This strategy also helped declutter Wesley Temple, allowing
the architects to preserve and restore the original spatiality of
the overall structure. Along with the library spaces, the Maison
de la littérature’s unique and innovative program also includes
a concert/lecture hall, a café, a temporary exhibition space, a
permanent exhibition, a resident writer’s apartment, creation
studios, a projection room, a classroom as well as a multimedia
studio.
The Wesley Temple, built in 1848, was closed in 1931 and was
transformed in 1944 into a public library and a concert and
lecture hall for the Institut Canadien. The latter was closed to
the public in 1999. The new Maison de la littérature offered to the
Institut the opportunity to pursue its mission, while remaining
one of the oldest public libraries in the province of Québec.
AN ADDITION WITH STRANGELY FAMILIAR SHAPE
The partly transparent and strangely familiar shape of this new
annex gives an open, contemporary feel to the Institut Canadien
de Québec, the main entrance of which is now accessed naturally
from the bottom of the sloping Chaussée des Écossais where it
intersects with Rue St-Stanislas.
The outer shell of the façade is made of glass panels with
an underlayer of perforated brass sheets, which compose an
intriguing bas-relief. Furthermore, the glass annex reflects its
surroundings, integrating itself carefully, without mimicry, into the
historic urban context of Old Québec.
This extension, which in its dialectic relationship with the original
temple brings the institution fully into the 21st century with its
e-books and Twitter poems, houses the main creative spaces in the
upper levels. All the necessary mechanical spaces are also found in
the basement of the new addition. The idea of putting the creative
spaces outside the temple while maintaining a close connection to
it seemed symbolically appropriate. Slightly detached, the annex’s
impressive views of the river and the old city offer a greater sense
of freedom.
THE MULTIPLE PATHS OF FREEDOM
The institution’s interior layout provides greater access via the main
door of the temple as well as the parking lot that also leads into
the annex. These various access options all converge on the large
circular opening in the library’s floor and the hanging contemporary
light fixture at the heart of the building, vertically connecting the
café, two exhibition areas, and the library collections.
THE ANNEX’S IMPRESSIVE VIEWS OF
THE RIVER AND THE OLD CITY OFFER A
GREATER SENSE OF FREEDOM.