For a summer, Le Banc de neige recreated the magical snowbanks left over from Quebec’s winter storms. At once a platform and a public bench, the ephemeral installation modifies the user’s relation to the public space by allowing a multitude of appropriations. As it drapes around the tree trunks and street lamps of the Place de Bordeaux with a luminous white, it magnifies these elements of the everyday while providing seating platforms for the pétanque court.
Le Banc de neige
Atelier Pierre Thibault designed a platform and a public bench in Québec, which modifies the user’s relation to the public space by allowing a multitude of appropriations.
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- 20 February 2017
- Québec
These multiple bases are generated by a series of topographical contours alluding to architectural representation. Passers-by are invited to settle in and take break by contemplating the urban landscape of St-Paul Street, while the most adventurous will climb the snowbank to hide in the dense foliage of trees, sheltered from the street.
The project was built commissioned by Quebec City street art festival Passages Insolites. It was one a dozen art installations in the heart of the historic center. Moreover, it was conceived to be a public infrastructure to display the potential of inviting urban design. Le Banc de neige is made from thin painted plywood curved to obtain the wavering extrusions.
Le Banc de neige, Québec
Program: installation
Architect: Atelier Pierre Thibault
Design team: Pierre Thibault, Bertrand Rougier, Francis Gaignard, Sandrine Gaulin
Completion: 2016