04-05-2022
Smith Vigeant Architectes’ award-winning beauty for the Montréal aqueduct
Smith Vigeant Architectes,
David Boyer,
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- Smith Vigeant Architectes’ award-winning beauty for the Montréal aqueduct
![Smith Vigeant Architectes’ award-winning beauty for the Montréal aqueduct
Smith Vigeant Architectes’ award-winning beauty for the Montréal aqueduct](https://www.floornature.com/media/photos/38/17050/01_SmithVigeantArchitectes_Aqueduc_ph_DanielBoyer_home_sez.jpg)
The city’s initial idea of a completely transparent wrapper permitting observation of the activities taking place in the building was not practical for reasons of security and performance, but this did not limit the imagination of the architects from Smith Vigeant Architectes, who have stood out for their great commitment to sustainability, innovation and collaboration ever since Daniel Smith and Stéphan Vigeant founded the studio in 1992. Their design is clearly inspired by the nature of water, as a metaphor inspiring both the materials and the composition.
Like water, continually flowing but never the same, the building’s appearance changes with time and the seasons, thanks to the choice of glass characterising the cubic volume. The appearance of the glass changes with the time of day, like the surface of the water, so that the building gives off a soft, reassuring light at night. In summer the plants around it cover the building in a coat of vegetation, while the colour of the glass makes it look like a block of ice in winter. The analogies with water also appear in the markedly horizontal lines of the volume, the glass cube and the railing evoking the horizontality of water.
Thanks to the beautiful formal choices and focus on design of Smith Vigeant Architectes, what is for all purposes a purely utilitarian building, in which aesthetics would not normally be taken into account, becomes a work of architecture in harmony with its environment. It manages to stand out as expressing respect for public space, a value essential to the life of the community.
The gesture was appreciated by the judges of the Prize for Excellence in Architecture 2022 of the Order of Architects of Quebec, recognising that the project goes “beyond a simple infrastructure of public utility to include important technical facilities required for the city aqueduct”, awarding it the prize in the industrial buildings category for its “significant contribution to the landscape of this part of the city and to the industrial architecture of Montreal in general.”
It would be great to see the same focus on the beauty of utilitarian municipal buildings in other cities, too!
Christiane Bürklein
Project: Smith Vigeant Architectes
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Year: 2021
Images: David Boyer