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Aménagement de La Maison Brignon-dit-Lapierre
By : Vlan Paysages
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 15th edition
Discipline : Landscape & Territories
Categories : Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture - Cultural & Institutional Project : Gold Certification
Maison Brignon-dit-Lapierre is located on Gouin Boulevard in the Montreal-North borough, near the Rivière-des-Prairies River. This farmhouse that dates to the 18th and 19th centuries now houses a cultural centre.
In 2018, Vlan Paysages was appointed for the realization of landscape and heritage studies of the site, which laid the groundwork and planning guidelines for said site’s redesign, with due regards to its natural and historic qualities. In 2019, Vlan proceeded to oversee the realization and construction of the project together with the City of Montreal, which reached completion in October of 2021.
The project is characterized by a minimal approach composed of fine, delicate, and interpretive gestures applied on an agricultural and heritage landscape that has been erased with time. Vlan Paysages’ approach aims to add, enhance, transform, and withdraw the site’s specific components to bring the vanished landscape back to life. The delicate interventions elevate the site, helping it stand out in its environment as if it had always been there. This newly revealed landscape evokes a continuous relationship with time.
Three main orientations provide the framework for the site’s redesign and address the challenges of its current context. To begin, the interpretation of the lost landscape is composed of a series of minimal but purposeful interventions. Additionally, the site’s ecological rehabilitation is ensured by a choice of native, endemic, and ancestral types of vegetation, evoking the site’s historical vocation. Lastly, the urban resonance of the project, created as the main connection between the urban fabric of the city and the Rivière-des-Prairies River, renders it accessible to all the community.
Maison Brignon-dit-Lapierre serves as the main physical connection between Gouin Boulevard and the Rivière-des-Prairies Park in the Montreal-North borough. Based on the site’s agricultural past, the project reinterprets the concept of heritage landscape in relation to the old farmhouse on the riverbank, and reinvents a landscape lost with the passing of time. Historic documentation helps to reimagine the past sense of place and experience of the site, associated to its specific period of reference in time. Consequently, the redevelopment of the agricultural landscape includes a vegetable garden west of the farmhouse, a revegetated plateau at the east, as well as a flowering orchard planted with ancestral fruit trees, destined to be harvested by the community. An interpretation interface is integrated into the square to commemorate the farmhouse’s history, framing the site’s renewed natural and bucolic panorama.
The project aims to be inclusive in its proposed uses, offering a revegetated plateau, a vegetable garden for urban agriculture as well as a versatile paved space at the back of the farmhouse, intended to bring neighbours and visitors to the site for various gatherings and cultural events. The site’s impact also resonates on an urban scale: with its meandering pathways, it appears as a crucial node connecting the residential areas of Montreal-North to the Rivière-des-Prairies Park. Furthermore, the proposed interventions also materialize the formation of a prominent civic core for the neighbourhood, connecting Gouin Boulevard to the river through Hôtel-de-Ville Street, located just across the Maison Brignon-dit-Lapierre.
Collaboration
Engineering : IGF Axiom / Génie électrique
