The Montreal Biosphere

In a few weeks, the "Allée Calder" will be inaugurated on Notre-Dame Island in Montreal. This project aims to reconnect with the spirit of Expo 67, one of the most successful Universal Exhibitions in history. The Alley will link the Cosmos Bridge to the "Three Discs", the second largest stabile of the American sculptor Alexander Calder, and will also offer a breathtaking view of the city center of the Quebec metropolis.

Unfortunately, this major project will also highlight our national incompetence in matters regarding the environment. In fact, the driveway will lead straight to Richard Buckminster Fuller's Biosphère, which has been for two decades the Canadian Museum of the Environment, a museum emptied of its content for lack of funds.

The Biosphère, the largest dome of its kind in the world, is one of Montréal's few architectural landmarks, alongside Habitat 67 and the Olympic Park, all three structures dating back to a bygone era when Quebec had the ambition to contribute to the advancement of international architecture.

Owned by the City of Montreal since 1968, the Biosphere was transformed into an environmental museum during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Rather unfamiliar to the general public, this is a project that has never been able to reach its full potential due to the lack of strong support from its lead proponent, the Government of Canada.

This half-success is a symptom of three profound flaws.

The first is our troubled relationship with our built heritage. The only thing more depressing than hearing a biologist tell us about the irreversible degradation of natural ecosystems around the world is to hear heritage experts demonstrate how we manage to eradicate, year after year, part of a meager legacy passed down by previous generations. Fire, water or bulldozers wipe off the material traces of our past from our territory, more than often to make room for insignificant projects.

The heart of the problem, however, is not the protection of old stones, but rather the difficulty of repurposing these remains. Because of our troubled relationship with our culture and history as well as our prospective outlook towards creativity, finding a contemporary function that is relevant and compatible with the original function is often an insurmountable challenge. Also, the disappearance of the heritage is only the consequence of its obsolescence

The second hurdle is the Government of Canada's lack of love for Quebec’s metropolis in recent years. Stephen Harper, who had few hooks with Montreal and visited us on very rare occasions, failed to designate a true champion of the French-speaking city in his deputation. And despite the obvious affection of Justin Trudeau and his minister Mélanie Joly for Montreal in recent years, the federal government has not been back as one of the major development engines for the metropolis.

The Biosphère makes it possible to tackle these two evils head-on. An environmental museum is in keeping with the original spirit of the building, designed as an emblem of environmental awareness. Above all, as the only museum in North America devoted to this fundamental issue of our time, this project is more than necessary.

But there. The federal government has chosen to invest millions of dollars to illuminate the structure, but without providing a budget to revitalize the museum project. Hence the third flaw: everything in appearance, nothing in the content.

However complex the issues at stake, the solution is simple: we must give the Biosphere the status of a National Museum of Canada. Only two national museums have been set up outside the capital, at Pier 21 in Halifax (Canadian Museum of Immigration) and in Winnipeg (Canadian Museum for Human Rights). Granting this status to the Biosphere would not only save this architectural masterpiece, but also make it more relevant than ever. Most importantly, it would send the signal that Canada is serious and resolute when it talks about the environment.