VI[E]S-À-VI[E]S - FIGURE AND BACKGROUND
The redevelopment of the Îlot des Palais
Revealing the artifacts - creating a symbol
The Îlot des Palais, seat of the intendants of New France, is a heritage site of exceptional quality. History has left multiple layers - artifacts, archaeological remains, old and transformed buildings, plant and mineral surfaces from various periods. It is a highly significant place to reveal. The City of Quebec sees in this richness the opportunity to create a symbolic development, evocative of the past and directed towards the future.
Finding clarity in complexity, revealing the multiple layers of history and create an evocative museological and ceremonial center are the main challenges. The project is conceived as an in situ installation that reveals the history of the site in its landscape. The historical layers and artifacts are reflected in overlapping spaces that invite movement.
Consolidating a piece of the city
The project advocates the enhancement of the urban fabric by favouring street alignment and respect for the scale. Through the conservation and recycling of existing structures, it emphasizes an approach based on sustainable development. These will be preserved, except for the brewery erected on the vaults of the Second Palace. The industrial structures of Saint-Nicolas Street contribute to the built front and the experience of the street space, they protect the heart of the block from winter winds and have an important use value (efficient structures and flexible volumes).
Figureheads - backdrops
Urban designs are composed of solids and voids, buildings and places. A coherent whole composes with these figures on the background of the urban space. The project articulates this idea, placing the figures in tension within the city space.
Historical, symbolic and political considerations identify the Second Palace and its Court of Honor as the dominant figure and the essential void in the project. The archaeological museum, the public space and the industrial buildings form the background that frames it. The project takes up in this contrast of figure-ground the historical vis-à-vis between the two palaces - the object-position and formality in dialogue with the space-transition and the contemporary city.
Simple gestures constitute figure and background:
The figure - the second Palace and the Court of Honor
The Second Palace and the Cour d'honneur form a plaque slid from Rue Vallière into the setting of the contemporary city. The central avenue, a French garden and a water basin are also placed on this plaque. The reconstitution of the original volume of the palace on the restored foundations of the old one constitutes a fundamental gesture, both symbolic and political. The design, the proportions and the form of the old palace are restored, but the building, in its aerial composition, is modern. By freeing it from neighboring structures and offering a current treatment, the building is brought to the present and placed in the perspective of a promising future. At the height of the symbolic value of the place, the tectonics becomes a metaphor of a political will.
The Court of Honor refers to the former ceremonial and utilitarian court of governance, the utilitarian now giving way to tourism. It is a protected place, an inner courtyard to be discovered through the experience of walking through the city. The passages through the case open the courtyard to the city and invite exploration. It is completed by installations that refer to history while qualifying the space and its contemporary functions. The evocation of elements of the historic landscape (original proximity to the St. Charles River, the Intendant's orchard and French garden, and the buried foundations of the Boswell Brewery) is inscribed in the courtyard by a pond, new plantings and traces on the courtyard surface.
The background - the Jean Talon Pavilion, recycled industrial buildings and public space
The background is composed of contemporary buildings, recycled buildings and the redeveloped public space. The horizontal surfaces above this background are treated as gardens, green roofs. The exterior spaces are arranged in mineral and vegetal surfaces. The treatment of the buildings and background spaces highlights the second Palais by contrast, reinforces the unity of the block and makes an environmental gesture that changes the scale of experience of the project seen from above. The City of Quebec marks its time by spearheading the application of bioclimatic construction strategies.
The Jean-Talon Pavilion proposes a museum itinerary that is a real ribbon developed by the play of footbridges and ramps to multiply the points of view on the remains as well as on the heart of the block. The House of Fraser serves as a figurative element to a rather abstract building, a long horizontal bar.
The proposed redevelopment of urban spaces includes the widening of sidewalks on Vallière Street and Côte de la Potasse and the planting of trees on Vallière and Allée des Prairies. The redevelopment of rue Saint-Vallier and the enhancement of its ancient paved walkway, a true archaeological jewel, creates a first-rate ceremonial axis leading to the entrance of the museum and to a porte cochère opening onto the central avenue of the Cour d'honneur.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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