Projects

Dollarama Headquarters - Montreal (Canada)

The Dollarama Headquarters

The two "ceramic wings" of the Dollorama offices on the outskirts of Montreal look like the blades of an iridium coloured propeller mounted on a central glass-clad shaft
Author
Maria Giulia Zunino
Architect
Gross Kaplin Coviensky Architects
Surfaces
CAESAR
Distributor
Ceragres Tiles Group
Year of completion
2009

The first player in this story is the client, Dollarama, a retail chain that specialises in very cheap products, generally priced at around $1. The chain is rapidly expanding throughout Canada and currently consists of around 600 stores specialising in kitchen and cleaning products.
The second player is the site itself, Mont-Royal, a town that is approaching the centenary of its foundation and is located northwest of the Mount Royal mountain that dominates Montreal, the splendid capital of Quebec, Canada.
The third – and perhaps the most important – player is the firm Gross Kaplin Coviensky Architects (GKC), founded in Montreal more than 50 years ago. Over the years the firm has gradually specialised in high-end projects for industry and commerce, from offices to retail. “In our projects we always strive to act as innovators, devoting great attention to responsibility and respect for the environment,” explain Richard Kaplin and Jerry Coviensky. These efforts are borne out by the Dollarama head office building in Mont-Royal. The elegance of the form based on a three-unit design ensures that the 7,500 square metre area complex is not overly dominating, improving the relationship with the surroundings. The design project features a glass-walled atrium with a height of almost 14 metres which connects the two wings of the offices and serves as the visual and functional hub of the complex, the internal hall acting as the distribution centre for the various pathways. The eco-friendly concept focuses on the orientation of the building, the use of natural lighting, a highly insulating shell and a hybrid hydronic pump air-conditioning system. And the choice of materials highlights the different functions of the various parts of the complex: glass and ceramic for the exterior and interior coverings of the two wings with different heights, to enhance the sensation of dynamism.
And it is here that we meet the fourth player in the project, Ceramiche Caesar, the Italian company belonging to the Concorde Group that specialises in the production of high-end porcelain tile. For this project the architects chose tiles from the More series for a numbers of reasons: their technical characteristics (chemical, wear, abrasion, stain and frost resistance, bending strength, slip resistance and water absorption), the environmental certifications (Ecolabel and ISO 14001), and the variety of large formats (60×60 cm, 60×120 cm and 60×11.7 cm) available for creating special installation patterns. And last but not least its unique colours: the Iridium colour chosen for the project makes light shimmer on the floors and walls of the large entrance hall, on part of the façade and on the columns, creating novel effects that vary according to the angle of incidence of the light.
And it was thanks to Ceramiche Caesar that the Dollarama project won an honourable mention in the “commercial” category of the Ceramic Tiles of Italy Design Competition 2009 organised by Confindustria Ceramica, the awards for which were presented during Coverings 2009 in Chicago.

Tiles
Ceramiche Caesar, More series
Type
porcelain stoneware
Sizes
30x60 cm
Colours
Iridium
Technical characteristics
Water absorpion (ISO 10545-3): 0,05%
Chemical resistance (ISO 10545-13): UA ULA UHA
Resistance to deep abrasion (ISO 10545-6): <= 140 mm3
Stain resistance (ISO 10545-14): compliant
Frost resistance (ISO 10545-12): compliant
Modulus of rupture and breaking strength (ISO 10545-4): >= 50 N/mm2
Slip resistance (DIN 51130): R9 matt
Thermal shock resistance (ISO 10545-9): compliant
Linear thermal expansion (ISO 10545-8): compliant
Certifications and awards
ECOLABEL
ISO 14001
NF UPEC
SASO
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