Borden, ON
The overall goal of the Department of National Defence (DND) was to consolidate facilities in order to create a training environment that would allow students to walk no more than 500m to all facilities.
As a result, the four current ageing 1950’s dining facilities would be demolished, as part of a separate contract, and replaced with two new identical facilities (Curtiss and Vickers) strategically located on the campus. The design strategy for this new prototype kitchen and dining facility focused on providing a pleasant, efficient and enduring building with plenty of natural light and optimized interior traffic flows.
The exterior forms were kept deliberately orthogonal, streamline and understated in order to produce an elegant, timeless building which fits in with the existing built environment at the base. As you enter the facility the esthetic changes and you are reminded of the history of the pine forests that were once dominant in the landscape of the site in the form of the dramatic glue laminated curved structure of the columns and beams.
The interior design focuses on achieving a pleasant, easily maintained space optimized for clear and instinctive wayfinding – achieved through use of forms, materials and colours inspired by the military ribbon graphic. In a joint venture with atelier FABRIQ inc.
Client
Defence Construction Canada
Size
55,540 s.f.
Program
Dining Hall (seats 750 clients)
Servery
Kitchen
Offices
Meeting Rooms
Sustainable Features
LEED Silver
Awards
Design Excellence Award Finalist, Ontario Association of Architects
Articles
Monocle Radio. (2016, May 11). The Monocle Daily [Audio podcast]. Link
"ZAS architects' canadian military dining hall features tree-like columns." designboom. May 1, 2016. Link
"OAA Awards 2016 Design Excellence Finalists blOAAg series." OAA. March 4, 2016. Link