FOIL Gallery by Atelier L’Abri rehabilitates two suites in a 1910s factory in Montreal’s Mile-Ex, calibrating a gallery–café program to the industrial shell’s sawtooth roof and clerestory timber trusses. The project exposes the building’s structural grain, inserts a compact metal core for support spaces, and reopens skylights to restore a robust daylighting regime. A porous street interface to Parc des Gorilles aligns the interior with the district’s reclaimed rail geometry, positioning the gallery within a larger narrative of industrial land reuse and public realm repair.
FOIL Gallery Technical Information
- Architects: Atelier L’Abri
- Location: Montreal, Canada
- Gross Area: 350 m2 | 3,767 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2024 – 2025
- Photographs: © Alex Lesage
We approached the factory as an act of careful subtraction: recover the structure’s original presence, add only the minimum necessary, and let light rearticulate space.
– Atelier L’Abri
Urban Interface and Industrial Context
FOIL occupies two bays of a First World War–era plant whose sawtooth roof once optimized daylight for assembly work. The project reinstates that logic for exhibition by reopening portions of the clerestory and clarifying the volume from slab to truss. The resulting interior reads as a continuous hall defined by the cadence of timber members and the stable north light typical of the typology.
Toward Waverly Street, the ground floor is reoriented to Parc des Gorilles, with a large operable façade that extends the café’s front into an extension of the sidewalk. This threshold functions as a seasonal hinge between public realm, hospitality, and the exhibition field, moderating visibility and sound while admitting air and light deep into the plan. The act of opening the façade counters the introverted tendencies of black-box galleries and acknowledges the site’s civic edge.
Circulation follows the diagonal logic of the historic rail easement that once interrupted the block. Subtle planimetric alignments and sight lines draw visitors along trajectories that echo the tracks, situating the interior within the broader story of industrial land reclamation in Mile-Ex. This reading links the project to the park’s landscape geometry and reinforces a continuum from the city to the artifact to the artwork.
Structural Legibility and Program Organization
The intervention prioritizes structural legibility. Layers of paint and accretions are stripped from the concrete frame, wood plank ceilings, and timber trusses, revealing the construction’s original grain and wear. Sandblasting calibrates tone and texture rather than erasing time, making compressive concrete and fibrous wood distinct yet coextensive elements within a single load-bearing narrative.
A hand-brushed metal volume is set off-center as a compact core housing back-of-house functions, a meeting room, and workspace. Its precise geometry organizes the plan while stopping short of the truss line, preserving continuous views of the roof and clerestory and maintaining an uninterrupted reading of the shell. The core acts as a quiet datum against which temporary partitions, furniture, and artworks can align or deviate.
The program is distributed as a gradient from public to focused use. The café, closest to the operable façade, anchors the social zone and mediates the street condition; the central bay remains a flexible gallery calibrated to open floor area and overhead daylight; the rear accommodates an enclosed projection room that manages spill light and sound for audiovisual work. This sequencing allows concurrent activities without acoustic or visual conflict.
Material Tectonics and Light
A restrained palette foregrounds the building’s historic fabric. Exposed concrete, timber trusses, and wood decking are complemented by the metal core and a microcement counter whose mineral surface bridges between old and new. The combination avoids mimicry: new insertions read as contemporary layers that respect but do not imitate the original construction.
The existing slab is retained, cleaned, and sealed rather than resurfaced. Scratches, patchwork, and discolorations are preserved as a legible archive of past occupation, turning the floor into a curatorial substrate where traces and artworks cohabit. This decision shifts value from finish thickness to narrative density, reducing material input.
Reopened skylights within the sawtooth profile reestablish the factory’s north-oriented light, yielding a diffuse and low-glare field conducive to viewing. White acoustic perimeter walls serve dual roles: they temper reverberation in the deep plan and provide neutral, adaptable surfaces for display. Together with calibrated artificial lighting, the system balances daylight autonomy with conservation needs and photographic clarity.
Adaptive Reuse and Environmental Considerations
The project leverages the embodied resilience of the early 20th-century envelope. By retaining the concrete frame, timber roof, and existing slab, it limits demolition and new material flows while extending the service life of a robust shell. Targeted interventions are reversible or clearly legible, allowing future adaptation without compromising the original structure.
Daylighting through clerestories reduces dependence on artificial lighting during operating hours, and the operable façade supports seasonal ventilation strategies in the café zone. A clarified thermal boundary around the exhibition hall, combined with acoustic liners that double as insulated surfaces, improves comfort without heavy, opaque build-ups that would obscure the structure.
Flexibility is embedded through plan simplicity and modular, perimeter-based display infrastructure rather than fixed partitions. Programs can expand or contract within the clear-span bay, and the metal core absorbs support functions that may change over time. This approach sustains curatorial agility and reduces the likelihood of disruptive future renovations.
About Atelier L’Abri
Atelier L’Abri is an architecture office based in Montreal, founded with a focus on ecological and sustainable construction. The firm’s approach highlights wellness, social engagement, and contextual sensitivity through timeless, crafted, and human-scale design. Recognized with the 2025 Emerging Architecture Prize by the Quebec Order of Architects and multiple accolades in 2024, L’Abri is committed to solutions that balance innovation, environmental responsibility, and community value.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Fvckrender, Baeige
- Construction company: Construction Modulor
- Lighting: Sistemalux, EDP
- Microcement café counter: Enduit Déco
- Metalwork: Atomic Soudure
- Furniture: Vipp, Raymond Raymond, Essai Mobilier
- Ceramic and plumbing: La Tuilerie, Sanital
- Hardware: Dörr
- Curtain: Store Urbain
