Node.
Oct - Dec 2018 | Advanced Synthesis Options Studio I: Timber | Advised by: Jeremy Ficca & Jeff King | Partner Project with Lingfan Jiang
To design a food market and hotel that adds another node to the widespread underground layer of Montreal and expands the existing district of old Montreal’s Places des Arts.
After visiting the site and exploring the Underground, my partner and I felt that the Underground was a hidden layer of Montreal with entrances that are surprisingly hard to find for non-locals. Since our site is located across from an existing entrance, we took this opportunity to expand the underground system by treating our site as a new node. By mapping out the Underground with a larger context, we identified and proposed that this new node could potentially connect to another subway station, Saint-Laurent, in the future. Therefore, to encourage circulation between the two layers of the city at our site, we designed a subgrade food market. This is also a gesture towards connecting the parks to the east and west of the site, where the landscape makes a dive underneath the hotel such that it can stretch east-west from/towards Saint Catherine St. The subgrade market is covered by a timber-glass canopy to open up the Underground entrance to the public on the above ground layer.
Plans | Market is located subgrade with connections to the subway system
Map of the existing underground layer with entrances marked with squares and subway stops marked with a circle
Our site is across from the entrance marked with ( 1 ) on the map
Render | Entrance to underground market from Rue de Montigny
Glass-timber canopy morphs as it dips underneath the hotel
Render | Interior of the subgrade market
Stairs from Saint Catherine St. that leads down to the market
Animation | Showing the different parts of the site
Animation | Shadow study of the subgrade market