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Village Scalabrini
By : Humà Design + architecture
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Residential Building / Apartment & Condo ≥ 10 storeys : Gold Certification
Categories : Special Award / Architecture + Heritage Enhancement : Bronze Certification
Categories : Other categories in architecture / Facade : Bronze Certification
Categories : Residential Building / Multi-unit Housing ≤ 4 storeys : Silver Certification
Categories : Special Award / Building Conversion & Adaptive Reuse : Silver Certification
The Scalabrini Village project combines a new housing construction annexed to Sainte-Rita Church (1956).
The project unfolds with the desire to transform a heritage church into a community center and add a new building of 51 housing units in the remaining plot, ensuring asset maintenance. One of our main objectives was to create a tangible multifunctional complex with the church that enables dialogue and interactions among different tenants, users, and neighborhood residents.
A major debate at the heart of the project was to preserve the existing civic hub. Indeed, the church, at the center of the project, was a gathering place for the ‘villagers’ of Ahuntsic and interacted with its direct neighbor, a school. -This project was brought to us by a neighborhood resident who sought a firm capable of understanding the social significance of the church, undertaking the steps to preserve it, and even better: enhance it-. We therefore positioned the new building in the background to perpetuate this main dialogue reading between the church and the school from Durham Street. Also, a carefully studied transparency permeates the new building, continuing this doorstep discussion between these two neighborhood institutions.
The residents desired a social project, a beautiful addition anchored in their daily lives, which they themselves would be capable of buying and inhabiting: Thus, Scalabrini Village was born: out of the desire to create an affordable rental project, which, among other things, could be inhabited by retired priests (and, as a bonus, would allow them to access their church through a protected tunnel passage without having to go outside.) All of this, in response to a desire from us and the residents to develop a symbiosis between the existing architecture and the design of the new building. Therefore, it includes numerous architectural elements directly inspired by the church.
Church
- Change the fate of the church by converting it into a community center, housing a chapel and rentable rooms;
- Highlight elements of heritage significance;
- Bring the building up to code with barrier-free access and exits (addition of a lift);
- Equip the building with a commercial kitchen for hosting events.
Demolition Challenges The church rectory was contaminated with asbestos, and several elements had to be carefully salvaged to be used in the restoration of the church envelope. Several strategic demolition works were orchestrated on the three levels of the church in preparation for the redesign of the premises.
Carefully Studied Placement The building’s placement creates an interesting interface, like an interior walkway that has become a desirable living environment for residents. We also aimed to integrate a significant landscaping space into the project and nestle the church in a green setting, like a park open to all, further cementing the social dimension of this project. A ‘children’s path’ was even developed, allowing for a safe crossing of the site, winding along an edible shrub hedge: returning from school takes on a whole new dimension of summer ritual!
There are also green spaces on either side of the church square to prevent the built environment from overshadowing it while creating the desired interface between the project and the street. The significant slope of the site was also addressed by creating several levels, both exterior and interior, promoting, among other things, the privacy of terraces overlooking Millen Avenue.
Collaboration
