Bibliothèque de Châteauguay / Châteauguay Library
2001
Châteauguay, Quebec, Canada- Architecture for culture, research, sport or leisure
- Building
- Library
In August of 2001, the City of Châteauguay - a municipality of approximately 40,000 inhabitants in the Greater Montréal region, launched a two-stage architectural competition for the design of a new library that would resolve the numerous challenges related to the storage and accessibility of its printed collection. The competition proposed the development of a new 2,400m2 facility to be situated on a site partially occupied by several other existing municipal services and communal equipment.
The goal of the new library's location was to restructure the site in order to encourage and create a space where various functions and activities could intermingle, while permitting fluidity of movement. The competition's instructions also emphasized the intelligibility of internal spatial organization: the new acquired surface area was not to destroy the appreciated intimacy of the existing library, specific library concerns such as; silence versus discussion and employee spaces versus library-user spaces were to be carefully considered. Finally, the notion of sustainable development was to promote a constructive reflection during the second stage of the competition.
During the initial stage of this open competition, with a construction budget of approximately five million dollars, sixty competitors submitted an entry. This participation was remarkable within the history of architectural competitions in Québec, which generally tend to be "by invitation only".
(From competition's documentation)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The goal of the new library's location was to restructure the site in order to encourage and create a space where various functions and activities could intermingle, while permitting fluidity of movement. The competition's instructions also emphasized the intelligibility of internal spatial organization: the new acquired surface area was not to destroy the appreciated intimacy of the existing library, specific library concerns such as; silence versus discussion and employee spaces versus library-user spaces were to be carefully considered. Finally, the notion of sustainable development was to promote a constructive reflection during the second stage of the competition.
During the initial stage of this open competition, with a construction budget of approximately five million dollars, sixty competitors submitted an entry. This participation was remarkable within the history of architectural competitions in Québec, which generally tend to be "by invitation only".
(From competition's documentation)
(Unofficial automated translation)