Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College
Located on a campus designed along Lac St-Louis in the first decade
of the twentieth century, John Abbott College is home to more than 5000
post-secondary students, faculty and staff members. Its new Science
Building, designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, is a
state-of-the-art facility intended to foster the interdisciplinary
nature of science, collaborative study and experiments, and the need for
formal and informal learning. Designed as a showcase for
sustainability, the singular, iconic form promotes a variety of
pedagogical approaches through flexible classrooms, laboratories,
learning centres, and informal spaces where ideas can be exchanged and
creative interaction can unfold.
The new building houses the College's sciences - Physics, Biology,
Chemistry, Nursing, Prehospital Emergency Care, (Paramedic), and
Biopharmaceutical departments - positioning the sciences and health
technologies at the heart of the John Abbott campus. Sited carefully to
preserve the logic of the radial organisation that drove the initial
campus planning, the new architecture becomes a node of activity on the
campus.
The architecture stems from the landscape, taking cues from its context.
On the site is a majestic gingko tree that was envisioned as a
centrepiece for a beautiful, collegial, outdoor gathering space. The
building's form first extends from the campus centre, then folds to
frame a public courtyard around this tree. The landscape flows into the
foyer, becoming an interior topography, which transforms at the fulcrum
of the building into a light-filled, vertical circulation space
connecting the sciences. An architectonic tree, analogous to that of the
adjacent gingko, this atrium space contains the grand staircase and
branches that extend through the building as built-in way-finding
elements and benches. The vertical link thus becomes a public interior
garden, emphasising the connection between the natural environment and
the type of learning that takes place within the building.
from dezeen