Constructed from three decommissioned forty-foot long sea containers, the Assiniboine Park Washrooms make use of these unnatural local resources to solve budget and construction constraints that were proving unsolvable through conventional methods. Each container distinctly houses either a female, male or universal washroom. To maximize limited floor space, the containers are splayed to form two service cores. Each container is insulated from the outside through a secondary envelope designed to receive cedar siding.
Inside, at least one durable container wall is exposed. With the addition of abuse resistant drywall and tamper proof fixtures, including recessed lighting troughs, each interior environment is enlivened by this colourful container wall. Partitions separate public areas from a mechanical room and storage rooms. Avoiding seasonal flooding, the containers are raised and a wood ramp/deck conceals the resulting crawlspace while providing universal accessibility.
Built off-site, the project went from concept to completion in five months. Set on screw piles and borrowing services from adjacent Park facilities, the containers can be disconnected and decoupled as effortlessly as they arrived, thus accommodating the on-going infrastructural emergence of this prairie park.
The Washrooms are a programmed folly. The mirrored glass facade reflects passersby and the adjacent forest. Disappearing into their own reflections, the containers leave three doors into the forest, inviting users, playfully, to come relieve themselves “in the bushes”. When thousands of evening moviegoers meet on the lawn of the Park’s famous Lyric Theatre, the containers glow in the setting sun, and as evening falls become safe beacons in the night.
