Maison Radio Canada
- Location
- Montreal, Canada
- Client
- Broccolini Construction Inc.
- Expertise
- Architecture
- Interior Design
- Lighting
- Completion
- 2020
- Cost
- Confidential
Over the past fifty years, the broadcast industry has undergone rapid changes, gradually eroding network dominance. Initially challenged by low-cost cable competitors, and more recently by streaming services, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) faced the need to adapt to remain competitive and foster innovative public programming. To achieve this, the CBC needed to rationalize and consolidate its facilities, particularly in Montreal.
Originally designed in the 1960s as one of the world’s first integrated television and radio broadcasting centres, the Maison Radio-Canada no longer met the technical and social demands of the digital age. The building’s layout, with production spaces along lengthy internal corridors and administrative offices stacked in a brutalist tower above, required a reimagining to reconnect its people with each other, the neighbourhood, and the city.
A new facility was proposed just east of the existing site. Unlike traditional broadcasting facilities that separate functions with acoustic walls in a “black box” design, the new Maison Radio-Canada (MRC) embraces an open concept. Technical production spaces are intentionally visible, revealing the layers of creation, production, and transmission.
In this new CBC/Radio-Canada media centre, creators and programmers will work in modern, versatile spaces designed to support the collaborative and digital-first approach of the multiplatform public broadcaster. The building will feature clear and intuitive wayfinding, connecting its various programs around a central, sky-lit atrium that provides natural light throughout the facility.
