The purpose of this architecture contest is to “equip the city of Trois-Rivières with an open-air amphitheater capable of seating 10,000.” Trois-Rivières is a small Canadian city (population 130,407) once known as the pulp and paper industry capital of the world. Located halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, Trois-Rivières was looking to build its own venue for hosting high-volume summer festivals and internationally renowned bands, and housing its symphony orchestra during the summer. “In the early 2000s, the city of Trois-Rivières began work on a re-qualification project. The site in question (a former paper mill) is situated along the St. Lawrence River, adjacent to the harbourfront park, the city centre, the St. Lawrence River and St. Quentin Island (for outdoor activities). Such a location calls for an extraordinary construction,” explains Philippe Drolet, architect, in an excerpt from the contest catalogue. For the first phase of the contest, Sid Lee Architecture and Régis Côté et Associés banked on the project’s historical roots and awed the jury with a vision that reflects the site’s industrial past. Their competition entry was awarded as a finalist.
The History of the Site: Tripod was an imaginary foray into the industrial history of both the site and the city, for Sid Lee Architecture and Régis Côté et Associés believed that approaching this new amphitheater without regard for its past would inhibit public response to it. Tripod’s design strategy was to delve into the site’s history and give material life to an exploration of the link between past and present through the symbolic moulding of the stacks of paper mill–bound logs that used to rise along the Saint-Maurice River like great pyramids fed by conveyors. Through this reading of residual images of the city Trois-Rivières (Canada), the architects sought to retell a story that went beyond the visible landscape and tied the project to vestiges of its past. The amphitheater was an entity meant to re-inhabit the site, with contours symbolizing the location and a profile embodying a resolutely contemporary formalism.
