Montréal Libraries, Architecture and Design Awareness Program – 2016-2017

Your library at the beach!

The Verdun and Nuns' Island libraries plan to add a satellite service point to enhance their service offering and complement the activities scheduled to take place in summer 2017 as part of Montréal's 375th-anniversary celebrations, including the inauguration of the beach that is the borough's legacy project.

In close collaboration with the team from Design par Judith Portier, a series of workshops, meetings and exhibitions, along with a film screening and an architecture tour will be held to raise awareness and encourage involvement by citizens of all ages in designing an outdoor micro-library adapted to an unusual context. The beachfront library will serve a neighbourhood user group, and the workshops held as part of the program will help raise residents' and young people's awareness of small-scale architectural design, all while getting them involved, as future bathers and readers, in creation of optimally functional furniture.

In this spirit of integration and embracing of landscape transformation, members of school, community, multicultural and library user groups are invited to share their ideas from October 2016 to February 2017.

Five co-creation workshops will be held, during which children and teens as well as seniors living near Arthur-Therrien Park, where the beach will be located, will be invited to try their hand at the design process.

Throughout the activities, they will enjoy special access to a collection of inspiring works on architecture, design of urban beaches, and temporary street furniture for public spaces. They will bring their ideas to life via drawing and model building.

The community groups identified as partners are:

• Toujours ensemble
• L'Ancre des jeunes

The neighbourhood school collaborating on the project is Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs.

Exhibition

Following the scheduled workshops, the borough will present the outcomes of these exchanges of ideas at an exhibition to be held at the Verdun Cultural Centre, from February 6 to 17, 2017. The team from Design par Judith Portier, inspired by this extensive consultation process, will also produce three professional presentations, and invite residents to vote for their favourite concept.

Film screening

Underscoring the fact that Nuns' Island is home to two buildings by celebrated architect Mies van der Rohe (including the former Esso service station), the borough will present the film Regular or Super: Views on Mies van der Rohe to raise awareness of this modern architecture heritage among communities of Verdun and Nuns' Island residents. An architecture tour will follow.