Client: National Mountain centre创能科技
Team: Gilles Saucier (design architect), André Perrotte (architect-in-charge), Marc Boutin, Guillaume Sasseville, Trevor Davies, David Moreaux, Lawrence Siu, Jean-Philippe Beauchamp, Adam Scales, Patrice Begin
Completion: 2009
Area: 55 000 square feet
Location: Canmore, Alberta, Canada
Cost: 35 000 000 $ can
In 2002, a group of committed mountain enthusiasts based in the Canadian Rockies came together with a vision to create a national centre devoted to celebrating, understanding and better experiencing the mountains.
In 2006, the founding board of the NMC commissioned Saucier + Perrotte Architects and Marc Boutin Architects to develop an initial architectural concept for the proposed centre.
Located in Canmore, Alberta, north of the Trans Canada highway at the gateway to Banff National Park, the NMC will promote responsible and sustainable tourism, serving a crucial role in interpreting the nature, history, culture, science and sport of Canada’s mountains.
Inspired by geological strata, the centre will consist of juxtaposed layers; different activities will take place within, on and under the delaminated layers. Visitors will have a spatial experience analogous to that of a mountain hike with a continuous promenade with mountain views and exhibited artifacts. The mountains themselves will become a permanent exhibit with distinct views framed by the spaces between the centre’s strata.