NORWEGIAN CANADIAN MEMORIAL AND CULTURAL CENTRE

NORWEGIAN CANADIAN MEMORIAL AND CULTURAL CENTRE

Rarely, if ever, does one find themselves being asked to design a new museum which must directly attach itself to a working airport. Yet, the architectural competition for the Norwegian Canadian Memorial and Cultural Centre, asked us to do just that.

Located adjacent to the Muskoka Airport in Gravenhurst, Ontario is a new museum dedicated to preserving the legacy of those Norwegian pilots who trained here during the Second World War (WW2) – the designated allied training ground for Scandinavian pilots.

Although the building program required for the new museum was simple enough to design for, the site, which contained a scattering of haphazardly placed neighbouring industrial buildings, added an unforeseen complexity, as it appeared to be disjointed and fractured. Knowing this, we created a master plan to support the museum’s requirements, while attempting to resolve the site’s many given conditions.

Visitors to the site are immediately greeted with an elevated WW2 airplane, set on a tall pedestal – the type flown by the Norwegian Air Force (Gloster Gladiator) – signifying the main entrance to this museum. Six illuminated “tail fin” lanterns, representing each year of the duration of the War, lead directly to the facility’s parking lot. To elevate the significance of the arrival point to that of a museum, all neighbouring industrial buildings were heavily screened with a variety of trees, reducing their presence significantly.

Upon entering the parking lot, grass-covered earth mounds define the limits of its southern and eastern boundaries, significantly obscuring both the museum and airport from view. These mounds, known as “tumuli” by the Norwegians, are replicas of traditional Norwegian burial mounds, memorials to those pilots who were killed in the fight against Nazi Germany. These tumuli are also used as guides to secondary utilitarian roads within the site, keeping them operational, while hiding them from the general public. From the parking lot, a wooden boardwalk takes visitors to the museum proper, bridging over a sea of poppies – a symbol of remembrance. Smaller “tail fin” lanterns stand as escorts to the wood-clad museum, whose overall form is slowly revealed with a dramatic effect.

Inside the museum, a series of galleries made of pine log construction – a replication of the original training facilities that used the same construction – greets visitors diagonally. At this point, a plethora of staggered pine wood posts, metaphorically echoing the verticality of Norway’s vast coniferous forests, extends the museum space. Once inside these log galleries, the interior space is filled with exhibits and paraphernalia from that tumultuous time in both Canadian and Norwegian history.

Although typically off-limits to the general public, the airport’s tarmac, on special occasions, would be filled with historic war planes, bringing the museum outdoors and extending the exhibits with large-scale flying machines.

Only from the vantage point of planes that fly to and from this community airport can the folded copper roof of the museum be seen. In what appears to be a giant bird’s wing – a reference to both peace and flight – the roof’s form becomes a gesture that only a pilot can appreciate.

LOCATION: Gravenhurst, Ontario

ARCHITECT: Adamson Associates Architects

DESIGN LEADERSHIP: Michael Poitras,
Partner-in-Charge of Design (Adamson)

COMPETITION: First Place

CLIENT: District Municipality of Muskoka

STATISTICS:

  • No. of storeys: 1
  • Total floor area (addition):
    5,000 ft2 (465 m2)
  • Total floor area (after addition):
    7,800 ft2 (725 m2)

MATERIALS:

  • Pine logs, Douglas fir timber & framing
  • Spanish cedar windows & doors
  • Sealed concrete floors
  • Composite wood decking (grey)
  • Standing seam copper roofs + modified bitumen roofs (grey)
  • Outdoor landscaping

GENERAL PROGRAM:

  • Reception + retail (souvenirs)
  • WW2 museum
  • Environmentally controlled display booths containing sensitive historic material
  • Presentation room
  • Existing Muskoka Airport (renovated & re-clad with horizontal cedar battens)
  • Public washrooms
  • Exterior gardens with airplane “tail fin” lanterns

LEED: Silver

COST: Withheld

COMPLETION: Project