Exploiting the theme of freedom within its original enclosure, the Maison de la littérature project recreates, through spatial and formal exuberance, warm atmospheres and lively ambiances of great material sobriety that allow the site's past to be rewritten and lived in the present and to affirm its architectural character through a literary scenographic experience.
An urban project, addressing the street, the neighborhood and the city, it remodels the Canadian Institute's inconvenient walkway into a reception area composed of multiple outdoor activity platforms. These are deployed along a scenographic screen, breaking down the forecourt into appropriable urban spaces (belvedere, forecourt, staircase, garden, esplanade) and structuring public accesses visible from the street, on the first floor and garden level. This bold approach affirms the urban presence of the new creation and diffusion space and its desire for public appropriation.
A human project, it develops in anticipatory interior paths coming from the outside and exploring a liberated space, from the cellar to the attic of the Maison. Taking advantage of the visual perspectives towards the exterior landscapes and of the natural light staged by the unusual assembly of functions in interior activity platforms, it extends and reinterprets the topography of the site and the landscape of the city. Evoking the past with the simplicity, the spatial unity and the formal complicity of the Stavely church, the new layout affirms the present and stages the literary creation and its scenography, from the entrance of the House, by exploiting the conviviality of the place and its verticality.
Articulated around the vertical opening, the scenographic device unfolds in the central space, building sensory landscapes that arouse curiosity and encourage one to climb up to the original vault. Its form exploits the large scale of the place and the more intimate scale of the users. It is composed of a gallery of portraits of authors, dead or alive, which envelops this space in transparency with perforated and silk-screened aluminum walls, and also of a scenographic ribbon, a guiding thread and a tactile and visual mediating surface of the exhibition. This ribbon of wood and metal is grafted onto the staircase and floor railings and is transformed throughout the exhibition into a display, table, bench, and counter, accompanying the visitor. This folding ribbon graphically presents a visual and sound content, in words and images, by means of digital, scrolling and programmable text strips and touch screens integrated in its thickness. An opaque technological volume with reflective surfaces, suspended from the ceiling and overhanging the central space, completes the scenographic device. Concealing the creation studio, this volume also integrates in its walls devices allowing the projection of texts and images on the vault and the emission of soundtracks perceptible, among others, from the footbridge located just below.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
This finalist had submitted a particularly convincing application in the first stage of the competition. In many respects, the submission testifies to the finalist's experience in the design of cultural spaces in existing buildings. It contains an abundance of ideas, which do not yet seem to have stabilized into a finished concept, even though the submission is particularly detailed. The result was described by the jury as "complex" and "complicated", with the space being heavily occupied by new structures that were considered spatially intrusive. The analysis of the performance revealed several contradictions, or at least raised questions in this sense. For example, while the emancipated form of the interior additions supports the theme of "freedom," the jury considers the layouts to be rather constricting. The "ribbon" that guides the user through the spaces of the Maison de la littérature does provide a guiding thread, but it fails to compensate for the labyrinthine nature of the space.
The intention to generate a spatial verticality is well expressed, but the result, from the succession of large horizontal plates, is a rather fragmented space. The jury also wonders about the possible evolution of the place, considering such a fragmentation of spaces. Furthermore, it was noted that the management of access and circulation of the different users of the Maison de la littérature would prove to be rather difficult, resulting in higher operating costs. The overloaded character of the plans accentuates the impression, according to the jury, that a synthesis had yet to be found. The drawing is competent, but suggests tensions that are clearly unresolved. The small perspectives appeared to have more qualities than the large ones, whose atmospheres were questioned, especially that of the literary bistro, which is inspired by the English tradition. The gallery of authors' portraits would have had a strong presence at the entrance to the Maison de la littérature, but the rather permanent nature of the installation led the jury to express reservations about it. The design of the large forecourt was very much appreciated by the jury, which emphasized the interest of opening the Maison de la littérature to the street, as an extension of the entrance hall.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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