Inspired by the notion of montage developed by Walter Benjamin in Das Passagen-Werk, the project proposes an assemblage of fragments joined together to create an artifact bearing the traces of the site's rich history. By assembling various fragments of history invisible to the contemporary eye, buried in the collective memory, ARTEFACT DES POSSIBLES questions the present in order to address the future.
The site, over which nature has reclaimed its rights, retains palpable traces of its past. The imposing limestone monoliths that litter the ground are both silent witnesses and major players in this history, reminding us of the time when the site was a major source of construction materials for Montreal. Alongside them, the imposing, gaunt carcass of the former incinerator provides a backdrop for a reinterpretation of its role on a community scale. A former manifestation of industry and functional utility, the incinerator today becomes a space for exploration and reflection. Altered by its new use, it presents new openings, piercing its envelope and floors, letting in light, nature and visitors, symbolizing the porosity between the site's temporalities and uses. Once closed, rigid and utilitarian, it now opens up to the elements outside, marking a new phase in its own history.
The subsequent spatio-temporal strata of the site collapse and overlap, creating a new composition articulated and joined by a series of metal passages. In this way, the notion of montage is not limited to material or formal juxtaposition, but is also conceptual. The series of passages linking the fragments constitutes an "articulation" in Benjamin's sense of the term: these elements create strolling, free and open paths, where visitors reinvent their own relationship to the site and its history. Echoing the figure of the "flaneur", these extend the poetic, urban, everyday and free experience of the nearby Champ des Possibles. Each passage becomes not only a spatial but also a temporal link, a bridge between the site's different eras.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The jury's attention was drawn to the architectural program's sensory appeal. The Carrières incinerator is treated like an urban sculpture, with breaks for strolling. This indoor-outdoor vegetated walk emphasizes the well-being of the urban user, who can take advantage of every moment of the site at his or her own pace, all of which is marked by a poetic dialogue between the openings uniting the return of nature and the points of mediation in dialogue with the monumental. The formal intentions of the proposal offer an architectural resolution of caliber and complement very well those evoked in the text, making it a convincing and coherent proposal.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
3 scanned / 3 viewable
- Presentation Panel
- Perspective
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