Claude Cormier - Architectes paysagistes
Landscape architects
CAMOUFLAGE PARK/
COMMISSIONERS PARK
TORONTO (ONTARIO), CANADA

CAMOUFLAGE PARK/
COMMISSIONERS PARK

TORONTO (ONTARIO), CANADA

Project
From urban brownfield to public park in Toronto's Portlands		 Client
Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation		 Year
2003		 Status
Proposal
This 41-acre project playfully appropriates the art of "camouflage" to address the former munitions history of the site. An organic demarcation of spaces results in a picturesque patchwork of dramatic landscapes and varied activities, overlaid with a filigree of circulation. Interweaving ecological functions with landscape aesthetics, diverse landforms respond to the need to contain and remediate soils contaminated by previous industrial activity.

Acknowledging and celebrating the constructed nature of the area, Camouflage Park carpets the site in an organic yet geometric pattern of landscapes. Each colour in the camouflage represents a distinct gesture in the finished park, creating a collage of fields for recreational sports, forests for casual walks, and groves for intimate gatherings. Inspired by the motifs of a tableau by British artist Bridget Riley, a geometric pattern of paths and roadways are overlaid on this landscape.

The aesthetics of Camouflage Park are a modern interpretation of the picturesque tradition. From the 18th century, it takes inspiration from Humphry Repton’s scenographic strategies of constructing serpentine routes between intimate terraces and distant vistas of the English countryside. From the modern side, Camouflage Park takes aesthetic cues from the constructed topographies of modern golf course designs. The result of this alchemy is a bold, layered design that revisits the proven techniques of the picturesque in a fresh, contemporary landscape.
  Print the project's description

Partnership
ENVision - The Hough Group, E.R.A. Architects Inc.

Surface
165,900 m2 (41 acres)

Prizes

Canadian Society of Landscape Architects
Regional Merit 2005 – Commissioners Park, Toronto, Ontario






Credits

1. PLAN, CCAPI, 2003 updated 2010
2. Perspective, CCAPI, 2003 updated 2010
3. Conceptual image, CCAPI, 2003 updated 2010
4. Inspiration, Composition with Circles de Bridget Riley, 1998
5. Conceptual image, CCAPI, 2003 updated 2010
6. Location plan, CCAPI, 2003 updated 2010