Le Banc de Neige
Atelier Pierre Thibault
•
Architects
Atelier Pierre Thibault
www.pthibault.com
•
Architects in Charge
Pierre Thibault, Bertrand
Rougier, Francis Gaignard,
Sandrine Gaulin
•
Area
3500.0 ft2
•
Photographs
Maxime Brouillet
www.maximebrouillet.org
F
or a summer, Le Banc
de neige recreates the
magical snowbanks left
over from Quebec’s
winter storms. At once a
platform and a public bench,
the ephemeral installation
modifies the user’s relation to
the public space by allowing a
multitude of appropriations.
As it drapes around the tree
trunks and street lamps of
the Place de Bordeaux with a
luminous white, it magnifies
these elements of the everyday
while providing seating
platforms for the pétanque
court.
These multiple bases are
generated by a series of
topographical contours alluding
20 Landscape & Urban Design
to architectural representation.
Passers-by are invited to
settle in and take break by
contemplating the urban
landscape of St-Paul Street,
while the most adventurous
will climb the snowbank to hide
in the dense foliage of trees,
sheltered from the street.
The project was built
commissioned by Quebec City
street art festival Passages
Insolites. It was one a dozen
art installations in the heart of
the historic center. Moreover,
it was conceived to be a public
infrastructure to display the
potential of inviting urban
design. Le Banc de neige
is made from thin painted
plywood curved to obtain the
wavering extrusions.