Patkau's winning submission for the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (1986) is one of those architectures that sounded the end of the 60s monolithic modernity, as well as the 80s dissonant postmodernism. Kenneth Frampton recognized early on that the Patkau's architecture was the sign of a new tectonic culture… [...] more

Contrary to the famous aphorism by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner who did not recognise the bicycle shelter as architecture, this competition was grounded on the conviction that a bus shelter can, and should be as architectural as a cathedral or even a museum. With this open and anonymously judged competition which received 26 proposals from Canada, USA, Brazil, France and Iran, the ideas had to be feasible since this augmented bus shelter will indeed be built by the not profit organisation CoLLaboratoire from Concordia University. [...] more

Literature houses, be they European or anywhere else in the world, have received writers-in-residence since the 19th century. In order to confirm that Québec City as a showplace for literary creation, the Canadian Institute of Québec oriented itself towards a new programmatic type, the first in Canada, inspired by similar institutions that have recently opened their doors (Oslo in 2007, Geneva in 2012). The concept of the digital age is explained using an obscure but enlightening analogy: “a place that is to literature what a library is to reading”. The literature house of the 21st century is oriented towards both memory and creation, and combines the writers' residences with public spaces that can accommodate events and expositions around literature that is written and read on digital mediums. As detailed in the program, the literature house is a “ unique and always surprising” place that should provoke a feeling of “jamais vu” within the user. [...] more