To mark its 375th anniversary, the city of Montréal has organized an architecture competition to attract designs for three major projects with a total value of $45 million: the Insectarium Metamorphosis; the Biodôme Renewal; and a Glass Pavilion at the Botanical Garden.
The Insectarium Metamorphosis project will expand and renovate the existing building and some outdoor spaces.
The Biodôme Renewal project is intended to revamp some of its public and exhibition spaces, including the ecosystems.
The Botanical Garden’s Glass Pavilion project will offer bold, innovative and organic architecture informed by biophilic design principles.
A two-stage competition of international scope, covering all three projects. Competitors may bid on one, two or all three projects, within the context of a single competition process, with a single timetable.
STAGE 1 / CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Call for proposals from multidisciplinary teams headed up by an architect. Teams must register by using the form available on line and submit their Proposals for screening by the jury.
STAGE 2 / SUBMISSIONS
The four finalists chosen for each project in Stage 1 will be invited to expand on their concepts and present them to the jury at a public hearing.
The team presented by a competitor must necessarily include a responding architect and the following experts in various disciplines.
The responding architect must have:
- been a member in good order of his or her national order or association for at least ten years
- over ten years’ professional experience in institutional architecture.
The following experts must be part of the basic team:
- a head designer, who must be an architect with at least five years’ experience
- for projects A and B only, a scenic designer with at least five years’ experience
- a LEED and Living Building Challenge expert
- a certified estimator with at least five years’ experience
- a designer
- for project B, a scientific designer
- a landscape architect with at least five years’ experience
- a museologist
The head designer may be the responding architect or another architect.
The jury, whose Chair will be chosen by its members, will include ten members for Stage 1 and eight members for Stage 2.
- Jean Beaudoin, architect, Intégral Jean Beaudoin (Quebec)
- Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, Executive Director, Space for Life
- Anne Charpentier, Director, Insectarium
- Mario Cucinella, architect, Mario Cucinella Architects SRL (Italy);
- Édouard François, architect, Maison Édouard François (France);
- Normand Hudon, architect, Coarchitecture (Quebec);
- Stephen R. Kellert, biophilic design expert, Yale University (United States)
- Rachel Léger, Director, Biodôme
- William G. Reed, sustainable development consultant, Integrative Design Collaborative and Regenesis (United States)
- Gilles Vincent, Director, Botanical Garden
Registration, is mandatory and free.
The competition documents for Stage 1 are available below.
Download the Competition rules
Download the summary program
Since there is unrestricted access to the sites, there will not be any official site visits.
A mandatory briefing is planned once all Competitors have submitted their Proposals.
- Registration: March 20, 2014
- Stage 1/ Proposals by registered Competitors: March 26, 2014
- Stage 2/ Deposit of Submissions by Finalists: June 20, 2014
ESPACE POUR LA VIE – Ville de Montréal
4101, Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, H1X 2B2
Louise Amiot: @email