L'Anse-à-l'Orme Nature Park Pavilion

L'Anse-à-l'Orme Nature Park borders the Lake of Two Mountains to the northwest of the island of Montreal. Popular with windsurfers and Sunday sailors, this access to the lake is one of the most pleasant for the beautiful windy days of the short summer season.

With the objective of providing various services in this park, which he has been visiting since childhood, Julien Charbonneau studied this ideal site to shape the results of his research on integration in the natural environment. The program includes changing rooms, toilets and showers in semi-basement, a café on a rooftop terrace and an administrative area.

The formal concept is inspired by the existing stone wall along the northern boundary of the Park. This wall is repeated on an intermediate axis at the shoreline forming a set of three fan-shaped lines. On the footprint of the building, the floor rises and is held by this masonry wall studded with glass stones.

Preferring a semi-underground layout to reduce the impact on the landscape, the building features two glass "cubes" that give the impression of being in the forest inside and reflecting the landscape outside. Apart from these two volumes, the three-season building is open to the surrounding landscape, highlighting the orientation of the sun and prevailing winds for natural lighting and ventilation.

Vegetation is not only visible through the large bay windows but it infiltrates between the boards of the terrace, crawls on the walls and roofs and hangs through the wooden pergolas.

Architecture : Julien Charbonneau
Computer graphics: Ruslana Buriakovska