Page 24 - Designing Ways 242
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INSTITUTIONAL
ARCHITECTURE
of five ecosystems, including Tropical
Rainforest, Laurentian Maple Forest, Gulf
of St. Lawrence, Sub-Antarctic Islands,
and Labrador Coast, begins.
The entry tunnel features a very subtle
floor incline, intended to slow the pace of
movement through a compressed white
passage, and to void the mind for fresh
sensory input. Once visitors reach the
central core, smaller slits in the living skin,
called eco-transits, lead them towards
the ecosystem entrances. As automatic
doors at the end of the eco-transit open
into the ecosystem, it remains visually
obstructed by a curtain of beads. By the
time visitors pass through the beads, they
have been exposed to the climate, smells,
and sounds of the natural habitat before
seeing anything. At the entrance of the
Subpolar Regions, KANVA designed a
new ice tunnel that acclimatises visitors
during the transition, while the sounds
and smells of puffins and penguins ahead
provide additional sensory stimulation.
Vertically, KANVA added an entire
new level above the ecosystems, accessible
via walkways, enabling visitors to move
through the foliage of majestic trees of
both the Tropical Rainforest and Gulf of St.
Lawrence ecosystems. The walkways lead
to a new mezzanine, offering aerial views
of the various ecosystems and the pure
white nucleus. The new mezzanine also
serves as a technical floor, with interactive
24 Issue 242 • dw