The house of the sculptor Charles Daudelin finally escapes the demolishers. It is officially protected, since March 31, by the State of Quebec.
The artist’s house and studio are officially classified as “heritage buildings”. In addition, the land on which the buildings stand is now classified as a heritage site.
The measure was announced as probable last December. It has now entered into force, confirmed to the Duty the office of Mathieu Lacombe, Minister of Culture and Communications.
In 2022, the new owner of the house had asked the municipality of Kirkland for the right to raze the buildings. The City had issued a public notice of intent to demolish, while refusing to cite the buildings to protect them, as permitted by law.
The status changes for this building are already noted in the Cultural Heritage Directory. “The heritage site of the Charles-Daudelin house is a built and landscaped complex comprising a residence, a workshop, a former goat farm and a vast landscaped plot”, reports the Directory. “The house, built from 1951, has a complex volume adapted to the slope of the land” while the detached workshop, built in 1959, is also integrated into a slope.
Born in 1920, Charles Daudelin is a major artist of the XXe Quebec century. His home, he had designed in collaboration with renowned architects, as an extension of his own work as a sculptor.
“The house and studio respond eloquently to the changing needs of the artist over the course of his career,” noted experts. “The division and articulation of the interior spaces, both for the house and for the studio, testify in particular to the adaptation of the architecture to the specific needs of the artist. The abundant fenestration of the house and the workshop offers several visual breakthroughs on the gardens, which induces close links between the living and creative spaces, both inside and outside the buildings. »