Claude Cormier Research Paper

Claude Cormier is considered to be the most influential Canadian landscape architect nowadays. He is part of the conceptualism group who celebrated the “big idea” as the driving force of the design process . As Cormier stated in his interview with Emily King, “Sometimes with just one singular large move, or singular idea, the whole project is shaped around it and it has a very conceptual approach. That conceptual mind we develop, that language, we selected material and plants and grading and it all works towards that singular idea where the world of conceptualists becomes a place.” His motto “landscapes artificial - but not fake.” embraced the idea of real fake rather than fake real. Other than associating artificial landscapes with the negative

However, the problems that need to be solved will eventually become the power of the design and the driving force for the project. As Cormier puts it: “We frame the problem… As professionals in landscape, architecture, and industrial design, it's always problem-driven….The element that would trigger a project is always a constraint." For Hydro Park Quebec, setting up an ecologically based design would be the major driving force for laying out the park. In reality, in Montreal, the life expectancy of trees in the urban area are dreadful. Due to the excessive amount of pollutions produced by human activities, the average life expectancy of a tree planted in downtown is only 5 to 10 years. The sapling needs nutrition-rich soil to hold fertilizer and water, which, in the typical situation in the downtown area, the barren and compact soil often do not give sprouts enough air and space to thrive. Therefore, in order to achieve an ecologically sustainable urban park, Cormier has to withdraw the traditional thinking on tree planting in Montreal. Cormier and his team came up with a strategy that is both innovative and original. The solution that Claude Cormier and his team established was to use a raised metal grill grate walkway to protect tree roots, which allows water to pass through and hydrate underlying vegetation and soil. It is now an extra-large urban tree

In fact, Park Hydro Quebec is well recognized in the field of eco- landscape design. It is the first project in Québec to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design New Construction Platinum status, which credits the outstanding designs of sustainable park. Now, the park has replaced the previous the city’s asphalt and concrete surfacing with green space (Fig. 2), it is accepted by the neighborhood as a social gathering place and a space for communal events. Also, it refines a space in the city to create a nature like feeling comparable to the forest and has raised the living standards of the public. Most importantly, the entire park is operating ecologically and has maximized the ecological sustainable function. Through combining nature and artificial materials, Park Hydro Québec is able to communicate with its distinctive design by promoting a human-oriented, nature driven and sustainable ecologically intent. As Claude puts it, “Those are some constant conceptual basis for which we work. We don’t have a style, the designs we do are site-specific. We don’t have a product or a