EVOQ Architecture + ARTCAD in joint venture

Located in the heart of Canada’s boreal forest, the Cadillac-Larder Fault is a major geologic feature that cuts across Quebec’s Abitibi-Témiscamingue region and into Northern Ontario. Given Rouyn-Noranda’s unique geography, the new air terminal by EVOQ Architecture + ARTCAD in joint venture serves not only to increase the city’s visibility as the capital of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, consolidating its position as the region’s principal airport hub, but it also highlights the importance of the mining and forestry industries to the city.

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

Rouyn-Noranda’s geography and local economy made wood a natural choice in the materials palette for the city’s new air terminal building, as it is both harvested and transformed within the region. Designers made a point of emphasizing wood’s unique properties by using it in all the terminal’s public spaces.

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

The terminal building is transparent and offers views of the tarmac from all public spaces. Two double-height halls bathed in natural light house passenger services, offering comfortable waiting areas for both arrivals and departures. The second storey includes a restaurant area with tables and lounge areas, all benefiting from unobstructed views on the exterior air side, and down onto the main public hall. A generous forecourt on the city side welcomes and shelters passengers at the drop-off area.

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

The Rouyn-Noranda Air Terminal is a single volume, two-storey building supported by a hybrid wood and steel structure. The public spaces are notable for their glue-laminated timber beams and cross-laminated timber (CLT) slab. The whole is topped by a copper-colored metal roof, which folds over to function as a solar protection screen along the facades on both the city and air sides of the building. During the day, the perforated screen filters sunlight, preventing overheating and animating the interior spaces. At night, the perforated screen, illuminated from the inside, takes on the properties of a giant lantern.

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

Photo credit: Maxime Brouillet

About EVOQ

EVOQ is an award-winning architecture firm recognized for quality interventions and site-sensitive design solutions. The firm was first established in 1996 following the merger of two firms established in 1983. In 2016, the firm incorporated and became EVOQ Architecture. EVOQ’s strength lies in its broad spectrum of expertise, and the firm operates a collaborative network of offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Iqaluit. EVOQ counts on an ample talent pool of over 130 professionals with specializations in heritage conservation, planning, work with Inuit and First Nations, contemporary residential and institutional design, and landscape architecture.

About ARTCAD

For over 30 years, ARTCAD has cultivated the resources and know-how to efficiently and reliably carry out most any type of architectural intervention. Functionality, aesthetics, and environmental awareness are at the core of every project undertaken, from pre-design through construction. Based in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, ARTCAD works mainly north of the 48th parallel in administrative regions 08 and 10. The firm creates customized solutions that speak to a deep understanding of its clients' needs, and to its highly diversified experience, acquired over many years of sustained practice in the North. Every project entrusted to ARTCAD is led by an architectural project manager who is directly and consistently involved from the first sketches to final completion, ensuring a consistent approach and a high level of sensitivity to the overall vision and design intent.