GABRIELLE-ROY REINVENTED:
A public space dotted with attractive, livable objects
The reactivation of a public space in the city center.
Naturally, because of its central position in the St-Roch district, between two churches and at the point of convergence of the various populations of the sector who live, work or transit there, the Gabrielle-Roy library constitutes an important crossroads of the downtown area. The Jacques-Cartier block is crossed daily by thousands of people for whom Gabrielle-Roy is a landmark. Historically, this sector of the city has always been, at least for more than a century, a dynamic, popular and busy place. In this project, we propose to continue in the natural direction of the historical and current urban organization and to appropriately accommodate this convergence, even amplify it, in order to give back to the neighborhood a quality public space as it was the case in the era of the market place and the place Jacques-Cartier.
For many years, the public spaces that succeeded one another on the Jacques-Cartier block were important centers of social, commercial and cultural exchange. Following the example of these public spaces and in the same way as other current public places such as shopping centers or train stations, the library proposed here takes up, in the configuration of its first floor, the urban figure of Jacques-Cartier Square. The typological analysis of this square allows us to understand that by blocking the four corners of a square - in this case by islands of greenery - while clearing central alleys on each of its sides, visitors have no choice but to converge naturally towards the center and to go and meet the Jacques-Cartier monument, but also and above all each other. This way of structuring the public space is not only historically accurate in the context, but also effective in implementing a very high permeability on the block as a whole as well as on the first floor of the library, while ensuring that the population is naturally brought to the heart of the latter to offer them, once they arrive, multiple and personal paths.
The four entrances
This cruciform plan, in which the corners are "blocked" by foyers or services, offers great permeability, firstly by the transparency of the envelope that surrounds it, but above all by the possibility that it offers visitors to access the interior of the library through one of the four entrances arranged on each of the walls bordering the building. Thus, by passing under a luminous and technological soffit, the visitor enters the citizen's life and the comic strip foyer. He understands from the moment he enters that the day's itinerary will be the one of his choice since, apart from the elevators, three distinctive and singular objects are offered to him in the form of staircases to lead him to the various upper foyers. On the north entrance side, the rue du Roi is now animated by an equally permeable and transparent first floor, which extends onto a forecourt topped by a marquee. These areas, which were once a backyard, will now be animated by the small stage of the foyer (adjacent to the exterior) and a part of the animation spaces of the youth foyer. Directly above, the broadcasting room and its foyer also give life to the street while placing itself in relation to the new dance house on the other side of the street. From the public square, for which we propose to physically and symbolically reactivate the former archive alley and animate it with a bookshop alley, a series of benches and a tree line, it is also possible to reach the heart of the first floor. Moreover, it is along this alley that it is also possible to see the conveyor at work and to make the return of documents to the intelligent fall. Finally, if the proposal to reverse the spaces of the archives and the administrative offices were eventually retained, this entrance, which is currently the preferred entrance for employees, could also become the entrance to the archive center, which would coherently complete the reactivation of the former archive alley into a linear public space. Finally, the fourth entrance to the CSQ atrium could be used in a controlled and sporadic way to welcome school groups, since it opens directly onto the youth center and the animation space dedicated to them.
Generally speaking, the first floor is organized like a traditional public square, stimulating convergence and exchange by directing traffic towards a controlled center from which everyone can then build their own path. The great permeability proposed here is nevertheless done by considering the constraints relative to the security of the place and the management of the loans. Although the first floor can be entered from all sides, the passage in front of the security post, the reception post or the information post remains obligatory. By their strategic position in the center of the plan and the view they have on each of the entrances, the three stations form a surveillance triangle without the perception of this strategy being oppressive. It is also proposed that the entire library be a secure space and that there be no internal boundaries between secure and non-secure spaces. To achieve this, experience shows that security gates should be placed as far upstream as possible (at the entrances) and that self-locking stations near the exits minimize forgetfulness while at the same time helping to reinforce the deterrent role of the gates. Finally, to complete the security measures, some hidden and strategically positioned metal curtains as well as some mobile shelving modules, allow to operate some sectors outside of opening hours while keeping some others closed.
Multiple centers
In order to propose a new and avant-garde library that moves away from traditional and contemporary models where all the energy is put on a single central space, spectacular and whose apparent complexity is often superfluous, we reflected on an architectural way to materialize a library that is mainly characterized by the presence of multiple centers and that functions more like a rhizome than a central nervous system. A place that goes beyond the single staging to break up the spectacular into multiple centers of interest. Of course, we thought of taking the animation spaces of each of the homes as a starting point. However, it soon became clear that these were horizontally superimposed spaces in an existing structure and ultimately difficult to characterize in any other way than superficially because they were often too large or dependent on their eventual programming. The vertical links on the other hand, staircases, steps and elevators, appeared to us as much more powerful architectural devices with the potential to weave links between the spaces of animation of the various homes without necessarily having to always go back through the center of the building. Conceived as fascinating, livable and above all appropriable devices, these vertical links concentrate on themselves a large part of the identity of one home while projecting it towards another. Strategically positioned in openings in the floors of the existing library, they call out to each other, generating a multitude of possible paths and leaving it up to the visitor to create their own experience.
The objects of desire
These objects of desire, as we have named them here, are declined in various ways according to the role they have to play in the general composition and according to the homes they put in relation. They are presented each time, by their unusual dimension, as real plots. For example, the very straight and sturdy staircase in the comic strip sector - proposed entirely and solely in brick masonry - is linked by its modularity and material texture to the world of comics while constituting a slightly anachronistic object of memory when one thinks of the current Gabrielle Roy library or which remains completely in tune when one thinks of the general texture of the St-Roch district. Equipped with alcoves and benches inserted into its geometry, and projecting towards the animation space of the creative center, it weaves links between two related centers, intimately linked by creativity and the imagination. In a certain sense, the brick staircase crystallizes in itself the intimate relationship between the two homes. At the exit of this staircase, while sliding towards the step of the creative foyer which seems to plunge towards the street, new choices are offered to the visitor who will have opted for this course. In the distance, he will see the spiral staircase that inhabits the foyer of the broadcasting room and that could lead him to the travel foyer, itself a close relative of a space dedicated to the show, often synonymous with escape. Closer to him, the monumental staircase all in brass which allows to pass from the foyer of music and cinema to the foyer of languages and literatures. The latter looks strangely like a piece of giant unfolded and twisted paper clip to which seats, workstations and computer stations are grafted while freeing a large circular opening. One thing leading to another, the devices follow one another until the terraces on the third level and each time, a choice has to be made, a new experience calls the visitor and the object he chooses to visit constitutes not only an object of transition but also a social object since it is always inhabited.
The spaces of animation: the self-marketing of the library
In order for the library to carry out its own marketing, as it were, by showcasing the range of activities that take place there, the activity spaces, punctuated with their attractive and habitable objects, have all been strategically placed near the outside. For example, the new and intriguing culinary foyer occupies one of the most visible areas of the entire library, directly at the corner of Saint-Joseph Street and the future Jacques-Cartier Square. With the potential to naturally spill out into the square or to be transformed into an ephemeral culinary boutique on certain occasions, this new program, which is likely to be very popular, is a kind of emblematic home for the new Gabrielle Roy. While Rue du Roi is not left out with the lively presence of the foyer of the broadcasting room, the training room and the science and technology workshop, Rue Saint-Joseph gets all the other foyers of animation, whether it be the foyer de création, the foyer culture et sociétés or the terraces of the foyer nature, sciences et technologies. The entire library, including some of the most important attractions, is put on display and presents to the street a place teeming with diverse activities.
Geometry and material texture of the ensemble
Two main ideas guided the development of the proposed geometry and the overall texture of the ensemble. First, in order to add depth to the project, we wished to preserve part of the soul of the initial Gabrielle Roy library in order to symbolically and materially imbricate the memory of this first library in the second one and to preserve its presence. Thus we propose, for example, to clean up and occasionally bushhammer the original concrete skeleton in order to take advantage of its natural texture and contrast it with simple and precise contemporary details made from wood, brass, stained glass, plaster and acoustic textures. In order to continue this idea at the level of the envelope, we also propose to insert in the new curtain walls, a series of painted and embossed aluminum panels which take up in a fragmentary way certain characteristic motifs of the initial library whose brutalist composition was certainly at the origin very assertive and very contrasted in the existing urban fabric. These motifs, square openings, banded windows or diagonals as well as the corbels, appear sporadically, in a very soft, almost ghostly way behind a translucent curtain wall recalling a certain presence while softening the overall composition by a very great transparency. The envelope crystallizes and concentrates in a way this memory. In a second stage, we opted for a simple geometry and in strata, very slightly shifted and whose distinction is accentuated by levels of transparency and games of internal lighting and serigraphy. The first layer is slightly set back to offer a luminous soffit that can be transformed into a real horizontal screen broadcasting images and information and affirming the importance of the library as a central element of the technological pole of the St-Roch district. The last layer is also moved back in order to create sunny terraces overlooking the most beautiful view of the sector, that of the cliff, the old town and the St-Sauveur district. In a general way, this strategy allows to minimize the monumentality of the whole and to bring the library closer to the street and the population, in particular by the presence in cantilever of the two floors directly above the first floor with their teeming activity.
The realization
The eventual realization of the Gabrielle Roy Library project is a technical and budgetary challenge. The project strategy proposed here suggests that it can be met with confidence. By limiting the major interventions to the existing structure, to the installation of two transfer beams for the broadcasting room and to certain openings made between the abacuses while abstaining from massive interventions at the lean-to level or from generating geometrical complexities, we are of the opinion that the energy is deployed in the right place, that is to say in the visitor's experience which wants to be varied with each visit and filled with new discoveries. Our team's in-depth knowledge of how to operate such a library, conceived as a permeable public space, as a small hive of activity, in a pleasant, efficient and safe manner, allows us to claim that we can make it a success in terms of process as well as attendance when it reopens.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
CM/ABCP
2.3.1- The proposal is modest, primarily in terms of treatment and exterior massing. This brings credibility and confidence in the budgetary respect. The relatively neutral exterior treatment does not, however, immediately indicate the presence of a library. This sobriety of treatment can affect the potential of revitalization of the neighborhood and animation of the street.
2.3.2-. Overall, the proposal respects all the requirements of the PFT in terms of functional distribution.
2.3.3- The interior proposes a very rich spatial experience thanks to the diversified vocabulary of the staircases. The decentralization of the spectacular effect is a surprising and noteworthy approach.
2.3.4- The four proposed entrances, with the cruciform plan of the circulations on the RC level, create a problem for the control of documents. Despite the detection portals, it would be impossible for staff to quickly intervene at all four entrances at once. The ground floor, with its numerous circulations, would risk becoming a transit area or a shortcut for pedestrians circulating near the building.
2.3.5- The decentralization of the elements of architectural interest injects organizational complexity into the plans, thus diminishing the clarity of the proposal.
2.3.6- The numerous staircases proposed as identity elements ("objects of desire??) offer a beautiful diversity of routes while enriching them. However, their footprint and the numerous circulations of the RC level have an obvious impact on the surface areas granted to the foyers of this level, which are in deficit.
2.3.7- The importance given to these staircases is questionable, since they are often under-used compared to the elevators.
2.3.8- The presence of numerous staircases throughout the homes limits the flexibility and rearrangement of spaces on each level.
2.3.9- The lack of natural light on the SS1 level diminishes the quality of this work environment. No proposal was made to remedy this problem.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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