Our project brings to the museum complex a very clear entrance building on Grande-Allée. The new building dialogues with the presbytery and the church, while opening up to the street and the park. The project integrates the museum into the urban fabric, respecting the existing buildings and the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. A strong north-south axis logically links the new street-side entrance to the rest of the museum, reinforcing the overall coherence of the museum complex.
The new pavilion responds to the history of the site and its urban context by proposing a key building, capable of bridging the architecture of the ecclesiastical buildings and the new museum. The building occupies a strategic position on the site, allowing it to be immersed in the tranquility and immensity of the park, but also to have a foot in the urban life that teems around Grande Allée Ouest.
The new pavilion's strong, straightforward massing competes in height with the surrounding buildings. The U-shaped form replaces the courtyard of the original plan and provides a sheltered outdoor space for the museum. The main axis runs directly north-south, clarifying and emphasizing the museum's relationship to the street. The shorter side of the building has an elegantly proportioned façade facing the street; the longer side has a very open façade facing the park. To the east, the other, less imposing sections of the building close the courtyard between the new building and the church.
The new building has a large, transparent, and very open front door that opens directly onto Grand Allée Ouest, signaling the presence of the institution and generously welcoming visitors to the museum. An arched opening on the north façade of the building provides a clear physical manifestation of a "front door" to the city, becoming a new emblematic and representative front element of the museum. This opening is accessible from the sidewalk by crossing a simple entry plaza.
The new public lobbies of the pavilion are composed of a series of spaces, linked together by an architectural promenade that runs along the western elevation. This promenade looks out onto the park, directs the visitor to the new exhibition rooms and ultimately to the rest of the museum, providing a comfortable and natural mode of circulation. This walkway, flooded with natural light, offers magnificent views of the park.
The new building reorganizes the original courtyard by providing a new sheltered space outside the museum. Faced with the expanse of the park and the Plains of Abraham, the new courtyard constitutes an urban public space of a different order. It can be used as a place for temporary or permanent public art projects, as well as a gathering place in summer. The paving of the ground provides year-round use and allows rainwater to run off and be collected. The courtyard could also provide independent access to the auditorium outside of museum hours.
Wooden structure
The project envisages the use of wood and solid wood for the overall structure. This choice of sustainable materials is most interesting since raw wood has a lower carbon footprint than other structural materials.
The envelope
The choice of façade material was guided by aesthetic as well as practical considerations, taking into account performance and durability in relation to the Canadian environment. We were particularly interested in how the façade would respond to the light conditions of Quebec City, but also how the new building would communicate a contemporary sense of openness and luminosity, counterbalancing the more solid and closed nature of the museum's other façades. The building's wooden structure is covered by a rainscreen of recycled glass. This material has a certain translucency that responds to light, but also evokes the quality and depth of a matte material like alabaster. Thus, the envelope will change in appearance throughout the year reflecting the fluctuating light conditions. Very large windows (4mx5m) have been carefully placed to provide framed views of the courtyard.
Interior materials
The interiors of the exhibition spaces are intended to provide a neutral background for the display of art, while maintaining a sense of nature, as well as the materiality of the wood of the structure. This material approach defines the building as a modern, open space dedicated to exhibitions, employing sturdy materials that will age well, but bringing a more contemporary feel that stands out from the brick, stone, and marble of the museum's previous pavilions.
Lighting Concept
Natural and artificial light are arranged to provide uniform illumination to the entire exhibition space and the chair rail walls. Natural light enters the room through windows in the walls and ceiling of the building. The temperature of the light changes throughout the day, adding a dynamic component to the exhibition spaces.
A new sustainable building
The project presents an ideal opportunity to demonstrate leadership in sustainable design. Its effectiveness as a building that connects the museum to the city will allow for more efficient use of the rest of the museum campus, which will be more sustainable. A holistic approach to real sustainability is essential to our design process, influencing architecture, materials, and systems, with sustainable features built right into the architecture. We are confident that our approach will enable the project to achieve a level of environmental performance above the minimum LEED certification level.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
STAGE 1
-The jury selected this project because it proposes a way to enter the Museum, in a manner that demonstrates a certain sensitivity.
-The concept proposes the creation of a new urban island, integrating the Museum and of a very distinctive type.
-The concept allows for the institutionalization of this place of memory by respecting the courtyard and the gallery that opens onto it.
-The west gallery offers the choice to visit the new pavilion or to go towards the museum complex and the central pavilion.
-Although the concept offers a strong urban presence, the jury questioned the relevance of the concept of spatial compartmentalization, which proposes spaces that are too linear, small exhibition rooms, a constraining structure due to the central axis; the tunnel effect is extended from the entrance.
-The jury recognized the inventiveness of the wooden structure, the constructive system being appropriate to the material: the regular grid gives rhythm to the whole.
-The template is respectful of the existing ensemble and the scale of the neighborhood.
-The design of the plan continues the existing pavilion logic, with regard to the coherence of the new ensemble.
-The project is bold in its exterior minimalism, the tranquility that emerges from it and the timelessness of the plans.
-The audacity of another era makes it perennial.
STAGE 2
By its scale and archetype, this project complements the conventual ensemble; it is a sensitive project but not specific to the museum function. It proposes a good team, a timeless architecture, feasible and whose sobriety makes the architecture silent despite the imposing volume.
The spaces are calm, secure but not very dynamic; the lobby is well done. The jury deplores the weak evolution of the concept since stage 1 and the unconvincing presentation.
In summary, the project meets all the criteria without any research or surprises. It does not conform to the overall surface area, mainly for the functions in the basement. This reduction was necessary to meet the budget.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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