Box Beautiful: Production to runway

Located on a large irregular site at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, the manufacturing campus for Bombardier Business Aircraft is comprised of two main aircraft buildings and several support structures. The principal buildings, an aerostructures manufacturing assembly line and a flight test hangar, take the functional program as a starting point to resolve a series of volumes limited by many site constraints. Closely following Louis Sullivan’s famous phrase “form follows function”, this project developed during the global 2020 pandemic and the uncertainties associated with air travel, is an example of lean and efficient design. Our approach to the design of the 80,000 sm manufacturing facility aimed at an in-depth understanding of the client’s core business and current operational challenges. Taking this as a point of departure, we identified three primary design challenges and opportunities. First, merging the scalar and programmatic requirements of two seemingly dichotomous programs – office space and aircraft manufacturing, characterized by the large extents of the distinctive transonic wing design. Second, negotiating through the challenging site and Transport Canada zoning requirements associated with the close proximity to runway 05-23, the busiest in Canada. Third, creating architecture that would challenge the typical aircraft hangar typology, being cold and impersonal, and fostering a human scale atmosphere and culture of collaboration through program adjacencies and natural light. Each building program is organized around the aircraft work center positions, serviced by lineside industrial areas, engineering offices and support functions. By proposing a stacked layout of the office spaces and isolating them into three distinct volumes, the approach allowed diffused natural light to enter from all four sides to the production floor, breaking the common notion that aircraft hangars have less than 50% natural light. In addition, the lineside support areas were programmed with breakout spaces within 1min walking distance from any point on the shop floor. These carefully dispersed gathering spaces maximize the employee’s use of short 15min breaks, also allowing for a quick return to their work zone. In addition to maximizing natural light onto the production floor, the stacked office functions encourage social interaction between engineering, procurement, quality, logistics and pre-flight functions, and shorten walking distances, promoting vertical mobility through use of stairs. The exterior facades break away from the typical monotony of horizontal strip windows and propose a series of barcode-like vertical strips of translucent polycarbonate and complimentary tones of metal panels. Viewed from a distance, the campus appears as a cluster of buildings with a richness of scales. This volumetric play is not only driven by the tight restrictions of the Obstacle Limitation Surface at the airport, but also the intentional material shift to translucency is used as an intuitive wayfinding strategy. While providing ample diffused natural light to the production floor, single strip translucent panels are aligned with glass doors at exit corridors allowing the employees to “follow the light” in case of emergency. A functional and dynamic proposal of massive spans, limited by functions of straight lines and fixed aircraft proportions, yet designed for people.