Maison de la littérature de l’Institut Canadien – Old Quebec City

“One example that comes to mind is the Maison de la littérature de l’Institut canadien, built in Old Quebec City, following a provincial competition won by Chevalier Morales Architects. This project has received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix d’excellence en architecture awarded by the Ordre des architectes du Québec in 2017. It is a sensitive and radical transformation of a once heavy and dark space into a light and airy setting bathed in light. This project establishes new dialogues with its host environment, between building and neighborhood, between heritage and contemporaneity. The strong constraints of the project have been transformed into a conceptual lever. This is particularly illustrated, with great eloquence, in the questioning of the recommendations of the competition program, which originally foresaw the simple redevelopment of the existing building. By hollowing out the existing building in order to increase its size, and by relegating the compartmentalized and technically constrained spaces of the program to a new annex, the designers not only posed the competition question in a different way, but also introduced unforeseen qualities to the originally imagined architectural project.

The success of the project is due in particular to a particularly harmonious combination of the multiple qualities desired in the program and added by the designers, which gives the whole a unique character and an exceptional coherence. It must be said that the designers spared no effort in constantly aiming for a certain balance between old/new, whole/parts, unified/articulated space, mass/lightness, neutrality/expressiveness of materials, container/content, calm/animated atmosphere, interiorization/exteriorization, etc. Clearly, the approach to design is integrated, holistic and inclusive, and this can be felt in the result. Above all, it is the strong attendance and appreciation, which has been constantly renewed (except for pandemic-related reasons) since the project’s inauguration, that testifies to its exceptional public qualities.”(Booklet Positive Lived Experiences of Quality in the Built Environment 2023, p.50).

House of Literature of the Canadian Institute. Photo credit: Chevalier Morales
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