Polyvalente de l’Ancienne-Lorette exterior overhaul

The project to renovate this 1969 high school is the perfect opportunity to open it up to the outside environment and significantly improve natural lighting. Many fascinating features of this Modernist-era building—the smooth, white materials, the interplay between fullness and void in the facades, the emphasis on raw volumes, and the thin horizontal ribbon windows—will be preserved and reinterpreted to uphold the school’s identity.

The design of the new building envelope consists of a lower part almost entirely open to the site, serving as a buffer between the ground and the building’s main volume. The upper part, composed of a metal volume and a partial double skin, appears to float above the ground. This suspension significantly opens up the public and common areas while adding new lightness to the whole structure.

The thin perforated steel skin not only unifies the entire composition, but also creates partial shade for the facades and classrooms, filters views to the outside, reduces glare, controls solar gain, and makes for more dynamic facades. The treatment of this second skin, which, through its proportions, reinterprets the horizontal ribbon windows of the original design, also conceals the new mechanical elements such as the roof vents. The envelope renovation also includes measures to boost energy efficiency and prevent deterioration.