The Place des Gens de Mer, Cap-aux-Meules Architecture, Images
The Place des Gens de Mer on the Magdalen Islands
Landscape Design Development, Canada ? design by Bourgeois / Lechasseur architectes
7 Nov 2016
The Place des Gens de Mer
Design: Bourgeois / Lechasseur architectes
Location: Cap-aux-Meules, Canada
The Place des Gens de Mer

This public place is located at the heart of Cap-aux-Meules, a village in the Magdalen Islands, on the ruins of a fish processing plant that was destroyed in a fire. The purpose of this project is to grant a second life to this strategic site and create a gathering place for passersby. The Place des gens de mer is an initiative of the Municipality of Magdalen Islands aiming to pay tribute to workers at sea.
The Place’s various features were set up on the former plant’s foundations. The layout of the features is reminiscent of the plant’s processing chains and long sorting tables. Despite its strategic location, at the centre of the port zone, the Place’s immediate surroundings are not very welcoming. The idea was for the Place to be closed in on itself. An openwork wooden stockade surrounds the site to ensure some intimacy and guide passersby along a discovery path. The undulation represents a stormy sea. The Place features a service wing, a belvedere, a public market zone, a stage, and an agora. Protruding and oscillating wooden counters and benches represent the docks.

The Place des gens de mer is part of a la...