Le Saule | The Willow
Le Saule | The Willow
Rue Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, Québec
Along Rue Saint Catherine, The Willow transforms the urban promenade into an immersive refuge for all and a celebration of Montreal’s historic Gay Village. This aerial art installation, our ‘ode to Claude’ creates a decelerating and mesmerizing gathering space that recalls the sensual experience of shade and canopy moving in the summer breeze. As with trees along the Saint Lawrence River or within the parks of Montreal, The Willow provides verdant shelter for a diverse and expanding community that is united by the universal human experience of being under the shady, protective cover of trees above. The Willow invites you in—and entices you to stay for a while.
Harbinger of Springtime
Winter in Montreal is long, cold, and dark. The first signs of spring are met with unbridled joy. Like the initial blooms or the first clotheslines strung along the alleys of Montreal, The Willow signals that the sun and warm weather has arrived. For the Gay Village, this coincides with the annual pedestrianization of the street, and with the much-anticipated wave of visitors, commerce and energy that is the Village’s lifeblood and livelihood.
Block by block, the tendrils respond to the grid of the city: a calm response midblock then an ecstatic display at cross-streets where the winds intersect. Variations in length, alignment, and pivoting attachments allow for an expressive and botanically inspired display that is flexible and can adapt year-to-year. In this iteration of Saint Catherine Street, we mean to relax and slow the energy of the street, pointing towards a future that provides serenity and easefulness, a respite from the speed of our modern world. In this iteration of Saint Catherine Street, The Willow envelops the visitors, allowing for an escape from the concrete concerns of the day-to-day and inviting a return to childhood imagination and openness.
Luminosity & Winter Nights
Throughout the summer, programmed uplighting (the existing lighting infrastructure) illuminates the canopy. The range of translucent greens foregrounds the radiant violet, tangerine and fuschia of that periodically interrupts the green. These distinct “nests” within the canopy provide wayfinding and identity along the promenade. As autumn arrives, the green summer windsocks are taken down and stored at the SDC du Village for the winter months and the street reopens to vehicle traffic.
Throughout the winter months, glowing nests of prismatic color remain, providing a jubilant identity for the city that celebrates luminosity with crystalline displays of color. With their programmability, the nests can be dynamically choreographed to activate the street and accompany a variety of new outdoor community events.
Unknown Studio was an invited finalist in this international design competition.
Project timeline: 2019
Client: Société de développement du Village gai de Montréal
Scope: Design Competition
Size: 1 Kilometer Streetscape
Partners: Graham Projects, Lateral Office
