Pavilion Location

The pavilion site is accessed from Springbank at 681 Blair Road. You can check it out on google maps (however, the location is a bit farther east along Blair Road than shown). Look for a sign for "Springbank", a stone house and a gravel parking lot to the south of the Blair Road. Park, and walk up the cart track at the left edge of the lot, which winds behind the stone house, and up past the community gardens to the pavilion site.

Here is a location map that will help you find your way to the pavilion site. (It is the wee rectangle marked "proposed education pavilion".)

Wednesday, May 18: first volunteer meeting

We held our first volunteer meeting at Springbank on Wednesday, May 18th. After some discussion and introductions indoors, we went out to survey the building site. Here is the crew clustered inside the building footprint.



The image above is a view across the building site, with the building footprint superimposed on the ground...



... and here are a couple of pans, showing the views one will see from the two open ends of the building: one view is enclosed by hedgerows, the other opens up over valley.



The fields and hedgerows around the Springbank property were alive with wildlife (and more interesting creatures than the ubiquitous urban squirrels and sparrows). There were a couple of bright orange orioles in the hedgerows, and lots of toads, including this one, who was trying to hide from the camera in the deeply-plowed furrows of the field alongside the community garden.

A little more history: Design Seminar 2

Further conversations between the seminar groups and the staff and board at rare brought some changes to the design imperatives; these are reflected in the work of the second master's seminar group.The pavilion was lifted off the ground and storage was incorporated; an impermeable roof was added. Alongside these changes came a formal evolution. The slatted structure and notion of a changing section remained, but the structure was broken into two interweaving elements: a rectilinear frame, and an articulated frame inserted into it like clasped fingers. (Apart from a few small changes, the finished pavilion will look a lot like these perspectives.)

This seminar class also considered details and engineering, and produced preliminary working drawings and a project budget.You can best understand the pavilion from its cross-section (above). A plan and some details follow.



A list of seminar participants can be found in the "Pavilion Team" description in the right sidebar. All seminar images copyright University of Waterloo School of Architecture 2009.

A little history: Design Seminar 1

The idea of a pavilion at rare was first conjured up some years ago. As with many projects of this nature, the project's place and form, and the means that would bring it into being, followed gradually.
The pavilion was substantially designed by two master's seminar classes held at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, led by Andrew Hunter and Farid Noufaily.

I recently chatted about the early pavilion days with Liam, a participant in the first architecture seminar. As I understand, the seminar was exciting, explorative, and an intense effort. The work produced stands as testament; only a fraction is presented here.

The drawings investigate a deep relationship between the building and the landscape: where structure, flora, fauna, seasons, light and wind are embedded and intertwined.

Below is one sample of the many "cyclical plant evolution" studies that were produced to consider the seasonal textures and habitats of the surrounding landscape.

It was also during this seminar that the pavilion's siting was established: on a high point of land that affords an impressive and didactic view over the diverse land uses that sprawl below. This wasn’t the site anticipated originally, but at closer range, the site will also be an excellent place to view wildlife in the restored fields and hedgerows nearby. Care was taken to consult various people and groups – the staff team of rare, the organizations Environmental Advisory Committee, archaeologists, educators, and so on, provided input into the consideration and study which ensured that no habitats, rare plants, or cultural history would be disturbed by the construction process. It also affords incredible additions to the programs run at Springbank. Teachers loved the walking journey students would take up to the pavilion!

A list of seminar participants can be found in the "Pavilion Team" description in the right sidebar. All seminar images copyright University of Waterloo School of Architecture 2009.