Is this critical regionalism?

  The Maison de la Litterature in Quebec City by Chevalier Morales Architects is a conversion of an abandoned, unused church into a public library, with the addition of programmatic space in the adjacent lot. Such an interesting endeavor, I think, and has some parallels in expression with the Bagsvaerd Church by Jorn Utzon. For that church, as detailed by Frampton, “the intent of this expression is, of course, to secularize the sacred form by precluding the usual set of semantic religious references and thereby the corresponding range of automatic responses that usually accompany them.” For Chevalier Morales Architects, this intent was similar, although the existing premise is made more complicated by actually inhabiting the existing church and using its form as a library. In the expression of the new adjacent form, I would suggest that the intent of the expression is similar, however instead of embodying the sacred form, it instead intends to secularize the neighboring existing form and suggest in it, a reconstitution of program, perhaps even a corresponding set of principles--those which see spirituality in honoring the very art form which is now housed in these structures--literature. 

 

 

Is this an example of critical regionalism? Unsure, to be honest, but I would hazard a guess that maybe it could be or plays off certain principles--just perhaps not a textbook example of it. In height scale and mass, it's extremely respective of the urban fabric in this small historic city (very similar to Charleston in its proliferation of three story town home/single house) It's material pallette, I don't think says much specifically about the area, but to be fair, the delineation of the new build in a material that is complementary yet contrasting is important in respecting the intricacy and precision of the stone construction of the church (which would not have been possible to replicate--nor appropriate due to the change in program). Curious what people think.