Dodd’s FURNITURE

Dodd’s Furniture & Mattress was designed in tandem with the La-Z-boy Furniture Gallery building that shares the corner of Turner and Uplands Drive, in Nanaimo. The concept for the site was to rethink how a furniture outlet can engage with community and design objectives. The site design primarily focuses on water retention initiatives: through an application of a completely green roof at the highest roof level and water retention with slow release at the lower level roof, the progress of stormwater run-off is delayed before it passes through a series of architecturally designed waterfall features, water channels and bio swales, before rejoining the system. The site is heavily vegetated providing a soft backdrop to the two furniture stores. By introducing an inner road to the site, the buildings were able to have a more transparent massing and a pedestrian corridor was created through the development. These design elements also allowed us to create display windows at these important nodes of entry.

To create a dynamic building volume as well as to meet the needs of the clients, the middle section of the Dodd’s Furniture & Mattress store was lifted. This gesture allowed for an office mezzanine level to hover over the loading area and create efficient land use. Internally, the thirty foot tall steel frame building has been delineated into zones for the client’s displays. A central dropped ceiling feature of linear wood strips provides a more personal space within the two storey volume at a twelve foot height. Most light fixtures were also mounted at this twelve foot height to create comfortable human-scaled areas within the large building. Through large display windows, these display room spaces also offer connection to the vegetation of the surrounding site. High above the main entry, large glue laminated wood beams cantilever out of the high ceiling of the space to support the main entrance. The high windows facing North invite natural light deep into the building. As businesses change over time and with building reuse in mind, the Dodd’s Furniture & Mattress store was designed for the future use of smaller sized businesses. With some minor adjustments, the building can relatively easily be broken up into four sections, where every space would offer its new tenants their own set of display windows and a personal entry that engages with the site.

Location: Nanaimo, BC
Completed: 2020