A concept for the Town of Banff’s Design-Build competition for a new community recreational pavilion. The pavilion was designed to be a year-round multi-purpose facility that is welcoming to groups of all backgrounds. Featuring a unique prairie-style design that is cohesive with the flat recreation grounds and surrounding architecture, the pavilion is designed to be an attractive and timeless addition to the town’s existing assortment of Rocky-Mountain style buildings.

The building program includes public washrooms, showers, kitchen, and a large central gathering area. The building is divided into two blocks to separate the ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ areas to provide cost-efficiencies and future programming flexibility. These two blocks are offset from each other to create two sheltered outdoor gathering areas facing the playing fields, picnic areas, and a new winter ice-rink.

Envisioned to be a low-impact development at the forefront of sustainable design the proposed building is designed to passive-house standards. Local materials and labour were sourced to minimize embodied carbon emissions from transportation and construction. Key features include a mass timber structure composed of Glue-Laminated beams, columns, and panels, along with an innovative panelized wall system that could be prefabricated in the Bow Valley.