Canadian Navy Monument
Ottawa ON
The team of Al McWilliams, Joost Bakker, Bruce Haden and Hapa Collaborative was the unanimous choice from the five shortlisted teams in the competition for the memorial in the nation’s capital. The site, located along the Parliamentary Esplanade on the banks of the Ottawa River and within view of Parliament Hill, commemorates 100 years of naval history in Canada.
At the heart of the monument site is a white form suggestive of a multitude of naval associations, ranging from sails to classic ship design lines to icebergs to naval attire. The design also makes use of gold spheres, which speak of the sun, moon, stars and the global reach of the Canadian Navy.
A Multitude of
Naval Associations
Contrasting the solidity of stone “naval signature”, the delicate steel navy mast provides a second spatial counterpoint within the monument space. A recognized symbol, on all ships, naval bases and reserves, the mast and its flags link past, present and future.
The dramatic vertical form further suggests associations ranging from sails of days gone by to naval attire and even modern stealth design for signature minimization. Set into an inclined and shifting granite base, it “unsettles the sense of horizontality” as the body seeks to align on a shifting surface – a sense and movement inherent in the naval experience. Cut into this inclined granite base are two bronze strips aligned with the North / South and East / West cardinal axes, referencing navigation and acknowledging our tri-coastal reality.
