QUÉBEC, CANADA

The Pavillon Pierre Lassonde is OMA's contribution to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ), completed in 2016 under the direction of Shohei Shigematsu. It stands at the threshold between two worlds: the historic urban fabric of Grande Allée to the north, and the vast Battlefields Park — the Plains of Abraham — to the south. The building's form is generated by this dual orientation. A series of stacked and cantilevered volumes in glass and concrete step down from the street toward the park, each floor offset from the one below. The result is a building that reads differently from every angle: an angular mass from the street, a transparent layered structure from the park. The floor-to-ceiling glazing on the park side means the landscape is always present from within. Inside, the spatial organisation is vertical rather than horizontal. A dramatic curved staircase — visible from both inside and out — connects the floors and functions as a public promenade through the building. The galleries are arranged to allow different kinds of natural light on each level: controlled top-light for works on paper and photography, diffuse north light for painting, open glass walls for installation. The pavilion connects underground to the museum's existing neoclassical building, creating a continuous sequence from the historic institution through the new wing to the park. The integration of new and old — in material, scale, and programme — is among the more thoughtful examples of museum expansion in recent years.

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