opposing forces. Of course, this is especially true for artists who’s work lands on both advertisements and gallery walls. Finding inspiration from commercial work while maintaining a sense of integrity in the art world is…

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An orange staircase zigzags back and forth across the atrium of this science faculty building that Canadian firm Saucier + Perrotte Architectes has completed for a Quebec college (+ slideshow).

The angular staircase connects all six storeys of the Anne-Marie Edward Science Building, which was designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes at the heart of the John Abbott College campus near Montreal.

The building has a folded form that angles around an existing ginkgo tree. The main entrance is positioned inside the fold, while a diamond-shaped space at the rear accommodates the atrium and staircase.

The architects compare the staircase with the gingko, describing it as an “architectonic tree” that connects the departments of each floor, comprising physics, biology, chemistry, nursing, prehospital emergency care and biopharmaceuticals.

“The landscape flows into the foyer, becoming an interior topography, which transforms at the fulcrum of the building into a light-filled, vertical circulation space connecting the sciences,” they said.

The vibrant orange provides the only colour in an otherwise monochrome interior. Ground-floor seating areas are finished in the same colour, while a weathered steel facade at the northern end of the building echoes similar tones.

“The grand staircase and seating elements comprising the interior ‘tree’ weave these orange hues throughout the building, just as the weathered steel of the north facade and the ruddy masonry courtyard surfaces relate back to the historic campus tiles and brick,” said the architects.

Other facades are glazed with varying transparency, revealing the staircase to the rest of the campus whilst maintaining the privacy of the laboratories.

Here’s a more comprehensive description of the building from Saucier + Perrotte Architectes:

Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College

Located on a campus designed along Lac St-Louis in the first decade of the twentieth century, John Abbott College is home to more than 5000 post-secondary students, faculty and staff members. Its new Science Building, designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, is a state-of-the-art facility intended to foster the interdisciplinary nature of science, collaborative study and experiments, and the need for formal and informal learning. Designed as a showcase for sustainability, the singular, iconic form promotes a variety of pedagogical approaches through flexible classrooms, laboratories, learning centres, and informal spaces where ideas can be exchanged and creative interaction can unfold.

The new building houses the College’s sciences – Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Nursing, Prehospital Emergency Care, (Paramedic), and Biopharmaceutical departments – positioning the sciences and health technologies at the heart of the John Abbott campus. Sited carefully to preserve the logic of the radial organisation that drove the initial campus planning, the new architecture becomes a node of activity on the campus.

The architecture stems from the landscape, taking cues from its context. On the site is a majestic gingko tree that was envisioned as a centrepiece for a beautiful, collegial, outdoor gathering space. The building’s form first extends from the campus centre, then folds to frame a public courtyard around this tree. The landscape flows into the foyer, becoming an interior topography, which transforms at the fulcrum of the building into a light-filled, vertical circulation space connecting the sciences. An architectonic tree, analogous to that of the adjacent gingko, this atrium space contains the grand staircase and branches that extend through the building as built-in way-finding elements and benches. The vertical link thus becomes a public interior garden, emphasising the connection between the natural environment and the type of learning that takes place within the building.

The permeable ground floor of the building permits the landscape and users to flow into and through it with ease. The project thereby functions as a hub and a passage to various parts of campus. The volume above frames views to the lake, landscape, and the town of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Together with the labs and student spaces along the east and west facades, the learning centres situated along the south facade – directed toward the centre of campus – give students a feeling of inhabiting a virtual balcony overlooking the verdure and lake below.

The building is composed of a glass material palette – vividly reflecting the sky, landscape, and adjacent historic buildings – its angled surfaces giving new, unexpected perspectives toward various parts of the campus. Each of the long facades is predominantly composed of a single glass tone of opalescent white, light grey, or dark grey. The result is a subtle, perceptual play between the hues of the juxtaposed facades, especially as the sunlight changes throughout the day or depending where one is standing in relation to the building. The slight shifts in glass tones add to a heightened perception of the architecture; under varying lighting and shadow conditions, for instance, the facade contrasts may be accentuated or, conversely, take on a uniform tonal appearance that would be impossible if the surfaces had been the same hue.

In certain circulation zones, the building skin gradually changes from translucent to transparent, allowing the building to be perceived as continuously changing – even dematerialising – within the campus. Programmatic functions (offices, learning centres and laboratories) are given clear expression as they come into contact with the building skin so that those outside can readily identify the functions showcasing the sciences. The north and south facades of the pristine glazed form appear suddenly sliced or truncated, given over to the elements, and weathered so as to evoke the colours and textures found throughout the college. The grand staircase and seating elements comprising the interior “tree” also weave these orange hues throughout the building, just as the weathered steel of the north facade and the ruddy masonry courtyard surfaces relate back to the historic campus tiles and brick. Through its dialectic with the existing architecture, the new project is both contemporary in form and harmonious with the historic campus.

Main floor levels contain individual departments to preserve continuity between professors, classrooms and laboratories for each science, favouring work, study and quiet contemplation. The central atrium space allows easy access to other levels, fostering connection, communication, and sense of community between disciplines. Movement converges at this central node of the building, which becomes an active zone throughout the day, allowing for spontaneous exchange of ideas. Exhibitions and activities take place in the foyer, permitting students and visitors to derive benefits and inspiration from cross-disciplinary ideas.

The building has been conceived with the welfare of its occupants in mind (it is currently targeting LEED Gold certification). The first priority was to provide an environment that supports active and engaged learners and nourishes enthusiasm for life-long learning. To contribute to the healthiest environment possible, important factors such as indoor air quality and levels of noise are controlled. Natural light and natural ventilation play a vital role in the life of the building, being present throughout. Furthermore, as the building privileges views outward, occupants will remain in contact with the exterior campus landscape. The central atrium space allows natural air circulation as well as the exhausting of air at the roof level. Operable and user controlled office windows also promote a healthful environment. The building takes advantage of geothermal energy – one of its signature features – to provide heating and cooling for the building, thereby reducing energy consumption, and therefore cost, over the long term.

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science faculty by Saucier + Perrotte appeared first on Dezeen.

This house in Montreal by Canadian studio naturehumaine has a facade of dark brickwork, while its rear elevation is clad with steel panels that are divided into separate black and white sections (+ slideshow).

Montreal-based naturehumaine gave the building a brick facade so it would fit in with the typical houses of the surrounding neighbourhood, but created a contrast at the rear by adding steel panels that help to visually separate the two main floors.

The bricks used for the facade are glazed on one side, so the architects positioned some facing forwards and others facing backwards to create a random pattern.

Named Alexandra Residence, the three-storey house was built as the home for family of four, but it also contains a small home office.

“The project was built for and by a contractor who we work with often,” architect David Dworkind told Dezeen. “He wanted a live/work building for his young family of four that he could also run his contracting business out of.”

The family requested a lot of natural light in their home, so naturehumaine inserted a lightwell along the southern side of the house that allows daylight to filter in as it bounces off the wall of the top-floor office.

“In an effort to bring light into the lightwell of the house, we came up with the concept of the ‘white box’ which runs east-west and reflects the southern sun light back into the house,” said Dworkind.

The entrance to the house is positioned parallel to an open-plan kitchen. This space flows through into a dining area and living room beyond, which opens out to a patio overlooking the back garden.

A wooden staircase leads up to the first floor, where a trio of bedrooms are arranged around a central bathroom.

Photography is by Adrien Williams.

Here’s a project description from naturehumaine:

Alexandra Residence

The client’s priority was to maximise the natural light in their new live/work house in Montreal’s Mile-Ex district. This was made challenging by the east-west orientation of the infill lot. However, our design fills even the core of the house with light through the implementation of a 2 storey light-well which runs the length of the southern side of the house.

Additional light is reflected into this light-well by the client’s office space – a white volume that sits atop the northern edge light-well. Spaces on the second storey also benefit from the light well’s luminosity; the walls adjacent to it are fully glazed and a floor to ceiling piece of frosted glass brings a very soft light into the bathroom.

The expressive back facade of the house is defined by the angular geometry of the floating steel box. The front facade, however, is composed primarily of bricks to conform with the heritage character of the neighbourhood.

Two disjointed apertures break up the brick façade and are lined in aluminium. As only one side of the brick was glazed, a random mix of forward and backward facing bricks were laid to create a more dynamic façade.

Type: Live/work house
Intervention: New construction
Location: Alexandra Ave, Montreal, Canada
Area: 3300 sqft
Completion Date: 2013

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a brick front and a monochrome back appeared first on Dezeen.

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