New Facility on Canada

By the 1990s, the Abbot of the Oka monastery at that time, Yvon-Joseph Moreau, was faced with a difficult situation. He would either encourage the monks to support a major renovation of their original monastery, or begin the process of designing a completely new facility that would more appropriately reflect their needs. Abbot Moreau had to consider not just whether a new building made sense financially, but whether it made sense according to the spiritual vision of his order. In 2003, a decision was made: a new location

would become the proper spiritual home of the community.

Fortunately, the monks had the financial resources to enable them to consider a new facility that would not only serve their daily needs but stand as a highly engaging and elegant example of contemporary architecture. An hour’s drive northeast of Montreal, a new parcel of land was purchased in a quiet valley off Highway 131 near St-Jean-de-Matha. Through the assistance of Philippe Drolet’s firm PHD Architecture in Montreal, a preliminary design brief and competition was launched and eventually won by Pierre Thibault. There were many merits to Thibault’s design, but the most significant was the masterful attention paid to the monastery’s environment and his understanding of the special relationship between a monastery’s institutional programmatic requirements and the need for a contemplative space where religious men will spend their entire lives. Three key details were resolved in Thibault’s design and siting for the monastery: local materials, simplicity, and above all, the presence of light. It is a fact that the presence of light in Cistercian life has been significantly explored in Cistercian architectural history.

Saint Bernard, the most significant theologian in this field of study, discouraged superfluous decoration in interiors, but he did encourage the presence of light. And although Bernard considered colour a distraction, light inspired the soul to deeper spiritual contemplations. Consequently, one of the most important elements in the new facility is the way in which light helps sculpt and define the new architecture. Since the monks spend much of the day in worship (seven extended prayer times spread out from early morning until early evening), it was especially important to have a well-lit chapel in the new building. Each monk’s cell also has a large window overlooking the surrounding landscape and a floor-to-ceiling glazed passageway encircling the inner courtyard, which gives the monks a sensation of being outside yearround. For those monks who had lived for a considerable time at the former monastery (more than 50 years for some), the new monastery has had a positive effect on their daily routines and
on their spiritual experience.

The new Abbot, André Barbeau, is clear in his intentions for the community: it will not be a priority to recruit more monks and return to bygone days. Rather, Barbeau believes that it is important to promote a rich consecrated life in a setting that is more suitable to the current number of monks at the new facility, thereby ensuring that their new building will remain vital and intimate. Thibault’s monastery is extraordinary, garnering considerable media attention. The attention to detail and the gravity with which every decision was made allows this project an intimate link between function and beauty. In a culture that increasingly assumes that religious communities like the Cistercian monks are relics from the past, this new monastery is proof that a religious community can lead into the future, in this instance by successfully commissioning vibrant and contemporary architecture that supports their religious and cultural traditions. Ca Jason Zuidema is a Lecturer in Christian Spirituality at Concordia University in Montreal.

cLient commuNauté De l’abbaye Val Notre-Dame
architect teaM Pierre thibault, JeaN-fraNçoiS mercier, aNDré
limogeS, VaDim Siegel, JoSePh-marie tremblay
structuraL Nicolet, chartraND, kNoll
MechanicaL/eLectricaL DuPraS leDoux
Landscape atelier Pierre thibault
interiors atelier Pierre thibault
contractor berNarD malo iNc.
area 5,800 m2
budget WithhelD
coMpLetion october 2009

Earth Februari Furniture 2010

1. Plantpusher
Fragile ferns get carved from steel for this brawny “organic bench.” The piece is also totally customizable: choose any powder-coated color or cut-out design to help polish your patio.

2. Bonestil
Stackable with a stainless steel frame, guests will love lounging and lavishing in the sun in the Kif chair designed by Ximo Roco. Simple and chic, these rattan chairs straddle a school-house classroom and a Gatsby garden party.

 

3. Gloster
Let guests lounge in luxury in the Eclipse Relaxer with its shade-inducing sail. Woven with all-weather wicker over powder-coated aluminum frames, this sumptuous sofa is perfect for countering excessive sunshine.

4. Peter Boy
Contemporary Dane designer Peter Boy crafted this sure-to-becontemplated coffee table, offering an angular and uber-modern flair to any outdoor space in powder-coated steel with a glass tabletop.

5. Neoteric
Let guests unwind in this onion-inspired chair, crafted from synthetic rattan that is as stylish as it is savvy. This plush perch has no PVCs, produces no off-gassing and is 100 percent recyclable for a touch of eco-fun under the sun

6. Tuuci
This sleek swinging hammock is fantastic for sun-swept beaches and poolside naps. The Air Lounge comes in four soothing colors and two sizes ─ single and twin ─ for canoodling couples or cuddling pint-size swimmers.

7. Royal Botania 

Whether guests are sipping hot chocolate in a silent snowfall or reading a book beside a lake, this classicly-shaped piece will let guests wile away the hours in style. Hailing from the New England collection, the chair can be painted white, green/grey or red.

Fashion-Forward North America Fairs

February is not a month many of us in North America look forward to: the weather is bad, Valentine’s Day…we could goon. But there is a bright spot to the month and that is in the design events which have recently grown in popularity and visibility. BD visited the annual New York International Gift Fair where all sorts of treasures can be found from stationary to lighting and accessories. While the show draws a big retail crowd, there are always hospitality furnishing seekers

 in Las Vegas and New York City

browsing the aisles as well. Over in Las Vegas, at the same time no less — what multi-taskers we are — BD attended the first edition of InspireDesign, a hospitality trade fair in conjunction with the Las Vegas Market Center Week, which took place on one floor of the massive World Market Center complex there. Below, see some of our favorite goodies from both events.

Italy Stimulates the Modern Senses

For the i-SUITE hotel in Rimini, Italy, designers were charged with the responsibility to plan a property with rooms of all different shapes to resemble “the irregular spaces of a luxurious mansion while being at the same time domestic as a cozy house,” as Marco Ermeti, one of the hotel’s owners, said. An addition to his company, Ambienthotels, the i-SUITE was meant to bring to the coastal town a hotel similar to the contemporary boutiques one might find in Miami. For this, Ermeti and his brother hired Simone Micheli Architectural Hero  an Italian design firm that promises to live up to its name. “I feel like a metropolitan wrestler,” said Micheli in reference to the lofty title of his design company, “which doesn’t ever stop dreaming…fighting to prevent the idea’s conformation and the possible change of projects in relation to the stereotypes and to probates which characterize our present.” Such verbiage is what defines Micheli, a man whose architecture and design expertise lies in experiment, emotion and redefinition. At the 30th Colombian Architecture Convention in 2007, Micheli asserted that “the new luxury does not mean immobility or habit, but rather freedom and movement. As for architecture, the new luxury is related to the idea of regaining the beauties and the truth of our daily life together with our inner feelings.” He treats each project as an exploration of senses and experiment on human interaction and the 54-all-suite hotel, i-SUITE (which   opened the end of November, 2009) was no exception.

“The i-SUITE is a hotel ‘other,’ created to revolutionize the standard, eliminating bias in the hotel sector,” he said. One of the main barriers the i-SUITE aims to break down is the separation between hotel guest and employee and create a reception area where guests are greeted with a smile and handshake as opposed to a sign-in desk. The hotel also takes a risk by dedicating the most important part of the building — the entire sixth-floor panoramic area — to the wellness center, where Micheli says the view and light allow a “perfect relax.” The contemporary layout, fixtures and fittings at i-SUITE, whose architecture was conceived by Giovanni Quadrelli, are not meant to exist for the sake of boundary-pushing, as it might at first appear, but rather to encourage guests to live their stay at the hotel in a dreamlike state of relaxation. In addition to conceiving the interior layout, Micheli also designed the i-SUITE furniture collection for the hall, suites, restaurant, spa and swimming pool. “The goal that drives every single planning thought is linked with the will to qualify human life, to favor his emotions, to let every receptor of my three-dimensional message break the known barrier in order to come closer to a visual and contenutistic future,” said Micheli. “What links all my works and connects me with the purchaser I choose or who chooses me is a sort of sensorial type. All my realizations wrap and involve the man taking him in a dream dimension of wonder and amazement.”

In order to actualize some of these quite cerebral ideas, Micheli created an interior that focuses on materials, colors and space. Micheli describes Rimini with the words “vitality, cordiality, heat, spontaneity, love, amazement and energy.” His goal was to highlight those characteristics inside the hotel by using colors like green which he calls “life’s expression,” silver, which he likens to dynamism, and white, which Micheli says symbolizes innocence and elegance. Micheli is currently working on the design for a hotel in Milan as part of the Boscolo Hotel’s chain, two hotels in Tuscany and southern Italy as well as a project for a touristic village near Venice. All the upcoming projects will have one aim, says Micheli: “To create works able to originate widespread economic comebacks to buyers, telling three-dimensional stories about excellence, uniqueness and the extraordinary.”

The CBC Canada Architecture

Canadian Architecture

client CBC Real estate diVision
architect teaM joost BakkeR, alan BonifaCe, kate geRson, deRyk Whitehead, BRuCe haden, eRiC stedman, tina huBeRt, teResa loWe, mona tsui, Roland kÜpfeR, ouRi sCott, ali stiles
Structural glotman simpson Consulting engineeRs
Mechanical/electrical aeCom, floW Consulting
ciVil aeCom
landScape pWl paRtneRship landsCape aRChiteCts inC.
interiorS ssdg inteRioR design, hotson BakkeR BonifaCe haden aRChiteCts
contractor sCott ConstRuCtion, oxfoRd ConstRuCtion
deVelopMent conSultant mkt aRkle deVelopment management inC.
Building enVelope Read jones ChRistoffeRson ltd., Wells klein Consulting gRoup
code B.R. thoRson Consulting, lmdg Building Consultants ltd.
coSting Bty gRoup
SurVeYing undeRhill & undeRhill geomatiCs ltd.
proJect ManageMent mkt aRkle deVelopment management inC., snC laValin pRofaC
graphicS kent allan design gRoup
authoritieS City of VanCouVeR
SpeciFicationS moRRis speCifiCations inC.
traFFic WaRd Consulting gRoup
acouStic Bkl Consultants ltd.
SecuritY R.a. duff & assoCiates
lighting joseph sCott
area 31,000 m2 (9,000 m2 neW ConstRuCtion; 5,700 m2 Reno-Vation)
Budget $48 m
coMpletion noVemBeR 2009