HEC Montréal
The HEC Montréal business school was designed in partnership with the architect Dan. S. Hanganu. It is located at the base of University of Montreal, on the north-west flank of the Mount Royal. The forest and the urban interface are the defining elements of the building, which is orchestrated around a triple height winter garden. The gallery, the amphitheater and the cafeteria are gathered around this central nod which follows the treeline of nearby Bois des Pères. Its generous windows create a visual breakthrough, ensuring continuity between the Mount Royal and the building’s interior.
Location
Partners
Dan S. Hanganu
Scale
62 000 m² / 84 M$
Completion
1992 — 1996
The gigantic building offers a vertical division of functions and a highly-structured spatial organization. It dialogues with its environment and optimizes vertical and horizontal transparencies. Cylindrical skylights bring natural light into the heart of the building. The single-floor library offers a large space with natural zenithal natural lighting with a view of the city and the adjacent woods.
The building is composed of multiple shapes and materials as well as multiple spaces, whose succession creates a feeling of belonging and encourage communications and exchanges. The place’s translucency and contemporaneity are the result of a bold architecture, serving well this high place of knowledge and teaching, open onto the world.
HEC Montreal has opening windows in the offices, interactive management of energy consumption and elevators, a calibrated use of window types, an adaptable natural gas heating system as well as a cost-efficient parking space heating system through the recycling of extracted air.
