Archetech Issue 42 2019 | Page 63

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.