The tree
Completing the built sequence of the exhibition greenhouses and the Biodiversity Center, the Glass Pavilion is in a way the articulation between the interior environment and the exterior path of the gardens beginning with the Rose Garden. The meeting of these universes is materialized in this place which borrows metaphorically from the natural universe of the gardens as if to blur this liminal condition between inside and outside, between nature and culture. The pavilion emerges from a global, unifying will, that of a nature without limits. From the first visit, a circular form imposes itself intuitively in relation to the existing conditions linked to the different natural paths bordering the site. This eroded volume is in the image of this surrounding nature, it is in continuity with it. These forms recall the tree and its trunk, whose structure allows it to feed vertically through the bast, between the wood and the bark. We find this same ascending and peripheral energy in the Glass Pavilion. This form of the tree with its diffuse and porous limits serves as the inspiration for the project.
The path
In keeping with the idea of blurring the boundary between inside and outside, the concept of the pavilion borrows one of its strongest elements from gardens: the pathway. The project is intended to be a natural, three-dimensional extension of the existing garden path. This walkway is like a path through a luminous forest, culminating in a pond that offers a mirror on the sky. As you ascend, the colored glass filters the light while vertical elements punctuate the surface in a forest-like rhythm. In summer, an interior breeze accompanies this naturally ventilated loop. Upstairs, we find the suspended water garden. This new evolving garden becomes a high point, a window on the near and far, on the Roseraie and on the Quebec landscape. It is a microcosm reminiscent of the design of the landscape here. The creation of this space allows us to take a new look at the environment and ourselves. The Botanical Garden being in itself a representation of the world, it is thus equipped with an intimate space allowing to contemplate this representation.
An aquatic sky
The experience of the suspended aquatic sky is unique and always renewed by the variability of the weather, the temperature, the light, the wind on the snow, the light on the ice... The initiatory path that leads to it is a path in an ascending forest that takes the visitor to the treetops and thus brings him a little closer to the sunlight, which is also the source of life. The inner experience of the Glass and Water Pavilion is equally radiant. Between earth - anchored - and water - suspended -, the visitor experiences weightlessness, that of a memory of water: responding to the complex lines of the water garden, a ceiling of light floats above the visitors. The light seems to cross the water, sometimes in powerful rays, sometimes it is diffused by the water and becomes soft, with an infinite variety of whites and slow aquatic movements. The two are infinitely combined according to the variations of the upper garden, the weather, the time of day and the activity of the room.
(From competition documentation)
(Unofficial automated translation)
An elegant and refined project whose museography is highly developed in relation to the program. The formal concept acts as an entrance to the Garden, through which one is invited to pass.
- The approach, very formal, does not create a visual link with the Biodiversity Center, nor with the Rose Garden because of its height and the importance of the volume.
- The quality of the rooftop water garden does not justify such a location in the heart of a botanical garden, nor the effort of access.
- Functionally, the room is smaller than the PFT and is weakly connected to the André Bouchard room; its irregular shape makes it less flexible to arrange.
- The Leed aspect and the mechanical concept are well treated and integrated into the architecture.
- An ambitious project but the formal expression fails to meet the vision of Space for Life for this pavilion; the jury deplores the lack of coherence between the intentions and the proposed formal architecture.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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