Design intentions
méta\morphoses Meta (after, above, with) morphé (form) The sports centre concept rests on the alteration of the site on which it will be implemented. A site which has been metamorphosed from an industrial field (a quarry) into a landfill and will now be transformed into a park and environmental complex. By its shape, and its feature, its adaptability to the site, by its suggested trails and visual links, the project expresses the whole transformation, the evolution towards a huge environmental park, opened on research and experimentation. Our first aim is a sensible integration with the site, improving it without imposing. The integration of a voluminous building into this moulded site, at the interface park-boulevard, requests to continue alterations on the natural soil. The undulation of the park will be increased; the ground distorts even more in order to accommodate the future soccer complex’s volume. The mound wins in height to shelter the player’s spaces of the outside play field, stretches out to cover the entrance and huge hall, unfurls in grandstands for the spectators of the outside play field. New hillocks appear, the ground is not passive, it supports the building in a visible way, embraces it. In reply, the box containing the essential volume for the game alters its shape in contact with the park. The shell distorts, spreads out like the goal’s net receiving the ball, giving way to the secondary functions, like the grandstands and administrative zone. The connection is direct; this morphing ties the building to the site. The borders are broken, so favouring interactions. Sparkling, the box mirrors its environment: the site, the trees and the lake, the sky, the snow, the seasons. Never similar, the changes of aspect call on us. The facade ? screen towards the street ? reflects perfectly traffic and neighbourhood. The organic shape towards the park is a distorting, playful mirror. This dynamics which we discover in movement confers a potential of renewal, sign of durability, thus sustainable development. At night, the perception is completely transformed, the light transcends and cuts the forms having become abstract, the box merges into the darkness. Any artwork is a permanent possibility of metamorphosis, offered to all human beings. Octavio Paz

Technical data
Interior soccer field: one full-size soccer pitch that can be subdivided into 4 smaller surfaces for seven-a-side play. Location: Papineau Avenue, Montréal, Québec, Canada Gross Floor Area: 12 700 m² / 136 700 sq. ft. Budget: 24,2 M$ CA

Project team
Diana Cardas Jacques Côté Pascal Gobeil Marie-Andrée Goyette Nicolas Fortier Nicolas Croteau Philippe Tremblay