The new Caroline-Dawson Library, in synergy with Le Prévost Park, becomes a unique place for knowledge and learning, adapted to contemporary ways of living.
Designed according to Passivhaus principles, its compact architecture is oriented toward the sun. While offering generous views of the park, its glazed façades capture natural light and heat during colder seasons, while solar chimneys, integrated into skylights, provide assisted natural ventilation during warmer months.
Its large vertical garden acts as an inhabited brise-soleil: both a bioclimatic structure and a collective installation, where vegetation climbs, filters light, creates shade, and encourages social interaction. Architecture and landscape merge to form a sustainable, sensitive urban ecosystem rooted in its neighborhood.
Set within a network of landscaped bands, the building extends the park’s paths, perspectives, and uses into its core. The architecture becomes an extension of the ground-shelter, passage, and place for contemplation. Compact and legible, the building’s organization promotes versatility: a clear plan with fluid, adaptable spaces capable of accommodating reading areas, workshops, play, or community gatherings. An open and welcoming architecture that integrates naturally into the neighborhood fabric.
The library experience unfolds as a promenade. Organized around a playful staircase rising toward the light, each level invites discovery: collaborative spaces near the entrance hall, the creative medialab, and the nature garden on the top floor. Spaces where people meet, socialize, work, learn, and create together.
A living architecture, rooted in its community.
