Désolé si c'est en anglais. Je l'ai écrit dans cette langue pour le mettre dans la section canadienne et je n'ai pas le temps de faire la traduction maintenant!
I have tremendous, tremendous respect for the following restoration project but before I go futher, a little history for context:
The Augustines sisters arrived in Quebec City from Dieppe in 1639 and they subsequently founded the Hotel-Dieu, the first hospital in North America, in 1644. The hospital and its adjacent monastery have stood on this site ever since. Nowadays, the hospital is made up of a collection of buildings, the oldest of which dates back to 1698. The premises are home to one of the most important sets of heritage buldings in Old Quebec, because of its architecture, its surrounding wall and extensive garden, one of the few green spaces dating from the first decades of the colony.
The vocation and beauty of this heritage site already commands respect but what the Augustine Sisters recently decided to do with it deserves admiration. For obvious reasons, the number of Sisters has been declining steadily for the last few decades and with not enough young recruits to ensure the continuation of the Monastery as a uniquely religious institution, the Sisters had to think outside the box.
The Sisters, which over the years founded 12 monastery-hospitals throughout Quebec, consider their heritage to be of national interest. In order to ensure the preservation of their cultural heritage, the Sisters enthrusted their historical estate in a social utility trust with the population of Quebec as principal beneficiary. They also put in place a contingency fund to ensure the sustainability of the project.
Most of the archives and historical collections of their 12 monastery-hospitals were then rapatriated to their Old Quebec mother house, which has recently been transformed in a living place of memory. The vocation of the site is now multifold:
- It houses a museum with a collection of 40 000 objects, many dating bck to New France.
- Its archives center contains many very old documents and books accessible to all for research.
- The old dormitories were transformed into a wellness center offering a wide range of activities centered around a comtemporary global health approach.
- Finally, the monastery will continue its mission to assist the families of the patients staying at the hospital.
This project certainly isn't to most flashy one but it still is a favourite of mine.
Architects: ABCP
Photograph: Stéphane Groleau
http://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv....n#.VnA64ErNyUk
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http://www.abcparchitecture.com/proj...des-augustines
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