PROJECT Clearview Library?Stayner Branch, Stayner, Ontario
ARCHITECT Lebel & Bouliane Inc.
PHOTOS Tom Arban. unless otherwise noted
The library addition?s standing seam metal roofing and cladding references local barns and nods to the construction of the existing arena. Photo by Tom Arban
Context is typically a catalyst for architecture. But when the context is a standard-issue hockey arena and its adjoining box of a community centre, surrounded by acres of parking lots and playing fields, where?s the generating concept" That was the big question for Lebel & Bouliane at the outset of designing Clearview Public Library?s new branch in Stayner, Ontario, a small but rapidly growing town 100 km northwest of Toronto.
The answer, in a word, was: light. ?We thought about how to create a space that generated the best light for the library?s needs,? says architect Luc Bouliane. With that thought, and some riffing on how the same type of standing-seam metal that clads the arena could be bent and twisted into something livelier than a straight-ahead shed, a modest but captivating library began to take shape. Skylights and clerestories are positioned to optimize natural light in the library?s open-plan reading and meeting areas. Photo by Tom Arban
Positioning the library east of the community centre and angled away from it, on the north/south axis, enabled the design team to work with the site?s full potential for natural light. At the south end, a deep, zigzagging canop...