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Matière-Matière
By : Rose-Marie Guévin, Vincent Ouellet, Tristan Morissette et Marie-Pier Caron
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 18th edition
Distinctions
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Other categories in architecture / Temporary Installation : Gold certification
Categories : Special Award / Architecture + Materials : Silver certification
Matière-Matière is a temporary installation and one of the winning projects of the 24th edition of the International Garden Festival at the Jardins de Métis, presented under the theme ROOTS. This ephemeral structure offers a material and architectural exploration of tone-on-tone relationships - texture on texture, colour on colour - where the material appears as an extension of its site.
The experience of matter
Three walls made entirely of hempcrete curve, converge, expand and contract to invite visitors into an intimate, sensory encounter with the material. As the body moves through the space, sounds are muffled, distances blur and the material becomes a guide. The project is characterized by a slow pace of movement, allowing visitors to become aware of their surroundings and observe parallels between the transformation of the surrounding plant fibers and the immersive space itself.
Material and form
Hempcrete, chosen for its raw texture, quickly asserted itself as a material rich in meaning. Known for its technical and sensory properties, the mixture of hemp, lime and water is presented here in its most essential architectural expression. Rarely exposed, this bio-based material reveals a layered texture shaped by the formwork, variations in density and traces of imperfection. The intimate relationship between material, form and technique is at the heart of the approach. Driven by its own constructive logic, the material led the installation towards an experimental form. The project thus explores the plasticity of this non-structural insulating material and the potential for an architectural language rooted in constraint.
A rooted architecture
Rootedness is the essence of context. It is from this idea that the installation took shape - it is fundamentally part of its environment and seems to emerge from it. Through its composition, the project promotes a meaningful relationship between land and space, while foregrounding a materiality that is at once contemporary, ancestral and sustainable - in contrast to synthetic materials.
Matière-Matière offers a rooted architecture by highlighting ancestral know-how, through a formal simplicity that places the experience of place and material at the heart of the architectural act.
Collaboration
General contractor : Du Chanvre
Other : Jardins de Métis
Photo credit