To mark its second year of existence, 1700 La Poste is presenting Luc Laporte, architecte. Réalisations et inédits, an exhibition in homage to an architect who left an indelible mark on urban life in Montreal as we know it today. The exhibition opens onto a selection of Luc Laporte’s designs for performance spaces, with theatricality taking centre stage. Proposals and built projects are shown side by side in delicate harmony. Concert halls, city squares, and the chapel of the Abbey of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac recall the extent to which the architect dreamed of large structure, while remaining an urbanist at heart. His unbuilt proposals, such as that for a performance hall, L’Étoile, reveal Laporte’s fascination with a certain late-nineteenth-century Parisian milieu, classicist in design and decidedly convivial in spirit. In collaboration with UBU compagnie de création, 1700 La Poste has created a site-specific puppet theatre exclusively for this exhibition. L’homme qui marche (The Man Who Walks), a small urban phantasmagoria, is an in situ experience that immerses the spectator in Laporte’s world, drawing on texts and music from his personal library. It brings to life a dream cherished by the architect, who was literally fascinated by marionettes, and who never stopped imagining plans for large theatres integrated into the city. This will also be an opportunity to discover—or rediscover—the ambitious proposal Cité pour 33 296 habitants (City for 33,296 inhabitants), an original concept developed by Laporte and commissioned by the Musée régional de Rimouski. This utopian city, free of roads and parking spaces, was designed on a human scale, with squares and other gathering places scattered throughout. Laporte’s plan saw the entire population of Rimouski moving onto Saint-Barnabé Island, keeping the waterfront free for agriculture and parkland. 1700 La Poste, which was the last project completed by Laporte, has also given pride of place to the everyday environments he designed. From the late 1970s on, Laporte consolidated his professional practice around a series of residential and commercial projects. A number of these, notably the restaurant L’Express (1980) and the Lux (1983), earned him considerable acclaim. Luc Laporte, architecte. Réalisations et inédits is an opportunity for his friends and close collaborators, among them artists and writers, to pay tribute to Laporte. It also offers visitors insight into the personality of this discreet and genuine man, who was truly passionate about his work. In conjunction with the exhibition, Les Éditions de Mévius has published a catalog documenting the architect’s projects, and featuring contributions by those who knew him.
