Montreal, Quebec
Urban
Competition
The project proposes a sensitive and pragmatic embodiment of the environmental, social, and technical needs of Lot 066 in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles through multiscalar placemaking. The lightweight structure oscillates in material ambiguity between a technical grid and a living surface. This scenographic monument marks urban transitions for various seasonal events within the city. On the opposite downtown edge, asphalt is exchanged for an undomesticated fragment of the Laurentian forest; a cut pathway brings city dwellers into a central void within this robust, self-sustaining ecosystem of intermingling species. Connecting these two spatial experiences is a dynamic public plaza that can change shape to accommodate a variety of cultural affairs. The site is framed by two-level gutters — the final conceptual layer in staging a dialogue between nature and technology — that serve as technical trenches for cable passages and other infrastructural substrates as well as rainwater collection to nourish on-site vegetation.
Images by Laurier Verdaguer and Pelletier de Fontenay
Urban
Competition
The project proposes a sensitive and pragmatic embodiment of the environmental, social, and technical needs of Lot 066 in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles through multiscalar placemaking. The lightweight structure oscillates in material ambiguity between a technical grid and a living surface. This scenographic monument marks urban transitions for various seasonal events within the city. On the opposite downtown edge, asphalt is exchanged for an undomesticated fragment of the Laurentian forest; a cut pathway brings city dwellers into a central void within this robust, self-sustaining ecosystem of intermingling species. Connecting these two spatial experiences is a dynamic public plaza that can change shape to accommodate a variety of cultural affairs. The site is framed by two-level gutters — the final conceptual layer in staging a dialogue between nature and technology — that serve as technical trenches for cable passages and other infrastructural substrates as well as rainwater collection to nourish on-site vegetation.
Images by Laurier Verdaguer and Pelletier de Fontenay