Mille Feuille

office: RAW Design

type: competition // public space

location: montreal, canada

Mille Feuille strives to restore the scarred landscape at Champ‐de‐Mars in Montreal, Canada to its intended grandeur both simply and beautifully. By recognizing the importance of pedestrian circulation, connection between downtown and Old Montreal, sight lines, and the restoration of the street grid, a colonnade of translucent panels exists as both a response to these issues and as a catalyst for urban rejuvenation, integration, and celebration. Appropriately, the project is named “Mille Feuille”, which translates to “ One Thousand Leaves”, perfectly capturing the cloud-like landscape effect created by the layering hundreds of glass walls.

From the outside, visitors are given subtle hints of the environment within, where spherical cuts in the panel create both flexible pathways and gathering spaces. Cut‐out entrances respond to nodes of high pedestrian density including the Champ‐de‐Mars Metro Station, the end of Avenue de L’Hotel‐de‐Ville, Rue De Bullion, Rue Ste‐Elizabeth, and Rue St‐Antoine and lead people into the space and towards areas of interest. 

The Space In-Between

Upon entering, visitors are instantly immersed in an ephemeral and dreamlike landscape, free to roam and explore the environment at will. The landscape itself is a dynamic illusion: the view perpendicular to the panels produces an illusion of a heavy volume while the view parallel renders the project airy and transparent as the panels disappear into vertical lines. In this formless design lies a perception of mass and void. Smaller spaces act as intimate environments or circulation while large spaces allow for the opportunity for year‐round public events and activities such as outdoor markets, skating rinks, children’s playgrounds, live concerts, and festivals.

Urban Connections

The strong axial orientation of the panels establishes a visual relationship with Hotel de Ville and the Champ‐de‐Mars pavilion. The panels step back from the pavilion to align with the line of the Ville‐Marie below, drawing attention to the metro pavilion by not only giving reference to the material of the pavilion but also respectfully framing it with an array of glass soldiers behind. From rue Viger, the perspective created by the lines of the panels draws the viewer directly towards the axis of the Cite Administrative. The panels stretch over rue St. Antoine to meet, in plan and also in height, the historic fortification walls in front of Hotel de Ville. Below, drivers can enjoy a brief experience of the panels puncturing through the ground along the covered expressway. It is a zone of transition between the downtown and Old Montreal, allowing the public to linger within the vaporous space when moving from one cultural quartier to the other. Dynamic and mysterious, the proposal enforces continuity and connection between the old and new faces of Montreal and restores the public function of the Champ‐de‐Mars through the reinvention of the landscape