Opaque, monolithic and isolated from the urban environment, the current Saul-Bellow Library requires a radical transformation to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century library.
The library must be more open, accessible, attractive, and transformable in order to adapt to the movements of society. It is increasingly called upon to participate in a process of cultural mediation necessary to accompany the user in his or her contact with the works and knowledge of which it is the depository and which are growing exponentially. The library continues to house the books we come to read, but it is equipped with new spaces and equipment to carry out this mediation work beyond the printed medium.
The proposed spatial organization literally illustrates this grafting of complementary uses to the traditional core of the library by locating the shelving in the preserved spaces and by distributing the new or changing functions in the peripheral extension. This choice allows the library to display public uses (café, lounge, multi-purpose room, animation room, etc.) on the 32nd Avenue and Saint-Antoine facades, which testify to this desire for openness and meeting with the Lachine community. This dynamic perimeter does not constitute a fixed architectural composition and can be modified during the integrated design process or later to meet new needs.
Rather than the façade, the roof is the device that regulates and unifies the architectural proposal. The new identity of the site will be strongly defined by the two-way mesh of the cross-laminated wood structure, which is rhythmically arranged over 2.4 meters. We have chosen to make this "bold green gesture" mentioned in the program as Quebec society reflects on the future of its forest and seeks to develop a responsible use of this resource with high added value and a smaller environmental footprint than steel and concrete. The proposed structure sequesters more than 60 tons of carbon dioxide in the wood fiber that has been removed from the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by other sources. This is a clear and simple illustration of the possibility of linking aesthetic, environmental and social values through architecture.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The Faucher Aubertin Brodeur Gauthier project represents the riskiest solution from a budgetary point of view because of the extent of the demolition (25% of the existing surface and 100% of the envelope), the amount of expensive high-performance curtain walling and the non-competitiveness of the wood structure, in addition to the geothermal system.
Although the project is compact, it proposes an overly luxurious solution that is difficult to rationalize.
For these reasons, the project by Faucher Aubertin Brodeur Gauthier was eliminated; its score was 77.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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