TERM : Winter 2012
COURSE : Design and Construction 3
INSTRUCTOR : Aaron Sprecher and Martin Bressani
DURATION : 13 Weeks
GROUP PROJECT : Pierre Thach

OBJECTIVE : To explore carnal architectural atmospheres and cognition, and develop strategies that pursue 
relationships between affective environments and architectural techniques and prototyping. The architectural proposal required solutions for programming, structure, envelope and environmental services.

DESCRIPTION : Trip the Light Fantastic Tower is a proposed multipurpose development adjacent to Champ-de-Mars metro station. It is intended to mend the gap created by the Ville-Marie expressway, which segregates Old Montreal from the east-end downtown core. The tower is a vertical extrapolation of the ground and underground circulation of pedestrians, vehicles and metro trains. Trip the Light Fantastic, meaning dancing nimbly or lightly, synthesizes the intertwining spiralling motions of these elements.  Within the future Quartier de la Santé, the building is projected to suit the needs of local citizens, with office space, dwellings and hotel accommodations. Locals and visitors access the tower via an underground connection, welcomed by an arrangement of rotating structural columns. By keeping the rotating floor plates out of synch from the diagrid structural network, a playful duality is generated within the tower. The syncopated columns and curtain wall create interstitial spaces that are used to separate functional programmatic elements from circulatory  pathways. Trip the Light Fantastic is dynamic civic landmark adding a new character to Montreal’s skyline.