THEN-AND-NOW
The Minéral bar lighting design takes patrons from daylight to an after-hours ambience depending on the time of day.
Nightclub lifts Montreal neighbourhood
Music drives design Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
— Martin Mull, 1979
USING ONE ARTFORM to describe another is a curious business. Design inspiration can come from anywhere, and Montreal, Que.-based architect Patrick Blanchette, turned to playing an electronic dance music track repeatedly to zero in on ideas for the interiors of the new Minéral bar/nightclub in Montreal. The starting point was simple for his firm Blanchette Architectes: a musical idea for each of the three distinct ambiances that succeed each other as the night goes on. Based on that idea, the design team imagined a space whose atmosphere could change radically from its late-afternoon opening to its latenight peak. “As they emanate from the architecture, light and colours become raw materials that fill the space,” says Patrick Blanchette, the firm’s founder. Working 28
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in close collaboration with the client, the architect imagined an evolving scenic design where “sound vibrations translate to waves of colour, staying with the guest from their first after-work cocktail until late at night.” Architecture, light and the soundscape were all handled as raw materials to frame the bar’s atmosphere at different times of day. The “warmly glacial” space plays on the warm-cool duality of colours, materials and light. Soothing light is projected onto wall-mounted canvases, reminiscent of art installations like those of American artist James Turrell. Blanchette notes “before we reimagined it, the space was particularly dark and poorly lit. We had to work with luminous walls and facing mirrors to let the space breathe. The idea was to take control of the lighting.” Minéral is the latest bar project from entrepreneurs and restaurateurs Mathieu Ménard and Steve Grenier. Since Ménard is not only an entrepreneur, but a talented cabinetmaker, the space is organized around impressive woodwork: the bar countertop in black-lacquered Quebec oak and the imposing, Japa-
