WINNER OF A 2024 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERITThis design demonstrates an understanding of the community, the character of the neighbourhood and the importance of preserving the existing Hibernia Park. The building footprint is reduced by stacking the program on three levels and allowing the public functions to spill out on the ground floor. The strength of this project lies on its relationship to the existing building and the park. The fluid organic forms at the ground floor open to the park, while the structured upper levels and asymmetrical, yet structured approach to the elevations act as a foil to the formality of the stone faade of the existing fire hall building. The low-budget, industrial approach to the structure adds to the charming and inviting nature of the building, and informs the expression of the faade. Andrea Wolff, jurorThe buildings elevated form creates a covered outdoor plaza.LOCATIONMontreal, QuebecThe physical and symbolic heart of Pointe-Saint-Charles, a historically working-class area in Montreal, is Hibernia Park and its old fire hall. 50 years ago, the community fought to preserve the fire hall as a means to oppose development of a boulevard that would cut the neighbourhood in two. They stopped the boulevard, saved the fire hall, and transformed it into their municipal library.Adjoining the historic fire hall, the main entrance opens into a lofty agora space connected to the sheltered outdoor area. Plentiful bike racks encourage active transportation.The present addition will almost triple the size of the existing library. The City of Montreal conducted extensive public outreach and programming sessions with the local community prior to launching a competition for its design. However, the competition process excluded any ties between the designers and the community. To maintain the activist spirit of the community, the architects transformed their working process, inventing citizen-avatarspeople exchanging books, elderly people in a dance class, a teacher with their pupilsand role-playing their opinions in the developing work.The tip of the addition includes nooks that invite lounging and socializing.This exercise significantly refined the design. The program called for a two-storey addition, but to safeguard the park, the team proposed a compact three-storey library that reinforces the alignment of the fire hall. Elevating a portion of the addition creates a sheltered outdoor space, connected to an interior meeting area. The interior spaces of the library are oriented towards the park.From a sustainability perspective, the design prioritizes the use of simple systems and materials with local supply chains, including two-storey trusses that use less steel, a ribbed slab with reduced concrete, and exposed mass timber deck and joists. Bricks removed from the existing building will be reused as paving under benches and bike racks, and the stone extracted for geothermal wells will become sub-grade for the parks hard surfaces.Moreover, the design encourages active transportation and urban agriculture, both of which are popular in the neighbourhood. The outdoor agora includes an abundance of bike racks, as well as public access to bike repair tools and compressed air; planting areas are part of the roof terrace and park, while the library itself hosts a seed library and gardening classes. We have tried to make a library that says: move your body, eat fresh food, and share with your neighbours, write the designers. If this project creates even a small change in the transportation and consumption habits of its users, it will increase social cohesion and reduce the neighbourhoods carbon footprint two orders of magnitude more than a net-zero building could achieve here.ScreenshotCLIENT Ville de Montral | ARCHITECT TEAM Lapointe Magne & AssocisKatarina Cernacek, Pascale-Lise Collin, milie Maumy, Ocane Perham, Florian Vadjoux, Qiang Fu, Martin-F. Daigle, Soubhi Jabal. LUF Architectes Sudhir Suri, Jennifer Benis, Edith Beauvais-Sauro, Foti Boulougaris, Aradhana Gupta, Bahia Burias, Camille Debuisne, Chlo Deblois, Ariane Ducharme | STRUCTURAL L2C Experts-Conseils | MECHANICAL Dupras Ledoux | CIVIL Vinci Consultants | LANDSCAPE NIPPAYSAGE | AREA 3,075 m2| BUDGET $21.6 M | STATUS Construction documents | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Fall 2027ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI) 97.22 kWh/m2/year | THERMAL ENERGY DEMAND INTENSITY (TEDI) 26.94 kWh/m2/year | GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS INTENSITY (GHGI) 2.33 kg CO2e/m2 | WATER USE INTENSITY (WUI) 0.081 m3/m2/yearAs appeared in the December 2024 issue of Canadian Architect magazineSee all the 2024 Awards of Excellence winnersYou can read ourjurys full comments here.The post va-Circ-Ct Library appeared first on Canadian Architect.