Gaspé, Quebec, Canada

This competition anticipated the renovation and expansion of the Musée de la Gaspésie. The Musée de la Gaspésie is a non-profit institution whose mandate is to promote the Gaspésienne cultural identity by overseeing four distinct entities; the museum, the archive centre, the Gaspé award of merit and the magazine, "Gaspésie". The competition included two main components; the renovation of the existing 1,300m2 museum, built in 1976 by Gaston Martin Architect, as well as the construction of a 984m2 addition.

Many of the competition's stakes relating to accessibility, visibility, form and flexibility were to guide architects in their conceptual approach. By means of the new building, the museum desired to increase accessibility to new communication technologies and new media of information. In pragmatic terms, a safe solution to pedestrian and vehicular access to the museum was also to be elaborated by architects. In addition, they also desired to increase the visibility of the institution to both, the community and the visitor. This meant that architects were to develop a method to affirm the museum's presence within the city and from Highway 132. As to the proposed form, it would have to at once respect the basic principals of a museological building, as well as the surrounding natural landscape. Finally, the restructuring had to permit a greater flexibility of spatial organization in order to adapt to various exhibitions and accommodate eventual modifications to the institution's programme.

(CCC text)