Rimouski, Quebec, Canada

Launched in 1992 by the Corporation du Musée régional de Rimouski, this competition concerned the planning of a contemporary project that would revitalize the precarious state of the Musée régionale de Rimouski, inaugurated in 1972. This museum housed in an old parish church constructed from 1823 to 1824, had numerous technical problems including the obsolescence of its museological equipment, the significant deterioration of the building's exterior envelope and the structure's non-conformity to building codes. Combined, these issues required immediate attention and demanded an inevitable building rehabilitation. The church's volume and various openings meant that the project would be far from simple, as it involved the incorporation of a museological function within a building designed for an entirely different use. In launching this competition, the museum wished to remedy the existing conflict between the architectonic development of the institution and the conservation of the church: itself an artefact belonging to the museum's collection. For the museum, a provincial architectural competition seemed an appropriate means to obtain ideas regarding the building's future.