Lightspeed: 2015 BoY Winner for Midsize Tech Office
Good things come to those who receive recognition from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. After winning its Young Architect Award, president Maxime-Alexis Frappier and his team were summoned by a tech executive for a meeting. On a prominent square in the old city, the group fell in love with an 1898 railroad station and hotel, Place Viger, even though the interiors had been stripped to the bone. “We were seduced by the history,” Frappier recalls.
Today, the company’s three-level, 28,000-square-foot section of the château-esque landmark thrums with irreverence—in slick contrast with the rusticity of the heavy old wooden beams. A red logo, which appears splashed floor-to-wall when seen from the entry, dissolves into shards as you approach. More permanent are the colorful peak-roofed gazebos, a tongue-in-cheek recollection of the backyard at the company’s humble original location, a private home. The swimming pool there furthermore inspired an area next to the pantry, informing the aqua color of the epoxy flooring. This being the tech world, dive in.
Project Team: Joan Renaud; Laure Giordani; Laurence Le Beux; Christelle Montreuil Jean-Pois.
Photography: Adrien Williams.
