Grand Théâtre de Québec Restoration / Lemay + Atelier 21

Curated by Paula Pintos
THEATER, RESTORATION • QUÉBEC, CANADA
Architects : Atelier 21, Lemay
Year : 2021
Photographs : Stephane Groleau
City : Québec
Country : Canada

Textual content description supplied by the architects. Prized for its brutalist architecture, the Grand Théâtre de Québec is a cultural icon. Lemay and Atelier 21 had been tasked with restoring and defending the building’s crumbling outer shell and its emblematic Bonet mural, inside.

The brand new envelope is a fragile response to a fancy drawback. In creating corrective measures for the building’s many weaknesses, the transdisciplinary staff produced a sustainable, modern resolution: including a clear, glass curtain wall to the concrete structure.

The glass casing was fastidiously designed in continuity with the structure developed by Victor Prus, the unique architect, and the mural work of Jordi Bonet, enshrined by Prus’ protecting outer shell. Discrete and nearly immaterial at occasions, it displays its environment and turns into the principle interface with town, including an extra theatrical act within the discovery of this important Quebecois work.

As designed, the skinny wall of protecting glass shields the Grand Théâtre from the weather by making a secondary, tempered envelope housing a low-flow warmth restoration and thermal mass system. The system is each energy-efficient and economical. Past its main perform, the brand new layer acts as an extension of the unique building it protects, utilizing the identical finely tuned structural logic and composition.

Any alteration to the architecture needed to be severely restricted, says Eric Pelletier, architect and design principal at Lemay. The building’s fragility paired with the shortcoming to immediately entry the concrete anchors posed a significant problem – with work on the building continuing throughout regular daytime and night theatre operations.

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