LAYERING THE PRESENT

1st Prize, International Competition

Client:  Université Laval, Quebec, Canada
Program:  Addition to an Old Heritage Building
Team:  MMK+ Sanghwan Park
Location:  Quebec, Canada
Jury Members: Joan Ockman, Philippe Barrière, Emmanuelle Champagne, André Perrotte, and Gilles Saucier.

Architecture is living heritage. The idea, style, structure and function reflects the social, technological and cultural identity of its time, and they are consistently recorded and remembered in our built environment. In this sense, the Old Seminary building must be considered as an accumulation of layers of important historical events, which means that the new addition to the School of Architecture must also be considered as an act of adding another layer of history. Therefore, the new addition is neither a resultant of literal imitation of formal features of the old nor a expressive element of contemporary architecture; it must rather be a outcome of reinterpretation of the existing structure's characteristics, and translation into a new form of architectural elements. The project proposes a transformed courtyard with underground public space and a new wing cantilevered from the existing seminary building. As a result, the accumulated layers of the old and the new creates another interpretation as a whole.