Daylight in Buildings

A Sanctuary in the Heart of the City

Students

Dylan Wang

Teachers

Andrew King,

Angela Silver

School

Mc Gill University

Country

Canada

A Sanctuary in the Heart of the City
Scroll

Project Description

A Sanctuary in the Heart of the City is a project aiming at providing the need a meaning place of repose and reflection to the public through materiality, technology and light. Nestled near the Saint-Laurent on the Island of Saint-Hélène, in view of the Montreal downtown, the architecture is an underground space surmounted by two superposed copper domes, each perforated by a delicate series of openings in the material to allow light within. The inside dome rotates on a system of rails, shifting the entire space within around the user. The movement also allows for a highly changing light as openings open and close around the user seemingly at random. Flashes of light would also occasionally happen as openings would align for a brief moment before disappearing, creating a world of sensations and brief moments grounded by the power of materiality and of formal purity.