The library is housed in the Saint-Denys-du-Plateau church erected in 1964 by the architect Jean-Marie Roy, an iconic work of the local modern patrimonial architecture.
The conversion and extension of the building signed Dan Hanganu + Côté Leahy Cardas Architectes of the Monique Corriveau library is a tribute to this remarkable author, mother of 10 children to each of which she dedicated a book.
The project is operation which must be approached with respect and humility of Saint-Denys-du-Plateau Church deserves this special consideration due to its unusual, dynamic volume, which evokes a huge tent inflated by the wind and anchored to the ground with tensioners.
The objective of the project was to maintaining the original form of Roy’s church, with a glass expansion on either side effortlessly blends with the brilliant white exterior of the tented steeple, creating an illusion of the sails of a ship amongst shining ice glaciers, reflecting the light of the sun by day and twinkling from the electric inside by night.
Inside, the attention to detail and use of space comes together in a clever, functional and aesthetically enticing design that is both soothing and exciting – an ideal environment for the reading, computing and study. The nave houses the library’s public functions, with shelves and work and reading areas, while the addition contains the administration and community hall.
This separation of functions means that the community hall can be kept open outside library opening hours, while the spectacular and monumental volume of the nave is preserved, since the architectural concept is to transform the space into a model of spatial appropriation as a reinterpretation of the interior.
To accentuate the fluidity of this volume, the solid soffit above the window has been replaced by glass panel which allows each beam to visually slip seamlessly to its exterior steel base, – a revelation of visual continuity.
The volume replacing the presbytery and community hall occupies the same footprint and was executed in clear, silk-screened and coloured glass panels. It is separated from the library by a void, marking the transition from old to new.
At the front, extending the structure of the choir-screen and the canopy, a code-required emergency staircase is housed in a coloured glass enclosure signalling the new place, dominating a new parvis, reconfigured with street furniture, trees and other greenery.
Building on transparency and reflection, the architects have made a strong statement with colour at the ends of the building, an allusion to the vibrant, bold colours of the 1960s, which contrast the whiteness and brilliance newly captured in the remarkable form of the original church.
Location: Québec City, Canada
Architects: Dan Hanganu + Côté Leahy Cardas Architects
Architect in charge: Jacques Côté, Sébastien Laberge
Project Team: Dan S. Hanganu, Gilles Prud’homme, Diana Cardas, Sébastien Laberge
Consultants: Pascal Gobeil, Martin Girard, Marie-Andrée Goyette (CLC) Olivier Grenier, Martine Walsh, Anne-Catherine Richard, Marc Despaties (DHA)
Engineers: Civil / Structure BPR Mechanical / Electricity BPR Acoustician Audiofax
Contractor: Pomerleau
Size: 4400 m2
Cost: $14.7 millions
Year: 2013
Client: Ville de Québec, arrondissement Sainte-Foy – Sillery – Cap-Rouge
Photographs: Stéphane Groleau
