Pointe-Claire student and McGill teammates win design competition
A team of architecture students from McGill University, including a West Islander, have won a Canada-wide competition to design and build a pavilion for a new community garden to be constructed at an organic demonstration farm in Ottawa.
The winning design, by teammates Jose Luis Alvarez, Wai Kan Chan and Di Wang, beat out more than 50 entries from 20 schools across the country. The new community garden, on the Just Food Farm site in Blackburn Hamlet, is one of the many community legacy projects commemorating Canada 150 in the Capital Region.
The project is funded by Ottawa 2017, Ontario 150 and the Aga Khan Foundation.
Alvarez moved to Pointe-Claire from the small city of Aguascalientes, Mexico, when he started CEGEP, and now lives in Beaconsfield. Chan is from Hong Kong originally, while Wang came to Canada from Changsha in south China six years ago, studying at the University of Waterloo before moving to Montreal to attend McGill. The three met at McGill.
Wang said he and his team wanted to create a design that embodied Canadian values of social inclusiveness and environmental consciousness.
The triangular building will be created with reclaimed wooden beams of various heights, intended to evoke a pattern of light and shadow similar to that of the surrounding fields of rye.
“The way the wood comes together is a metaphor for the way the pavilion aims brings people together,” Wang said. “It’s a place for people to gather together and chat.”
Alvarez said the team aimed to create a space that was both functional and beautiful.
The flexible design makes the most out of the small space, with two platforms that can be raised to create bench seating, a large table, or a two-tiered display stand where vegetables could be sold, or lowered flush with the floor to create a stage for performances. An adjacent, covered, gallery corridor can be used to display informative panels or art, and also functions as a sheltered passageway to the back of the stage.
“The pavilion can adapt to a number of events and attract different types of people, not just farmers but also people passing by,” Alvarez said.
The new pavilion will be inaugurated with a ceremony in September, which Alvarez, Chan and Wang hope to attend.
“We really look forward to it,” Wang said.
All three students are in their last year of their master’s program at McGill, and are on target to finish their degrees in December.