Abstract:

Situated within the fragile ecology of the Mer Bleue, this project frames energy as a generative design medium rather than a post-facto performance metric, following Daniel Barber’s call for energy to actively shape architectural form. The forum acts as an interlocutor embedded within ecological and energetic processes, recalibrating spatial, material, and systemic logics so that form, thermal behavior, and experience participate in the bog’s metabolic flows.

Embodied-energy thinking informs all material decisions. Drawing on David Benjamin’s understanding of material life cycles as carriers of energy and ecological histories, the project employs ferrock, hempcrete, and mass timber for their biogenic and carbon-negative profiles. Reversible assemblies enable disassembly, reuse, and reintegration into ecological cycles, aligning construction with regenerative processes beyond emission reduction.

Spatially, the project choreographs a sensorial threshold inspired by Pauline Oliveros’ concept of deep listening. Visitors ascend through a compressed passage where sound, light, humidity, and temperature heighten atmospheric awareness before opening into a courtyard mediating interior and wetland. Passive strategies—earth sheltering, calibrated solar exposure, thermal mass, cross-ventilation, and a green roof—minimize energy demand while supporting habitat and microclimate regulation, positioning the building as a climatic device inseparable from the bog’s living systems.