A century-old duplex in Montreal's Mile-end, abandoned for several years, has been extended with a large rooftop apartment and a backyard bedroom wing on each floor. The project aims to answer the delicate and sensitive question of “architectural intervention on modest heritage. ". How to densify in a gentle way by adding new housing, while retaining the authenticity of the original design and the urban landscape of the street and the lane. How to achieve this in a dialogue between the existing and the new, without one speaking louder than the other, while maintaining the modesty that forms a district of the city.
The answer for the project was to lay a white veil on the existing red brick massif. The new volume contrasts with its lightness, material and color. The addition surprises the attentive passerby with its non-presence/absence, as if the veil framed the void, the pre-existing hollow between the two neighbors of three floors. The simplicity of the new volume creates a backdrop for the figure/form of the existing building that is retained and enhanced. A mezzanine is integrated into the new volume by the slope of the roof. At the rear, the typical L-shape of the buildings of the Plateau Mont-Royal is reconstituted and the aesthetics reviewed.
This new wing accommodates the bedrooms of the various accommodations. Given the solar orientation, the courtyard is in the shade for most of the day. The white brick is therefore used to create a second day in the courtyard. The roof is occupied by a roof terrace for the new accommodation in order to take advantage of the beautiful summer days and the view of Mount Royal. The openings of the new rear facade and the materiality clearly asserts itself in the alley while enriching an urban landscape to be rediscovered
