![Screen Installation [Fragment] | 1:1](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b7b89307eaa003bdf17db5/1512958322004-HU3XM2RZYM51DCUGIYD7/image-asset.jpeg)
The new Saul-Bellow library aims to enable true accessibility to culture and information. The program and human gestures the building is intended to house are key to the architectural concept. This project proposes to re-position the public library as the center of Lachine’s social life, as a civic institution and meeting place for the community, aiming to contribute to the definition of a new library model.
The first intentions came in terms of intern spatial organization and programming. We developed an organization centralized around an empty core, located at the heart of the project, which contains all vertical circulation.
All reading areas are located on levels at different heights, allowing for a variety of visual interaction between the different sections. Gradating from the core, a very active and animated space, where users meet and pass, to the ends of the bearings, quiet and intimate reading areas, shelving modulates the space and acts as a filter. The books, integrated as part of the building's structure, generate spaces and define diverse ambiances for flexible use: individual, professional, playful, etc.
For the facade of the building, we developed a self-supporting envelope system that filters sun rays to let in as much light during winter, while reducing the input during summertime for energy efficiency purposes. The mesh, composed of corten steel rods and wooden elements, acts as a buffer zone and creates a homogeneous screen effect from the outside and allows for a disassociation from the urban context on the inside, yet still preserves a visual connection with the environment. The choice of materiality is fully rooted in Lachine's history and reflects the natural surroundings of the site.
Group project in collaboration with Maxime Hurtubise done in the context of Prof. M. Carter's Architectural Design studio IV, University of Montreal, Winter 2014.