Montebello rest area

Located near Montebello, 45 minutes from Ottawa and one hour from Montreal, the site of the rest area is at a strategic crossroad, at the intersection of Route 323 which leads to Mont-Tremblant Park, and the very busy Highway 50, which connects the Greater Montreal Area with the National Capital Region.

Aiming to give a foretaste of Omega Park, the Montebello rest area must reflect the values and the fantastic world of this wildlife park in Canada.

The project includes a restaurant, a gas station with a convenience store and a showcase for Omega Park. The concept follows the topography and proposes a siting in line with the natural configuration of the site. This arrangement creates a hierarchy between the green spaces, pedestrian traffic, vehicular traffic and the Route 323. Visitors arrive through a showcase section of the building which, through its transparency and layering merges nature with the interior layout.

Nature gently enters the building through an expressive structural strategy emulating the effect of a forest canopy which creates a continuous link between the outside and the inside. 

The constraints of this project led us to adapt the distinctive requirements of commercial spaces to log architecture. Our design intent was to slide, stretch and separate the building envelope to reveal or conceal certain interior spaces so that the specificities of each commercial space can be made visible.