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Odea
By : Lemay en collaboration avec Douglas Cardinal
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 15th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Residential Building / Apartment & Condo ≥ 10 storeys : Bronze Certification
Located at a gateway to Montréal, Odea highlights the presence of the Crees in the city through a distinctive design that integrates their values and emphases characteristics of their culture. The architectural concept is based on a desire to ensure a visual and urban link between the project and its environment. The approach retained for the project is to reveal the unique character of the site while ensuring its urban integration in the city’s landscape. While several vacant industrial buildings will be demolished, part of one building’s façade, will be preserved and enhanced, to create a unique architectural element in the project. The design evokes the Cree culture by placing the canoe as an all-encompassing symbol for the project. The canoe shapes the footprint and sculps the corner entrance at the intersection of two major streets axis. It stands out as a landmark element in the urban landscape. The skin of the building reacts to its environment, and acts as a shield against the surrounding urban dynamics while highlighting the uses of the building. The exterior cladding engages the facades in a constant dialogue with the urban environment. The desire to create a meaningful threshold at the entrance to the city of Montreal takes the form of two visual markers positioned at the intersection of highways. The landscape architecture concept was strongly inspired by numerous elements specific to the Cree culture, to testify to their presence in Montreal and to impregnate the project with their rightful signature. From a material point of view, the use of wood, quarry stone and specific species are reminiscent of the boreal forest; from a spiritual point of view, the circular shape of the layout evokes the heart of the project, in the sense of equity and mutual aid, a place of exchange and reconciliation.
Collaboration