Comprised of contrasting volumes, the formal composition of the Mammoth Center for Excellence is at once distinctive and purposeful, driven by a wide-ranging programmatic brief and the need to incorporate active sustainable systems.
Each element responds to different programmatic imperatives. A trilobal (shouldn’t it be trilobal? neither word is in the dictionary) plinth with vegetated upper surfaces emerges from the ascending slope; during ski season, as snow gathers about its base, the undulating form softens further and melts into the landscape. Each lobe is oriented to serve a different circulatory imperative; visitors arriving by car, skiers descending from above, and the ingress/egress of snowmobiles and other services.
Facilities for 450 ski racers of all ages are hosted within the angular, intensely colored volume that rises from the plinth. There is a viewing lounge and dining room, along with a gym, locker rooms, and facilities for trampoline and training. From a distance the form is prismatic and abstract, but from closer in it borrows from a more industrial vernacular, recalling the mining sheds from the region's not so distant past.
Vertical access wind turbines, which perform better in turbulent conditions, rise above the building, while the facets and folds of both forms serve to divert and collect precipitation.