Stage 1
Urban insertion
She got off at the St-Laurent metro station in the Quartier des Spectacles and walked slowly up the boulevard towards her destination: the new Montreal Holocaust Museum on the Main. Slowed down by the stifling heat of the city, she suddenly felt the temperature drop around the museum. She then sees the green setting surrounded by familiar facades that seem to float above the street, revealing a generous and welcoming square. Moved, she found the front of her Hungarian grandfather's old store, a shoemaker who arrived in Montreal in 1957. The new museum absorbs and responds to this history by recasting its brick façade to create a building with an uncertain heritage, at once historical and contemporary, familiar yet foreign. Abandoning traditional brick dimensions, a collection of distorted clay blocks creates a visible pattern on the surface.
Tikkoun Olam: The architectural experience of Montreal's new Holocaust Museum encourages visitors to "participate in the repair of the world" through introspection and a symbiosis between the museum and the forest. The museum is committed to becoming a refuge for life by demonstrating how to provide opportunities for the regeneration of our urban environments. By demonstrating its commitment to the protection and restoration of the life around it, the museum tells the story of the Holocaust, while encouraging visitors to examine the history of human rights and our collective responsibility to respect the sanctity of all life and its diversity. Jews and non-Jews share a common cultural history of Genocide in this regard, and locally in Canada, we can speak specifically of First Nations/Aboriginal people. While not attempting to embody a "universalist" reclamation of Holocaust memory through a humanist and environmentalist approach, the narrative and spatial strategy not only allows for introspection and empowerment but also presents itself as a call for social justice and community development. The new MHM presents a narrative between past and future and an architecture that commemorates the Holocaust through a model of Jewish identity focused on resilience and hope
Stage 2
Running its course for millennia, the shared history of the world's diverse Jewish communities carries a wisdom gained from a journey fraught with brokenness, but more importantly, strength and hope. The commemoration and transmission of the events of the Shoah allow persecuted Jews and non-Jews to pass on to future generations messages of hope, as well as the knowledge necessary to build resilience. In this spirit, the architectural experience of the new Montreal Holocaust Museum encourages visitors to "participate in the repair of the world", Tikun Olam 3, through introspection and a symbiosis between the museum and its forest garden. In displaying its commitment to the protection and restoration of the life around it, the museum tells the story of the Holocaust, while encouraging visitors to examine the history of human rights and our collective responsibility to respect the sanctity of all life forms and diversity. While not attempting to embody the "universalist" reclamation of Holocaust memory through a humanist and environmentalist approach, the narrative and spatial strategy not only allows for introspection and empowerment, but presents itself as a call for social justice and community development.
The museum concept proposes a paradigm shift from the architectural experience and symbolism hitherto offered by 20th century Holocaust museums, dominated by the theme of catastrophe and protective containment, to a vision of the 21st century museum as a land of exile. Induced by this impulse of renewal and reconstruction, the museum space embodies hope and resilience through an expanded museography, evoked by other injustices around the world, to which
juxtaposed with the climate emergency. To achieve this, the project proposes a series of inversions, starting with
the opening of the museum to its context. The narrative of the past takes a new step; it opens up to visitors, to the surrounding citizens, to the city and to the world. More than 75 years after the Holocaust, when Montreal has become home to the third largest survivor community outside of Europe, the location of the new museum on St. Laurent Blvd. St. Laurent is significant both for its historical and geographic context
and through a unique collection, almost all of which includes objects donated by the 5,000 to 7,000 survivors living in Montreal. Conceived as a real forum for discussion, the new museum is no longer simply the guardian of memory, but above all a place of exchange and action for the regeneration of the world, in which the healing of the past commits us to turn towards a common future, together and stronger.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
Stage 1
The jury appreciates this project that reconciles the connection between the two streets through the site, without creating a disconnection at the first floor level, by working with the topography. The jury sees a lot of potential for development in this project. The proposed sustainable development strategies are appreciated. The contribution of the garden to the interior spaces is a strong point. However, certain aspects of the proposed garden remain to be reviewed or clarified, including the planting strategy, pedestrian accessibility, the scale of the trees and their clearance from the building. The jury deplores the lack of representation of the St. Laurent Boulevard façade.
Stage 2
The jury is of the opinion that the vast garden, which connects the two streets through the site, is the strong point of this project, while creating several problems. The boldness of this design is commended.
It is agreed that this garden gives a very interesting articulation to the building. However, the link between this garden and the Holocaust Museum is not obvious. The jury is of the opinion that this garden, which is more akin to an urban park than a memorial garden, does not contribute sufficiently to the building and to the museum's path. The jury would have appreciated more details on the activities that could be held there and the possible interactions between the Museum spaces and the garden. The jury is of the opinion that the landscape ramp and the difference in level, as well as the limited width of the garden, will be constraints for the development of meeting spaces and connection points with the building.
The richness of the route offered is emphasized, although some improvements could be made.
The exhibition spaces overlooking the garden are too great a constraint on the development of the exhibition spaces and on the museum itinerary.
According to the jury, the sustainable development strategy appears convincing and well developed.
The jury was not convinced by the façade on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, believing that it mixes too many languages, elements and motifs, which does not create a strong enough image. The reading of the Museum's entrance is not clear enough. Reservations are also expressed about the cobbler's house, which seems to float, and about the legibility of the representation of the song in the perforated mesh, taking into account the planned flora.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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