Centre de Glaces, Québec City Sports Venue, Canadian Ice Rink, Architecture, Images
Centre de Glaces in Québec City
Apr 14, 2022
Architects: Lemay and Atelier 21
Location: Québec City, Canada

Photos: Stephane Groleau
Centre de Glaces, Canada
Inspired by the Olympic speed skating champions Québec has fostered like Gaétan Boucher and Robert Dubreuil, the new Centre de Glaces is primed to inspire movement in Canadians, aspiring and established athletes alike. With a 400-metre oval speed skating track and two Olympic-sized ice rinks, one for short-track speed skating and the other for ice sports like figure skating and hockey, this bold ice sports complex of elegant and restrained designs from Lemay is the largest of its kind in North America and the first on the eastern seaboard.
The oval structure is composed of fluid and continuous forms that reflect the speed, dynamism, balance, and skill of a skater gliding on the center?s 13,500 sqm of ice. As a compliment to a well-loved outdoor community skating rink, the Centre de glaces features the adaptive gesture of a floating ring which lifts the entire volume of its perimeter envelope high enough to create a 360-degree band of windows at eye-level. In doing so, the interior and rolling landscape that encircles the building become interconnected, only separated by a wall of glass that merges being seen with seeing.

“By focusing on absolute transparency, we have decompartmentalized the space to open it up to the c...