MELLEM Les Trembles, developed through a close collaboration between ACDF Architecture and Maître Carré, positions itself as a careful study in architectural balance. Located in Gatineau, the residential project responds to contemporary pressures around density, sustainability, and resource use through a measured and deliberate approach. Rather than relying on excess or spectacle, the project demonstrates how restraint, when precisely calibrated, can generate richness, durability, and a strong sense of place.
RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE
At its core, MELLEM Les Trembles explores the idea of dosage. The architecture negotiates between rootedness and openness, efficiency and generosity, permanence and adaptability. This balance becomes both a design method and a guiding philosophy, one that aligns with the current need to build responsibly while maintaining expressive and meaningful environments. The result is an architecture that asserts itself quietly, favoring clarity of intent over visual dominance.
The project comprises 189 rental units, ranging from studios to five-bedroom apartments, and places particular emphasis on collective life. A defining decision was to locate most common spaces on the ground floor, directly engaging the surrounding city. This choice shifts the project away from inward-looking residential models and positions the building as an active participant in the urban fabric. The ground level operates as an inhabited threshold, encouraging interaction, exchange, and a shared sense of belonging among residents.
This civic gesture finds its strongest expression in the series of ground-floor arches that define the building’s identity. Referencing the classical colonnade, the arches communicate rootedness and continuity, while remaining accessible and human in scale. Externally, they lend the project a soft monumentality; internally, they create enveloping spaces that support everyday use. The arches act as both structure and social framework, reinforcing the idea of living together rather than apart.
Curved geometries extend upward through the building’s volume, shaping a silhouette marked by fluid transitions and careful articulation. Red and white brick alternate across the façade, meeting in precise seams that read almost like tailoring. This interplay of materials allows the building to register at the scale of the city while preserving intimacy at street level. Staggered balconies animate the façades, introducing rhythm and variation that reflect the life within.
Depth and shadow further enrich the exterior through perpendicular wall projections, which frame views and add a painterly quality to the overall composition. These gestures avoid excess while giving the building texture and presence across the neighborhood.
Inside, the same logic of balance governs the design of shared spaces. Arches reappear, organizing more intimate zones along a longitudinal circulation spine that links the co-working area and communal kitchen to the gym. Light-toned walls amplify natural daylight, while darker ceilings absorb exposed technical systems, allowing function and economy to coexist without visual clutter.
A central staircase aligns with the main entrance and leads to a lounge opening onto a landscaped courtyard positioned above the first parking level. Integrated into the site’s natural slope, the lower level accommodates parking while prioritizing sustainable mobility, including extensive bicycle storage and electric vehicle charging stations. These choices reinforce the project’s environmentally conscious outlook.
Organized in a C-shaped configuration around a west-facing garden, MELLEM Les Trembles achieves balanced density without excessive height. The project demonstrates how thoughtful composition and efficient planning can support financial viability while reinvesting value into shared spaces, durable materials, and long-term quality.
MELLEM Les Trembles is a composed and enduring example of contemporary urban housing, one that values collective life, measured expression, and architectural longevity, while contributing meaningfully to Gatineau’s evolving built environment.
