Pavilion for Peace Set to Open in November in Montreal

The fifth pavilion of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, is set for its official opening in November. Completed in February, the six-floor, 4,958 square meter space will house the museum’s international art collection and the 75 works donated by Michal and Renata Hornstein in 2012. Two floors will be dedicated to education and art therapy.

Designed by Montreal-based firms Atelier TAG and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte Architects, the striking two-volume structure creates a connection between city and museum through its transparent façade veiled in a delicate framework of aluminum rods.

“The warm space, clad in wood, is revealed to the city in the form of transparency,” says Katsihiro Yamazaki who leads Atelier TAG along with Manon Asselin. “Through this filigree veil visitors are able to perceive all the different functions of the lobby and of the vertical space that bridges between the life of the city and the life of the museum.”

By day and by night the building takes on distinctive personas. During the latter, the “lacework” veil nearly dissolves and creates a spotlight on the activities of the pavilion’s centerpiece. “In response to the expanded role of the twenty first-century museum, the architectural concept is structured around an “event-stair”,” says Yamazaki. “This socio-spatial apparatus links the museum’s experience to the city and offers a multitude of spatial relationships inspired by the notion of the street.”

Honored with a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence and a Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, the Pavilion for Peace pays homage to the values and causes championed by the Hornsteins, while strengthening the museum’s connection to the community.