Dome

View of the open section of the pavilion showing the undulating wood-clad roof, surrounded by forest; The First Nations Garden (one of the gardens of the Montreal Botanical Garden) commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Great Peace, a 1701 treaty uniting French settlers and the indigenous people of Montreal. It is designed to help visitors discover the culture of the first inhabitants of North America. The pavilion is a museum within the garden. Sheltering less than 2% of the garden grounds (which is 10,000 sq meters total), the pavilion is mostly outdoor space. Half of the built spaces are located underground to further reduce the influence of the new building on the existing setting. The new building was sited to retain all existing trees and maintain a relatively open terrain in an attempt to integrate the building and the site. The undulating roof recalls a wisp of smoke through the trees. Outdoor displays sheltered by the roof are framed by two indoor spaces at opposite ends of the pavilion – exhibition and orientation spaces at one end, public washrooms and a meeting space at the other. Landscape architecture by Williams Asselin Ackaoui et Associates Inc. Source: ArchDaily; http://www.archdaily.com/ (accessed 5/7/2014)