Impostor / Les Malcommodes

Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Windows, FacadeImpostor / Les Malcommodes - Image 3 of 33Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Image 4 of 33Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Brick, FacadeImpostor / Les Malcommodes - More Images+ 28

Québec City, Canada
  • Architects: Les Malcommodes
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  19
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2017
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Simon Parent
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  -, Fisher & Ludlow, Polyalto
  • Lead Architects: Marie-Jeanne Allaire-Côté, Alexandre Morin, Simon Parent
  • Other Participants: EXMURO arts public, Quirion Construction Inc., LARO EXPERT-CONSEIL INC.
  • City: Québec City
  • Country: Canada
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Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Facade
© Simon Parent

Text description provided by the architects. The project aimed to question the relationship that Quebeckers have with their built heritage. We were trying to create a distinctive element, in contrast to the highly touristic environment it’s questioning. The pink monolithic passage generates the illusion of a crossing; It offers visitors a colorful and immersive experience that plunges them into another universe that passes through a historical piece of architecture.

Implantation Plan

The perforation lets hundreds of light beams penetrate as they follow the sun's cycles. At the end of the passage, an inclined mirror returns the back of the frames that are painted in another color in order to give the illusion of a continuity. We seem to be able to cross this impassable fortification as the angle of the mirror hides our reflexion and shows a different path.

Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Waterfront, Garden
© Simon Parent

The royal battery was originally a front in the St. Lawrence River. Built at the end of the 17th century, the fortification was designed to protect the territory and its resources against invasion.

Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Image 11 of 33
© Simon Parent
Plan
Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Windows
© Simon Parent

However, over the years, the structure has disappeared from the Québec City waterfront. Then obsolete and completely abandoned, it deteriorated and was buried under successive layers of bitumen. It was only in 1977 that the drum was completely unearthed and rebuilt. Today, the water again cyclically touches the foot of the fortification; It is then that the residue of history regains sporadically its meaning.

Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Image 12 of 33
© Simon Parent

Why have we rebuilt what we ourselves have forsaken? Ironically, the impassable moat is no longer. What then becomes of his role in the contemporary city? Impostor seeks to question the authenticity of the area by creating a false passage in a false royal battery; Two fake pieces that meet each other.

Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Windows, Facade
© Simon Parent

False moat, false drawbridge. Who is the true impostor? What remains of authenticity in this sector? The battery? The passage? Our image ...?

Impostor / Les Malcommodes - Image 4 of 33
© Simon Parent

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Project location

Address:Québec City, Quebec, Canada

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Impostor / Les Malcommodes" 11 Aug 2017. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/877470/impostor-les-malcommodes> ISSN 0719-8884

© Simon Parent

眼见为实?“伪装者”的通道 / Les Malcommodes

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