Unifying Principle
The architectural party is a combination of the context and the program according to vertical and horizontal zonings. The unifying principle of these zonings is the central light shaft that vertically crosses all the levels of the building and around which the functions of the program are articulated (except for the exhibition hall and the parking lot).
Zoning
The vegetal zone at the top houses the permanent collection (approximately 60,000 books in capacity) and is almost entirely closed to the outside, as are traditional libraries, to shelter and preserve the books from the light of the ground. The mineral area heralds the arrival of new information storage technology (computers, CD-ROMs, videotapes, internet, etc.). The bottom part is completely open to the outside. The project is a walled box superimposed on a glass box.
Intentions
The programmatic architectural party is articulated around three complementary intentions:
openness interaction functionality.
openness: the spatial transparency introduces the user to the general atmosphere. It is also the opening to the outside of a library partly freed by its new mineral support.
interaction: all activity sectors (except the parking lot and the exhibition hall) are open to a referential space. The same phenomenon of transparency interaction continues through large windows overlooking a green space.
Interaction: facilitated by transparency (decompartmentalization) allows the development of a synergy between functions and users.
functionality: each activity sector is considered as a particular function of a whole.
(From the competition program)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The relevance of the position of the main entrance, at the intersection of Wiseman and Saint-Just streets, and the sensitive way of identifying it by a volume implanted according to a geometry out of line with the main volume of the building.
The careful relationship of this volume to the scale of the neighbouring residential building.
The quality of the general layout, which creates a backyard space that respects the landscape context within the existing block.
The care given to a generous and elegant fenestration that will provide great luminosity in the building.
The positioning of these windows in relation to a large skylight in the roof, which together create transparency in all interior spaces.
The development of landscaped spaces that provide a sense of continuity throughout the site and that flow into the exhibition hall.
The appropriateness of the response to the program as a socio-cultural space.
The variety of types of work and reading spaces.
The use of materials, brick masonry and tinned copper, reinforcing its place in the urban context.
The image and civic character that the building possesses.
(From ARQ Magazine # 86 August 1995, p.8)
(CRC translation)
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