TULIP – PRENEZ PLACE !
Mingletown

Award of the Year – Landscape & Territories

TULIP – Prenez-Place !, Montréal, Québec, Canada
By ADHOC architectes, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Flashback to Montreal in the summer of 2020. Eager to regain possession of their city and mingle again after being their first lockdown ever, Montrealers were invited to take a seat under the forest canopy of American honey locusts. The table is set. Ready to mingle?

Granted with the AWARD OF THE YEAR in Landscape & Territories, the temporary installation designed by ADHOC architectes was imagined as an invigorating, refreshing and safe urban hangout. Mission accomplished.

Here, a 100-meter urban table spreads out along the park. It twirls, goes up and down, turns back on itself, and reveals a winding path of ambiance. Hundreds of recycled objects, reminiscent of gastronomy and tableware, are scattered here and there along the table and act as clever markers to separate social bubbles.

All tone on tone in yellow, this temporary installation charmed the jury for the ingenuity with which it advocates social distancing while encouraging socialization. To take a seat here is to get involved with the conviviality it offers. At a time in which we all needed others more than ever, kudos to the urban oasis of the year!

This undulating 100-meter long table installed under the honey locust tree canopy was set last summer at the heart of Montreal to its eager-to- get-back-to-life citizens’ greatest delight.
Twisting and turning as a rack track would, the impressively long table, designed by ADHOC architects, created a succession of set-ups in which the judicious use of recycled and iconic gastronomic objects played as markers for safe social distancing.

The refined choice of yellow design accessories and furniture, subdued lighting and vibrant yellow graphics make it a more-than-festive mellow yellow hangout.

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JURY’S KUDO “A low-cost and intelligent temporary installation of strong aesthetic impact, bearing a coherent and promising message and mission. A city public project that encourages socialization and represents modernity. A brilliant concept that could and should inspire others, in any and all urban contexts! Perfect control of the atmospheres. Congratulations. Friendliness and joie de vivre! A fair urban design that brilliantly integrates landscape architecture, street furniture and graphic design. The color, wow! Here we get away from it all, we laugh, we have fun! The choice of yellow is not trivial here and the architects understood it! It attracts and makes people happy.”

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Lead Architects:
Architect, Artistic Director: Jean-François St-Onge
Architect, Technical Director: François Martineau
Architect, Project manager: Marie-Andrée Groleau

Other participants:
Graphic Designer: Maude P. Lescarbeau & Camille Blais
Client : Partenariat du Quartier des Spectacle (PQDS)
Carpentry and woodworking: Le Madrier (MevenValy& Timothée Combes)
Printing: Umake (Marco Facciola)
Photo credits: ©Raphaël Thibodeau