Share to
Intermédiaire
By : Jean-Simon Bissonnette et Viviane Camirand
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Student
Categories : Students work / Student - Architecture : Gold Certification, Platinum Winner
Intermédiaire (Intermediate) is a student project that consists of expanding the Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal by adding a new multimedia room and a new library. Aware of the landscape context of Mount Royal in which it is located, the proposal offers a harmonious transition between the mountain and the city, and between the campus and the urban fabric of Outremont.
The expansion is composed of three distinct wings that meet specific needs. The first wing includes rehearsal, recording and music broadcasting spaces, promoting interaction with the public and offering a breathtaking view of the rocky walls of Mount Royal. The second wing hosts the research spaces, while the third contains the new library, offering more intimate spaces enriched by the surrounding forest.
The fragmentation of the expansion allows users to enjoy different views of the natural landscape and the city, while challenging the monumentality traditionally associated with institutional buildings. An exterior promenade enhances the daily life of the users while connecting the different wings and the existing pavilion. It includes vegetation and urban furniture inspired by the line developed by Jean-Claude la Haye in 1968 for the second master plan of the campus.
The building offers many social spaces to compensate for the lack of space in the existing building, thus promoting human interaction and increased academic and cultural sharing. The atrium acts as a crossroads between the three newly created wings, the existing building, and the outdoor spaces, ensuring that this transition in the landscape is significantly highlighted.
The access to the building has been revised with the addition of a street to the east for vehicular traffic and the shortening of Vincent d’Indy Avenue to the west. These interventions made the site entirely pedestrian and safe, allowing the organization of outdoor events and the reforestation of certain previously waterproof areas. In addition, a bleacher was built to connect the atrium and the soccer field, making the site more easily connected to Mount Royal Boulevard.
The project was designed with a strong sense of sustainability, featuring various ecological and bioclimatic design strategies. These strategies include rainwater collection, solar gain control and an emphasis on passive ventilation. The wood structure was chosen for its aesthetic qualities and its benefits for users, but especially for its lower environmental impact compared to concrete or steel. These strategies created a healthy and pleasant environment for the occupants, while minimizing the building’s carbon footprint.
Finally, the new extension breaks the isolation of the Faculty of Music from the rest of the campus by creating a major pole of attraction for the Université de Montréal through the quality and versatility of its spaces. This proposal is therefore a unique architectural device that harmoniously combines human beings, built space and the Mount Royal landscape, and is perfectly in line with the values of the University de Montreal: creative, innovative, open, inclusive and human.
