Sustainable libraries
In his famous 1995 manifesto (City of Bits), William J. Mitchell announced the end of paper and brick libraries in favour of digital ones available online. The new addition to the Félix-Leclerc library in Quebec, modest in size yet dynamic but very much in demand, demonstrates yet again the elemental fault with this cyber-evangelist prediction.
Yet again, as one of the major characteristics of the latest in contemporary architecture is certainly the architect's desire to re-formulate programs and spaces we believed we had already explored and definitively formulated. Yet a library, cannot stand to be reduced to a container of books, nor a reading salon and even less to a check-out desk. A public library is first and foremost a public place, as demonstrated by the rampant success of the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec.
And if architecture has indeed contributed to the present infatuation with the library, some of this success has got to be attributed to the librarians who have renewed their practices as well as the politicians who have not ceased to consider new means of intellectual satisfaction for the citizen. But no battle is ever entirely won. The long gone royal and religious literary censorship has nowadays been replaced by a new kind of governance and expurgation driven by the economic profitability assigned to the places of knowledge. Soon enough, someone will come along and ask for a comparison between the cost of a traditional library and the cost of a digital database of literary titles in order to justify W.J.Mitchell's prediction.
Before presenting the documented competition for this updating of the CCC, we should already mention that the final selection of teams for the Montarville-Boucher-de la Bruère Library New Addition competition is known since November 28th. These are: Architectes Faucher Aubertin Brodeur Gauthier, Brière, Gilbert + Associés, architectes and Manon Asselin architecte (Atelier TAG).
For this December updating of the CCC, we present the competition for the Félix-Leclerc library addition which was organized in 2006 under the supervision of Jacques White, although its need was already felt in 1998, just ten years after its original construction. The competition program pertained to an addition, but it also addressed the question of sustainable architectural practices. Anne Carrier's project which demonstrated a kind of elegant yet conventional modernity won over the jury. Its form elongated and re-equilibrated the existing edifice without obliterating it. The project by Atelier BiG City played the “green” card, insisting on a natural park environment which would reunite the existing library and its addition to its surroundings in order to form a new image for the whole. The entry by Boutros and Pratte was adamant about the insularity of the building and proposed treating it as a point of assembly and convergence. The forth project, presented by Croft Pelletier architects, aimed to evoke a kind of new morphology which enveloped the existing library in a distinctly experimental wood cladding materiality. With the competition behind us, we can observe that the differences between these four projects are quite notable even if each and every single one of them emphasizes the importance of the creation of places for gathering and reception of the public.
The publication of this competition will be our final undertaking before the end of 2007. It will coincide with an event which we judge highly important in the realm of contemporary Canadian architecture. In fact, the beautiful analytical exhibition organized for L.E.A.P. by Denis Bilodeau in collaboration with the Design Centre of UQAM will be presented at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal in Paris during the whole month of December ( http://www.pavillon-arsenal.com/home.php ). Selected cultural projects born out of competitions organized between 1991 and 2005 will be subject to the critical consideration of the Parisian public and the reflection on the coherence of this new cultural territoriality raised by the assembly of such a considerable number of projects will undoubtedly produce a substantial interest in a country where more than 1000 competitions are organised every year.
For 2008, we are preparing two surprises for those interested in the activity of L.E.A.P. In January, we should finally be able to make accessible the website of the documentary database which we have conceived for the Europan France organisation. And in March, with the collaboration of a number of Canadian schools, we will lauch an online forum which will aim to question and evaluate the place of environmental conception in architectural education: another one of those sustainable libraries!
In September 2006, Quebec City announced an architectural competition for the expansion of the Félix-Leclerc library in the Val-Bélair district. The competition is open exclusively to members in good standing of the Ordre des architectes du Québec. It is being held in one stage, preceded by a selection procedure of four finalists based on applications.
"The library intends to play a leading role as a public cultural institution, open to all and interacting with its community. In addition to its traditional roles of preserving and disseminating knowledge, it aims to support and encourage local cultural vitality, notably by facilitating animation and exhibition activities. The district library is not seen as a point of service, but as a place to visit, offering stimulating experiences that are constantly renewed.
In addition to the project's social and cultural mission, it offers an opportunity to revisit the relationship between such a public facility and its urban environment, in a young and dynamic district that has grown considerably in recent years, along a commercial and institutional axis that is similar to those found throughout North America, i.e., composed of a discontinuous succession of disparate buildings, often surrounded by large parking areas. It's a great opportunity to use this project as a plea for the requalification of such environments, and to update, twenty years later, the exemplary character attributed to the first building."
(From competition program)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The Félix-Leclerc library, built in 1985-1986 in the former municipality of Val-Bélair (now part of Quebec City), aroused the interest of local residents from the moment it was opened, and became a landmark in the region. Already in 1987, the Ordre des architectes du Québec recognized the exemplary nature of the project, awarding its designers, Claude Bisson and Onil Poulin, as well as the municipality's mayor, a "distinction in architecture" as part of its annual awards program.
The library was designed to meet the needs of the local population at the time, and consequently housed a collection of 36,000 volumes. Ten years later, its collection had grown substantially, and the facility no longer met the expected needs. The rapid growth of Val-Bélair's population, the attraction of the new library and the presence of a new high school nearby with no documentation center were the main factors behind this success.
Despite a request for financial assistance from the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC) in June 1998, the town of Val-Bélair had to accept the moratorium imposed by the MCC on the construction of cultural facilities. Renovation work was then carried out at the town's expense in 2001. Finally, following delays caused by municipal mergers and demergers, on March 2, 2006, the City of Val-Bélair received MCC approval for the library expansion project in its current form, and launched the planning process for an architectural competition in accordance with its current policies.
(CCC text)
(Consult the competitors' projects for specific comments from the jury)
| Jury president |
Denise Gendron, Conseillère Municipale
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| Jury | Richard De la Riva, Architecte |
| | Rémy Morency, Architecte |
| | Peter Murphy |
| | Jean Payeur, Directeur général |
| | Rhonda Rioux, Directrice de services municipaux |
| | Anik Shooner, Architecte |
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| Technical Commitee | Yvon Chabot |
| | Martin Pineault |
| | Louis XXPageau |
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
September 20, 2006: Publication of call for applications
September 20 to 29: Registration period
Sept. 25 to October 3: Question period
September 27 and October 4: Replies to questions sent in
October 10: Submission of applications
October 13: Evaluation of entries by jury
November 1: Announcement of finalists
ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION
November 2 to 17, 2006: Question period
November 6 to 24: Submission of answers to questions
December 8: Submission of entries
December 11 to 22: Analysis of projects by technical committee and jury
January 10, 2007: Finalists' hearings and jury verdict
January 16: Submission of jury's choice to Ville de Québec
January 17: Declaration of competition winner
ENGAGEMENT OF PROFESSIONALS
January 17, 2007: Architects hired and mandate begins
November 20, 2006 to January 17, 2007: Call for tenders, engagement and commencement of mandate for engineers
PREPARATION OF PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS
March 17 to February 14, 2007: Concept review and coordination with engineers
February 15 to April 19: Preparation of preliminary project file
April 20 to May 3: Analysis and approvals
April 27 to July 13: Preparation of final construction documents
July 16 to August 3: Analysis and approvals
PUBLIC CALL FOR TENDERS
August 1 to September 26, 2007: Tenders and award of construction contract
CONSTRUCTION WORK
October 1, 2007 to June 27, 2008: Site work
July 1 to 18, 2008: Correction of deficiencies and acceptance of work
OPERATION
August 1, 2008: Library commissioning
(From competition brief)
(Unofficial automated translation)
ARQ #139, mai 2007
