Nashville Village

Retail Centre

 

Vaughan, Ontario

Corporate

Cultural

Religious

Residential

Hospitality

Industrial

Sport/Recreation

Green Buildings

Urban Design

Interior Design

Portfolio

The project is located at the “Gateway” of the historical Village of Kleinberg, in the suburbs of Toronto.  The site is within a heritage policy area which requires new developments to pay particular attention to vernacular architecture, traditional settlement form and rural landscape setting.  The design  team’s response to this mandate for heritage conservation is exemplified by the resultant building forms and landscape composition which evoke a sense of history and identity.

 

In order to avoid a banal approach by simply ‘dressing’ a modern building in traditional style, , the design team began with a concept of the “retail plaza” as a series of building blocks. This approach led to an aggregation of substructures of varying scale, shape and detailing. Building materials and colour palette was carefully selected from various historical structures with Kleinberg’s heritage district.

The plaza complex, with its low roof profile is set into the toe of the adjoining hill and appears to be totally absorbed by the surrounding woods.  The building complex is amply set back from the road.  This has permitted the planting of a sweeping meadow typical of rural settings in the plaza’s foreground.  Native plants have been employed to restore the hillside and stream course landscapes.

 

This ensemble of building and landscape integration, together with the placement of all parking behind the plaza structure, have made the plaza appear in splendid isolation to visitors at the junction of busy highway and a local access road to the historical village.   This distinct setting is reminiscent of uniquely preserved historical environments where the site plays a strong role in defining the heritage significance of the building.