Facade Analysis Adhira Ravi
Situated on 439 Avenue Therese-Lavoie-Roux, the Joie de Vivre Residential Building aims to enliven the former railyard and industrial settlements of the Outremont neighbourhood in Montréal, Quebec. 1 This 8 storey, 150,000 sqft building designed by ACDF Architecture was completed in 2022, housing the emerging residential community around the new campus of Université de Montréal and the historic Park Avenue. 2 The Dialogical Intention of the contemporary Vivre building is to propagate through to the neighbourhood and establish a new building style and character. 34 (see elevation drawing #1 for basic proportional relations along the facade). When looking at the urban fabric that this building is part of, the building comes off as a stacked towering structure exhibiting solid construction (termed as Stereotomy in Architectural Theory), where the load bearing and enclosing functions are performed by the same structural member which is the external wall. 5 The perception of the mass of the building is primarily drawn in relation with the neighbouring buildings - which are presently smaller in scale and not contemporary. 6 That is the contrasting dialogue between the Vivre and surrounding buildings, however a similar such dialogue is prevalent on the two adjoining facades of the building, the southwest and northwest. The Vivre is positioned at a diagonal with an obtuse angled connection transitioning from the balcony filled southwest facade to the completely bare northwest facade. This creates a sense of vastness (see fig: 1) that is associated with this connection, adding to the perception of mass, along with the previously mentioned contrast in architectural characters, from fully ornate with balconies to no balconies.
1 Valeria Silva, “Joie De Vivre Residential Building / ACDF Architecture,” ArchDaily (ArchDaily, October 8,
2022), https://www.archdaily.com/989870/joie-de-vivre-residential-building-acdf-architecture. 2 Ibid 3 Ibid 4 Andrea, Simitch and Val Warke. The Language of Architecture: 26 Principles Every Architect Should Know. Rockport, 2014. (Accessed via D2L Laurentian University 2023), pp 134 5 Andrea Deplazes, Editor. Constructing Architecture : Materials, Processes, Structures. Springer. 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central. (Accessed via D2L Laurentian University 2023), pp 14 http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jndlu-ebooks/detail.action?docID=510619. 6 Andrea, Simitch and Val Warke. The Language of Architecture: 26 Principles Every Architect Should Know. Rockport, 2014. (Accessed via D2L Laurentian University 2023), pp 136