Competition - Victoriaville Cultural Center (contest)

While a red carpet welcomes visitors to the Victoriaville cultural center on Rue Notre-Dame, a green corridor across landscaped parking lots connects the site to the city and Victoriaville’s recreational trail. Between the two lies a welcoming urban space where residents can embrace their new cultural facility. Residents, spectators, artists, and artisans are all participants in creating an urban backdrop as they converge on the new concert halls.

The building is composed of two volumes. The first is horizontal and stretches across the entire width of the lot, from Rue Notre-Dame to the Bigarré parking lot. This volume preserves the lane that crosses the property, a uniquely urban element. By keeping this axis clear, space is created for strolling, accessing technical services, and handling the piles of snow generated by the stage tower.

The second volume, which houses the main concert hall, is connected to the first at the crossroads of two urban systems: the grid traced by the city’s streets and the bike path along the former railway line. This dominant volume expresses the complex’s main function and is distinguished by its materiality.

A covered walkway between the building and the adjacent public area evokes the red carpet. This longitudinal space acts as a filter between the exterior and the interior. It also serves as a reception area and helps orient the public toward the concert halls, modulating the transitions along the way and offering a variety of environments. Visitors reach it from the street by crossing an outdoor foyer and vestibule. The sequence is then punctuated by a staircase to the office area; a small green patio through which visitors can glimpse the foyer of the smaller, black box hall, a display case containing a work of environmental art (1%); and lastly, by the black box hall itself bordering the walkway, which offers various services to spectators.